Author Guidelines

Epidemiologia&Prevenzione publishes texts on topics concerning the two terms that define its publication: epidemiological research and study of interventions for prevention and public health. In particular, epidemiological aspects of public health that are relevant for the Italian context are explored.

See Editorial Policy.

See Archiving Policy.

Language

Texts can be written in both Italian and English. The quality of the language must be certified by the authors.

E&P offers a translation and revision service for the English language.

Sections

Epidemiologia&Prevenzione hosts different sections:

Letters to the Editors: are submitted to the journal spontaneously by the authors. They are sent to databases at the discretion of the Publisher (depending on the subject matter).

Editorials: are commissioned by the Scientific Directors of the journal; suggestions and proposals are welcome. They are sent to databases at the discretion of the Publisher (depending on the subject matter).

Research Articles, Systematic Reviewes&Metanalysis, Methodological Articles: are submitted to the journal spontaneously by the authors. They are sent to PubMed, Scopus, and other scientific databases.

Opinions (about topic considered relevant): can be both submitted spontaneously by the authors and commissioned by the Scientific Directors of the journal. They are sent to PubMed, Scopus, and other scientific databases.

News, Book reviews: are discussed during the meetings of the Scientific Board and commissioned also to experts external to the Scientific Board. Readers can send their suggestions to the editorial staff's email address: epiprev@inferenze.it
They are sent to databases at the discretion of the Publisher (depending on the subject matter).

EpiChange: is the section of the journal that touches in particular on the theme of participatory research. Visit the page dedicated to this section. Paper included in this section are sent to databases at the discretion of the Publisher (depending on the subject matter).

Columns: deal with topics related to specific areas; each column has editors who write the contributions themselves or commission them from experts in the field. These are texts of a popular nature. They are not sent to databases. See all Columns hosted by Epidemiologia&Prevenzione.

Manuscript preparation

Regardless of the type of contribution chosen, the following rules must be followed.

Title:
Titles must be sent both in English and in Italian. They should be short and specific and contains important keywords to make the topic of the paper immediately clear.

Authors:
Epidemiologia&Prevenzione is in line with the recommendations promoted by the Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Authorship is based on the following 4 criteria (ALL criteria must be fulfilled): 1. having given substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data of the work; 2. Having given to the drafting or reviewing of the work for important intellectual content; 3. having approved the final version of the work to be published; 4. Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that any question related to the accuracy or integrity of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Each author must be identified with the corresponding affiliation. Corresponding author must be specified along with his/her email address.

Each author – in the format NAME SURNAME – must be followed by the sequential number linking them to their respective affiliation.

Working groups:
If one or more working groups need to be included, the name of the working group should be added at the end of the list of authors, followed by an asterisk. At the end of the affiliations, the name of the working group should be repeated, followed by the affiliations of the participants; the name(s) of each member should be listed alongside their respective affiliation (you can find an example here).

Main text:
The main text must be divided into paragraphs and, where applicable, sub-paragraphs, with a clear hierarchical structure.

Please refer to the guidelines for the type of specific contribution.

Abbreviations/acronyms:
The use of abbreviation should be kept to a minimum. Authors should avoid non-standard abbreviation. All abbreviation should be spelled out in full with the abbreviation in parentheses the first time they appear in the following sections:

• abstract;
• bullet points: “What is already known”/“What this study adds”/“Keypoints”;
• main text;
• tables and figures (using a footnote);
• supplementary materials (if available).

After that, abbreviation only can be used.

Numbers and units:

• In the text, numbers must be written as Arabic numerals; they must be spelled out ONLY IF they start a sentence.
• As thousands separator, in English texts a comma is used (e.g., 10,000), in Italian texts a full stop is used (e.g., 10.000).
• As decimal separator, in English texts a full stop is used (e.g., 0.52), in English texts a comma is used (e.g., 0,52).
• All measures should be reported in SI units.
• If a range has to be indicated, the maximum and minimum figures are separated using an hyphen (e.g., 25-30 years).

Describing significance:
The use of the term ‘statistically significant’ or ‘significant’ are discouraged as well as statements such as ‘findings at p<0.05 were considered significant’. Where appropriate, it is advisable to report effect estimates (for example, relative risks) along with confidence intervals (95% or other level of confidence; e.g., 90%).

Writing p<0.05 is discouraged, while reporting the exact p-value is recommended, avoiding an excessive number of decimal places: for p-values below 0.0, a single decimal place is sufficient; e.g., p=0.03; however, p<0.001 is acceptable. Values of p>0.10 should be reported to a maximum of two decimal places (e.g., 0.24).

These recommendations are in line with the positions taken by leading epidemiological journals (e.g., International Journal of Epidemiology, Epidemiology), by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and by the American Statistical Association (ASA).

Epidemiologia&Prevenzione clarified its position in the following paper: P-value: «Il re è morto, viva il re!»

Tables:
Tables should be able to be interpreted independently of the text, so they must:

• be numbered consecutively;
• cited in the main text;
• be accompanied by meaningful titles both in English and in Italian;
• have adequate footnotes and abbreviation spell-out both in English and in Italian. Footnotes must be identified by letters or superscript symbols, so as not to cause confusion with the numbering in the references’ list.

Figures:
Figures should be able to be interpreted independently of the text, so they must:

• be numbered consecutively;
• cited in the main text;
• be submitted separately in an image format (.eps, .tiff, .png, .jpg, or Excel) with a resolution of at least 300 dpi;
• be accompanied by meaningful titles both in English and in Italian;
• have adequate legend, footnotes, and abbreviation spell-out both in English and in Italian. Footnotes must be identified by letters or superscript symbols, so as not to cause confusion with the numbering in the references’ list;
• (for graphs) include the name of the x-axis and the y-axis.

Copyright permission

• If Authors want to reproduce or adapt any previously published material (figures, tables, etc.), they must obtain permission from the copyright holder and mut send this permission in written form to Epidemiologia&Prevenzione attaching it during the submission process.
• If Authors need to deposit their contribution on an institutional repository, please follow the instructions on the ‘Archiving policy’ page.

References

At the bottom of the main text, the list of references must be included.

• Footnotes must not be used; so, if including explanatory notes is considered as necessary, this section must be titled ‘References and notes’.
• References must be numbered consecutively as they appear in the main text. The superscript number must be placed at the point in the main text to which it refers. Automatic numbering must not be used.

Examples:

Journal article

Surname + First letter of the name of each author. Title. Journal abbreviation year;volume(issue):first page-last page. doi: complete doi code.

Example: Testa D, Andreano A, Zanfino A, et al. Development and user-oriented visualization of health care composite indicators at district level: territorial health profiles. Epidemiol Prev 2024;48(6):406-18. doi: 10.19191/EP24.6.A759.131
NB: if the authors of the article are from 1 to 6, all authors are listed; if the authors of the article are more than 6, only the first 3 authors are listed, followed by ‘et al.’.

Book

Surname + First letter of the name of each author. Title. Publication place: Publisher; year of publication.

Example: Ellen N, McKee M. Does healthcare save lives? Avoidable mortality revisited. London: The Nuffield Trust; 2004.

Book chapter

Surname + First letter of the name of each author. Chapter title. In: Surname + First letter of the name of each editor. Title. Publication place: Publisher; year of publication; pp. First page-last page.

Example 1: Manners T, Jones R, Riley M. Relationship of overweight to haitus hernia and reflux oesophagitis. In: Newman W (ed). The Obesity Conundrum. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science; 1997; pp. 352-74.

Example 2: Canady R, Crump K, Feeley M, et al. Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls. In: Safety evaluation of certain food additives and contaminants. WHO Food Additives Series 48. Geneva: WHO; 2002.

Other volumes

For publications, such as IARC monographs, guidelines, or ministerial reports, it is recommended to include a link to the online version.

Example: International Agency for Research on Cancer. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risk to Humans. Supplement 4. Chemicals, Industrial Processes and Industries Associated with Cancer in Humans: An Updating of IARC Monographs Volumes 1 to 29. Lyon: IARC; 1982. Available at: http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/suppl4/index.php

Pre-print publication

Surname + First letter of the name of each author. Title. Name of the pre-print archive (bioXriv, medRxiv, etc.) Publication date. doi: complete doi code.

Example: Malik TM, Bakker KM, Oidtman RJ et al. A dynamic transmission model for assessing the impact of pneumococcal vaccination in the United States. MedRxiv 30.01.2025. doi: 10.1101/2024.06.11.24308671

Supplementary materials

• Supplementary materials are made available as online content and include material which is not considered essential in the full text of the paper, but that would benefit the reader.
• They should include more detalied methods, extended dataset or analysis, additional tables/figures.
• Whan cited in the main text, supplementary tables and figures, se citate nel testo, must be numbered consecutively as they appear in the main text; their numbering must be: Table S1, Figure S1, Table S2, etc.
• Supplementary material will be published as provided by authors, so they are not edited.

Declarations

Each paper must include the following declarations:

• conflicts of interest:
  • insert a sentence summarizing potential conflicts of interest and state who they relate to

OR

• • state “none declared” after the phrase “Conflicts of interest”

 

• fundings:
  • insert a sentence summarizing any funding received for the paper publication, the study, the funding institution (in full), and the Grant ID (if available)

OR

• • state that no funding had been received.

 

• ethical approval:
  • insert the name of the Ethics Committee which approved the study and, if available, the protocol ID of the opinion

OR

• • state that no approval is required.

Where applicable, add a declaration of compliance with recognized standards (e.g., Helsinki Declaration).

• acknowledgments (optional): Authors may include a list of people who were involved in the work but do not qualify for authorship.
• AI use (if applicable): Authors must add a declaration at the end of their text about any use of AI tools, briefly stating or reiterating which tools were used and how they were used (e.g., improving the readability and English grammar, collecting and/or analysing data, or in producing images). AI tools may not be listed as authors.

Download the forms from at the top right of this page.

Instruction by Section

Research Articles, Systematic Reviewes&Metanalysis, Methodological Articles

The main text of Research Articles, Systematic Reviewes&Metanalysis, Methodological Articles should not be longer than 35,000 characters including spaces.

TITLE: in English and in Italian.

AUTHORS: following the format FULL NAME SURNAME (each followed by the number linking the name to its respective affiliation and separated by commas).

AFFILIATIONS: preceded by the progressive number; they must always end with the city to are located in. The institution to which each author belongs must be named in full: do not insert acronyms.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: specify the institution to which the author belongs, telephone number, and email address.

ABSTRACT (no longer than 3,500 characters including spaces)

(in English) must be divided into the following paragraphs:

• Background (optional paragaph)
• Objectives
• Design
• Setting and participants
• Main outcome measures
• Results
• Conclusions
• Keywords (from 3 to 5)

RIASSUNTO (no longer than 3,500 characters including spaces)
(in Italian) must be divided into the following paragraphs:

• Introduzione (optional paragaph)
• Obiettivi
• Disegno
• Setting e partecipanti
• Principali misure di outcome
• Risultati
• Conclusione
• Parole chiave (from 3 to 5)

NB: only the English version of the abstract will be sent to PubMed in the final version published on the journal.

BULLET POINTS:
What is already known (maximum 3 short sentences in the language in which the article is written)
What this study adds (maximum 3 short sentences in the language in which the article is written).

MAIN TEXT: should be divided into paragraphs, usually coinciding with the structure of the abstract and followed by discussion. Titled subparagraphs can be inserted (the hierarchy of titles must be clear: with titles all in capital letters, bold, italics, etc.).

TABLES should be sent either in Word or Excel format, NOT in image format.

• They should be numbered consecutively and should be cited in the main text.
• They must be accompanied by meaningful titles both in English and in Italian.
• All’interno della tabella possono essere utilizzate sigle, che devono essere esplicitate (in italiano e in inglese) come note al di sotto della tabella.
• Notes can be added in the table, indicated by superscipt letters or symbols, NOT by numbers (so as not to cause confusion with the numbering in the references’ list).
• The unit of measurement used must always be made explicit.
• Numbers must be written following the rule of the language of the text:
  • for English texts: full stop as decimal separator, comma as thousands separator;
  • for Italian texts: comma as decimal separator, full stop as thousands separator.
• Within the same column there must be the same number of decimals after the decimal point. The number of decimals used in the tables must be the same as that used in the text.

FIGURES should be submitted either in an image format (.eps, .jpg, .tif) with a high resolution (at least 300 dpi) or in Excel format (if charts and graphs were created using this programme).
The format must always be the original, NOT a copy in another programme (e.g., NOT a copy of the image in a Word file).

• They should be numbered consecutively and should be cited in the main text.
• They must be accompanied by meaningful titles both in English and in Italian.
• If you use color codes, you need to add a legend that explains their meaning.
• The unit of measurement used must always be made explicit.

FINAL DECLARATIONS: at the end of the text and before the references, the statement “Conflicts of interest:” should be added followed by “none declared” OR by the list of names of authors who have conflicts of interest, explaining their nature.

The signed forms must also be sent to the editorial staff (download the forms at the top right of this page).

Add also the statement “Funding:” and/or “Acknowledgments:” and/or “Ethical approval”, following general guidelines and the Publication Ethics.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS: it is possible to add supplementary materials, made available as online content on the webpage where the article appears Supplementary material are not edited, so they will be published as provided by authors.

Opinions

The main text of Opinions should not be longer than 20,000 characters including spaces.

TITLE: in English and in Italian.

AUTHORS: following the format FULL NAME SURNAME (each followed by the number linking the name to its respective affiliation and separated by commas).

AFFILIATIONS: preceded by the progressive number; they must always end with the city to are located in. The institution to which each author belongs must be named in full: do not insert acronyms.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: specify the institution to which the author belongs, telephone number, and email address.

ABSTRACT (no longer than 3,500 characters including spaces):

• should be both in English and in Italian:
• should be written in discursive form;
• should be followed by keywords (from 3 to 5).

NB: only the English version of the abstract will be sent to PubMed in the final version published on the journal.

BULLET POINTS:
Keypoints: maximum of 3 short sentences in the language in which the intervention is written.

MAIN TEXT: It is recommended to divide the text into paragraphs, in order to make reading easier. Titled subparagraphs can be inserted (the hierarchy of titles must be clear: with titles all in capital letters, bold, italics, etc.).

TABLES should be sent either in Word or Excel format, NOT in image format.

• They should be numbered consecutively and should be cited in the main text.
• They must be accompanied by meaningful titles both in English and in Italian.
• All’interno della tabella possono essere utilizzate sigle, che devono essere esplicitate (in italiano e in inglese) come note al di sotto della tabella.
• Notes can be added in the table, indicated by superscipt letters or symbols, NOT by numbers (so as not to cause confusion with the numbering in the references’ list).
• The unit of measurement used must always be made explicit.
• Numbers must be written following the rule of the language of the text:
  • for English texts: full stop as decimal separator, comma as thousands separator;
  • for Italian texts: comma as decimal separator, full stop as thousands separator.
• Within the same column there must be the same number of decimals after the decimal point. The number of decimals used in the tables must be the same as that used in the text.

FIGURES should be submitted either in an image format (.eps, .jpg, .tif) with a high resolution (at least 300 dpi) or in Excel format (if charts and graphs were created using this programme).

The format must always be the original, NOT a copy in another programme (e.g., NOT a copy of the image in a Word file).

• They should be numbered consecutively and should be cited in the main text.
• They must be accompanied by meaningful titles both in English and in Italian.
• If you use color codes, you need to add a legend that explains their meaning.
• The unit of measurement used must always be made explicit.

FINAL DECLARATIONS: at the end of the text and before the references, the statement “Conflicts of interest:” should be added followed by “none declared” OR by the list of names of authors who have conflicts of interest, explaining their nature.

The signed forms must also be sent to the editorial staff (download the forms at the top right of this page).

Add also the statement “Funding:” and/or “Acknowledgments:” and/or “Ethical approval”, following general guidelines and the Publication Ethics.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS: it is possible to add supplementary materials, made available as online content on the webpage where the article appears Supplementary material are not edited, so they will be published as provided by authors.

Letters to the Editors

Letters, unless justified, should not be longer than 4,000 characters including spaces. (approximately 600 words).

They may refer to contributions published in E&P or may give preliminary results of studies or refer to topics relevant to public health.

TITLE: in English and in Italian.

AUTHORS: following the format FULL NAME SURNAME (each followed by the number linking the name to its respective affiliation and separated by commas).

AFFILIATIONS: preceded by the progressive number; they must always end with the city to are located in. The institution to which each author belongs must be named in full: do not insert acronyms.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: specify the institution to which the author belongs, telephone number, and email address.

They may contain an image or a table or be accompanied by supplementary materials.

FINAL DECLARATIONS: at the end of the text and before the references, the statement “Conflicts of interest:” should be added followed by “none declared” OR by the list of names of authors who have conflicts of interest, explaining their nature.
The signed forms must also be sent to the editorial staff (download the forms at the top right of this page).
Add also the statement “Funding:” and/or “Acknowledgments:” and/or “Ethical approval”, following general guidelines and the Publication Ethics.

Other sections

The length of contributions belonging to the other sections (Editorials, news, Columns, EpiChange) is agreed with the Editorial Staff.
The publishability of contributions is decided by the Journal Scientific Board on the basis of the opinion of external reviewers.
The insertion of figures and tables in these sections must be shared with the Editorial Staff.

If you need any clarification, please contact the Editorial Staff (e-mail address: epiprev@inferenze.it)

Pubblication type

Starting from January 2025, E&P is available in an online-only version.
On E&P webiste, each text is available both in HTML and as downloadable PDF.

Use of artificial intelligence tools

Epidemiologia&Prevenzione, in line with the official COPE statement on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, states the following.

An AI tool such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models cannot be listed as an author of a paper. AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.

Authors who use AI tools in collecting and/or analysing data, or in producing images or graphical elements of the paper must be transparent in disclosing in the Methods section of the paper which AI tools were used and how they were used. Further, authors should declare their use of AI in the “Declarations” section at the end of the paper.

Authors must maintain control of the results of AI use, as AI tools can produce content that is inaccurate or biased. Authors remain fully responsible and liable for the accuracy and integrity of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

Supplements

Epidemiologia&Prevenzione publishes collections of articles on the same topic in sponsored supplements financially sponsored by the authors thamselves. 

The contributions contained in the supplements must have the same standard as those published in the journal, so they follow the same peer-review process.

To decide whether to approve a supplement, Authors must send a list of planned manuscripts, including abstracts or detailed outlines, as well as the names and details of each manuscript author, including any competing interests. 

If approved by the Scientific Editors in Chief, the publisher Inferenze will provide a quote working times will be agreed. The Scientific Editors in Chief will identify: a Section editor dedicated to the whole Supplement; and a reasonable number of reviewers.

It is possible that some papers planned for the supplement, after peer review, will not be accepted for publication. This decision rests with the Scientific Directors with the help of the Section editor.

“Quaderni”

Epidemiologia&Prevenzione publishes small volumes aimed at conveying epidemiological data collected at the local level or addressing epidemiological/environmental issues with scientific rigor, but also using language suitable for policymakers, health programmers, citizens, and communicators.

Compared to supplements, the materials are not peer-reviewed, so they will not be sent for archiving to international date banks (for example, PubMed).

Submission

To submit a paper to Epidemiologia&Prevenzione, please use the submission and peer-review platform ojs3.epiprev.it

See the instructions for submission.