About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Reciprocal interdependence between infectious and hematologic diseases (malignant and non-malignant) is well known. This relationship is particularly evident in Mediterranean countries. Parasitosis such as Malaria, Leishmaniosis, B Hookworms, and Teniasis, very common in the southeast Mediterranean area, infects about a billion people and manifest prevalently with anemia so they are usually diagnosed mostly by experienced hematologists on blood or bone marrow smear. On the other hand, infections are also a significant problem in patients affected by hematological malignancies. The blood is the primary vector of HIV infection, which otherwise manifests with symptoms related to a reduction in T lymphocytes. In turn, infections can favor the insurgency of hematological malignancies. The causative relationship between Epstein-Barr virus infection, Helicobacter pylori,  hepatitis C virus, HIV, and lymphoproliferative diseases is well known.

Editorials from editors (specialists in hematology and infectious diseases) or comments will be welcomed to highlight particularly relevant articles that appeared in this journal or in the more prestigious international journals. MJHID will be a leading journal on subjects of current importance in clinical hematology and infectious diseases. Every issue would have, besides the Editor in chief, a guest editor. Both editors invite experts on the selected topic to perform a complete update of the arguments readily available for practicing physicians. The journal will also have a section devoted to original papers, which will be distinguished in Full articles, Scientific letters, Educational, clinical cases, Case Reports, and Letters to the Editor.

Publication of Case Reports is not a primary scope of this Journal and will represent a limited quote of papers published. They will be considered when they significantly expand the field of general medical knowledge and/or contribute to acknowledging the pathophysiology of the disease. The rarity of the disease is not considered a criterion of priority. Case reports of a puzzling diagnosis, well documented, and having a prevalent educational character will be assigned to the section MJHID Educational Clinical Case. The case report reported in less than 3 pages should be submitted as a Letter to the Editor. Case reports with the review of the literature should be structured likely to Review articles. Clinical trials of hematological and infectious diseases in the Mediterranean area will have their natural home in this Journal. Papers with translational research strictly correlated to clinical problems will also be considered.

Peer Review Process

Our journal follows the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. The articles are reviewed by two external reviewers and by the Editor in Chief/Guest Editor or a member of the Editorial Board. Authors can suggest 2 or more reviewers; moreover, in any case, the Editor in Chief or/and the Guest Editor will peer-review all the manuscripts. Furthermore, two reviewers will be consulted. If the reviewers are in disagreement, a third reviewer will be asked. In any case, the final decision will be made by the editor. The first decision will be taken within six weeks. If the author is unhappy with the decision, he can propose an independent reviewer with proven experience in the field (Publications in peer-reviewed journals).

Publication Frequency

All the articles will be published in small groups as soon as they are ready by adding them to the "current" volume every two months. A topical review series having one or two guest editors will be planned every year. The items concerning the reviews series will be published when accepted and then collected at the end of the year to be found together also on their own site.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Starting from 1-1-2019, all articles, excluding Reviews by invited authors, will be processed after receiving a subscribed declaration by the authors they undertake to pay a fee in case of acceptance for publication. The Article Processing Charges will have to be paid to the Publisher; instructions are given in the Journal’s Guidelines. The Editorial Board of the Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases is engaged in improving the quality of the papers published in our journal. So, with the agreement of the Publisher,  the possibility of publishing in MJHID without charge will be extended to the authors of the five papers that obtained the most citations which contributed to the Impact Factor of the year throughout the two years following.

Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases

Editor in Chief: Giuseppe Leone, Rome, Italy

ORIGINAL ARTICLES and REVIEWS

The Journal publishes original articles and reviews concerning both clinical hematology and infectious diseases. Particular attention will be reserved for original manuscripts focusing on the relationship between blood and infectious diseases. Authors of reviews articles on relevant and timely subjects are solicited by the Editor in Chief or by the Guest Editor of the Reviews Series.  However, Authors, who have reputed original publications in journals covered by SCOPUS and or Web of Science on the field, can submit a review article independently, but they should previously send a summary to the Editor in Chief obtaining his approval. In any case, any manuscript will be submitted for revision and could be rejected. The number of authors of the original papers should not be more than seven. Only papers reporting clinical data of many cooperative groups could have a number of authors superior. 

Scientific Letters: We encourage the submission of significant new findings that fit into the format of a letter. Start the letter with a paragraph summarizing the rationale for the study and the major conclusions. The initial statement of this paragraph will be utilized as an abstract and headline. Scientific Letters have a maximum of 2000 words in the text (excluding title, affiliations, figures legends, or references), a maximum of 3 tables and/or figures, and only 20 essential references. Letters will appear in the table of contents, have a DOI, and be indexed in PubMed. The number of authors should not be more than 6.

CLINICAL CASES

Clinical cases represent a fixed and limited quote of MJHID publications and are published in different sections.

Case reports describe one to three patients or a single family. They are taken into consideration only when expanding the field of general medical knowledge and/or physiopathology of the disease. The rarity of the case is not regarded as a criterium of priority. The number of authors should not be more than six. We prefer to publish case reports with a large review of the literature as review articles. That means having a critical approach to the reported articles by giving an opinion and suggestions to the readers. Otherwise the clinical cases will be published as letters to the Editor.

Educational Clinical  Cases. In this section, the MJHID  presents clinical cases with a puzzling diagnosis, clarified step by step with appropriate documentation.

 Letters to the Editor. Letters to the Editor may be used in primis to comment on articles that appeared in MJHID and to give an opinion or suggestions about topics recently treated in the MJHID, giving original data. They can be utilized to publish rapidly clinical cases on the spot or refer to previously published full papers in MJHID.

Journal History

The Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases was founded by Giuseppe Leone, Professor of Hematology at the Catholic University of Rome in 2009, with the Collaboration of Prof. Eligio Pizzigallo, Infectivologist, and Luigi Maria Larocca, Pathologist.

Publication Ethics

Ethics
All research articles published by PAGEPress journals are subject to rigorous ethical standards. Our journals endorse the Code of Conduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as the COPE International Standards for Editors and Authors Guidelines. The Editorial Board of each journal is responsible for the form the peer review process will take; therefore, all authors in the biomedical field must adhere to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. 

Plagiarism
The Editorial Board of our journals will immediately screen all articles submitted for publication in that journal. All submissions we receive are checked by using plagiarism detection online available tools such as iThenticate®. Any suspected misconduct ends up with a quick rejection and is then reported to the European Network of Research Integrity Offices and to the US Office of Research Integrity. The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) released a European Code of Conduct on Research Integrity, which is fully supported by our journals. All authors submitting papers to our journals are required to adopt these policies.

Below some online resources to help you in understanding plagiarism:

Conflict of Interest

Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author's institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions (such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties). These relationships vary from negligible to great potential for influencing judgment. Not all relationships represent true conflicts of interest. On the other hand, the potential for conflict of interest can exist regardless of whether an individual believes that the relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself. However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion.

All participants in the peer review and publication process must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. Disclosure of such links is also necessary in connection with editorials and review articles because it can be more difficult to detect bias in these types of publications than in reports of original research. Editors may use information disclosed in conflict-of-interest and financial interest statements as a basis for editorial decisions.

When authors submit a manuscript, whether an article or a letter, they are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias their work. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist. Authors should do so in the manuscript on a conflict-of-interest notification page, providing additional detail, if necessary, in a cover letter that accompanies the manuscript. Increasingly, individual studies receive funding from commercial firms, private foundations, and government. The conditions of this funding have the potential to bias and otherwise discredit the research.

Scientists have an ethical obligation to submit credible research results for publication. Moreover, as the persons directly responsible for their work, researchers should not enter into agreements that interfere with their access to the data and their ability to analyze them independently and to prepare and publish manuscripts. Authors should describe the role of the study sponsor, if any, in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing the report; and the decision to submit the report for publication. If the supporting source had no such involvement, the authors should so state. Biases potentially introduced when sponsors are directly involved in research are analogous to methodological biases.

Editors may request that authors of a study funded by an agency with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome sign a statement, such as "I had full access to all of the data in this study and I take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis." Editors should be encouraged to review copies of the protocol and/or contracts associated with project-specific studies before accepting such studies for publication. Editors may choose not to consider an article if a sponsor has asserted control over the authors' right to publish.

Reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and they should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. As in the case of authors, silence on the part of reviewers concerning potential conflicts may mean either that conflicts exist and the reviewer has failed to disclose them, or conflicts do not exist. Reviewers must, therefore, also be asked to state explicitly whether conflicts exist or not. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work before its publication to further their own interests.

Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts must have no personal, professional, or financial involvement in any of the issues they might judge. Other members of the editorial staff, if they participate in editorial decisions, must provide editors with a current description of their financial interests (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recuse themselves from any decisions in which a conflict of interest exists.

Informed Consent

PAGEPress journals strictly follow the ICMJE Protection of Research Participants policy detailed at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/protection-of-research-participants.html. Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. When informed consent has been obtained, editors may request authors to provide a copy before making the editorial decision. The authors can find a template for the Informed Consent here.
Manuscripts must be reviewed with due respect for the authors' confidentiality. In submitting their manuscripts for review, authors entrust editors with the results of their scientific work and creative effort, on which their reputation and career may depend. Authors' rights may be violated by disclosure of confidential details during the review of their manuscript.
Reviewers also have the right to confidentiality, which must be respected by the editor. Confidentiality may have to be breached if dishonesty or fraud is alleged but otherwise must be honored.
Editors must not disclose information about manuscripts (including their receipt, content, status in the reviewing process, criticism by reviewers, or ultimate fate) to anyone other than the authors and reviewers. This includes requests to use the materials for legal proceedings.

Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research 

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the World Medical Association (2016 revision) and from the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare. When reporting experiments on ecosystems involving non-native species, Authors are bound to ensure compliance with the institutional and national guide for the preservation of native biodiversity.