Guidelines for Authors

Manuscript will be carefully scrutinized for evidence of plagiarism, duplication and data manipulation; in particular, images will be carefully examined for any indication of intentional improper modification.

Any suspected misconduct ends up with a quick rejection and is then reported to the US Office of Research Integrity.

Authors are requested to submit their papers electronically by using the Geospatial Health online submission and review website (https://www.geospatialhealth.net/site/about/submissions). The Publisher and Editor regret that they are not able to consider submissions that do not follow this procedure.

Ensure that the following items are present
One author (multiple corresponding authors are not allowed) has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:

• E-mail address
• Full postal address

All necessary files have been uploaded

• Manuscript file
• Include keywords (no more than seven)
• All figures (include relevant captions)
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided

 Further considerations

• Please prepare your manuscript for the blind peer review;
• Ensure that all references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
• A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
• Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements
• Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'. Ensure that your work is written in correct English before submission. Note that language-focused copyediting is the responsibility of the authors prior to submission. Professional copyediting can help authors improve the presentation of their work and increase its chances of being taken on by a publisher. In case you feel that your manuscript would benefit from a professional English language copyediting checking language grammar and style, you can find a reliable revision service at:

Desk reject criteria
The editorial team of the Geospatial Health applies desk review to filter out papers that will not be processed; these are papers that are not aligned with the aims and scope of the journal, or that lack essential information in one or more sections of the paper or has not been submitted as per the correct procedure. In such cases, the paper will be desk rejected: this means that it will be sent back to the submitting author, and will not be reviewed.

 

Authors are kindly invited to suggest potential reviewers (names, affiliations and email addresses) for their manuscript, if they wish.

The Corresponding Author (multiple corresponding authors are not allowed) must submit the manuscript online-only through our Manuscript Submission System.

The Authors' metadata must be duly completed, by adding "contributors" when needed. Metadata are crucial for the indexing of the paper and of authors, and for attribution of copyright to ALL authors.
Attention: Any submission received for a manuscript with more than one contributor, in which only one author has been inserted in the metadata, will result in immediate rejection, asking for a correct re-submission.
The author names and affiliations inserted in the online submission system will be those that will be published in PubMed and all other indexes. The Editorial staff is therefore not responsible for eventual inaccuracies or mistakes in the affiliations inserted during the submission process.

Authors are kindly invited to suggest potential reviewers (names, affiliations and email addresses) for their manuscript, if they wish.

• Manuscripts should be written in English and submitted in MS Word Format (no PDF).
• Manuscripts should have numbered lines, with wide margins and double spacing throughout. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, should be numbered.
  
  Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:

• Title
• Name(s) of author(s)
• Complete postal address(es) of affiliations
• Full telephone, Fax No. and e-mail address of the corresponding author
• Abstract (not longer than 250 words)
• Keywords (3-5)
• Introduction
• Materials and methods (with subheadings if necessary)
• Results (with subheadings if necessary)
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Titles of tables and figures
• Tables (must be pasted into the same file)
• Figures  (must be pasted into the same file) - the number of figures should be reasonable and justified: no more than 20% of the article (exceeding figures, if needed, will be published in an Appendix file). Figures with different panels have to be grouped into a plate, and panels marked with letters. 

Tables and Figures

If tables are used, they should be double-spaced on separate pages of the manuscript, not embedded throughout the text. They should be numbered and cited in the text. Tables should be provided as editable Word files, and authors should ensure that they are presented in a publication-ready format. Considering how a table fits on a page in a wordprocessing program can often provide insight into how it will appear on a journal page.

Larger or more complex tables will be made available online as supplementary material at the Editorial Office's sole discretion, including ensuring efficient readability of the paper publishing format.

If figures are used, they should be numbered and cited in the text and inserted at the end of the manuscript. Figures should be designed using a well-known software package. Please note that the Production Office will not redraw or re-letter any image.

A different caption for each figure must be provided at the end of the manuscript. Figures with different panels have to be grouped into a plate, and panels marked with letters.

In case of acceptance, authors are required to provide the figures as .tiff or .jpg files, with the following digital resolution:

1. Color (saved as CMYK): 300 dpi - maximum width 17 cm - minimum width 8.5 cm
2. Black and white/grays: 600 dpi - maximum width 17 cm - minimum width 8.5 cm

 

Declarations
All manuscripts must contain the following sections (compulsory):

• Ethical approval 
• Availability of data and material
• Competing interests
• Funding
• Authors' contributions
• Acknowledgments

 

Please see below for details on the information to be included in these sections.

If any of the sections are not relevant to your manuscript, please include the heading and write 'Not applicable' for that section. 

Ethics approval and consent to participate
Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must:
-include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived)
-include the name of the Ethics Committee that approved the study and the committee’s protocol number.
Studies involving animals must include a statement on Ethics Approval and for experimental studies involving client-owned animals, authors must also include a statement on informed consent from the client or owner.

If your manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, please state “Not applicable” in this section.


Consent for publication
If your manuscript contains any individual person's data in any form (including any individual details, images, or videos), you must obtain permission to publish from that person, or, in the case of children, from their parent or legal guardian. All case report presentations must have permission to publish.
You should not submit the form to us immediately, but we may request a copy at any time (including after publication).

If your manuscript contains no data from any specific person, please indicate "Not applicable" in this section.

Availability of data and materials
All manuscripts must include a statement about the availability of data and materials. Data availability statements should include information on where to find data supporting the results reported in the article, such as hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analyzed or generated during the study, if applicable. If your manuscript does not contain any data, please state 'Not applicable' in this section

Data availability statements can take one of the following forms (or a combination of several if multiple datasets are involved):

• The datasets generated and/or analyzed during this study can be found in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS].
• The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.
• All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
• The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC], but are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.
• The data that support the study's findings are available from [third party name], but there are restrictions on their availability because they were used under license for the current study and thus are not publicly available. However, the authors' data are available upon reasonable request and with the permission of [third party name].

Competing interest
This section requires the declaration of all competing financial and non-financial interests. Please contact the editorial office if you are unsure whether you or any of your co-authors have a competing interest. In this section, please use the authors' initials to refer to each author's competing interests. If you have no competing interests, please state in this section "The authors declare that they have no competing interests".

Funding
All sources of funding for the research reported should be declared. If the funder has a specific role in the conceptualization, design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript, this should be declared.
If you do not have funding, please write "Not applicable" in this section.

Authors' contributions
The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section. Criteria for authorship can be found below (section Authorship and Contributorship). Please use initials to refer to each author's contribution in this section, for example: "FC, study concept, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript original drafting; RH, statistical analyses, histological examination, contribution to manuscript writing and editing. All the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work”.

Acknowledgments
Please acknowledge anyone who contributed to the article but does not meet the criteria for authorship, including anyone who provided professional writing services or materials. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.
If you do not have anyone to acknowledge, please write "Not applicable" in this section.

References

• References cited in the text should be presented in a list in the section References
• In the text refer to the author's name (without initial) and year of publication.
• If reference is made in the text to a publication written by more than two authors the name of the first author should be used followed by "et al.". This indication, however, should never be used in the list of references. In this list names of first author and co-authors should be mentioned.
• References cited together in the text should be arranged chronologically.
• The references should be listed in alphabetical order and they should contain: surname and initials of each author, year of publication, title of the paper, abbreviated name and volume of the journal (for books, title and publisher), first and last page of the paper.
• For example:
  
  for journals
  
  Cringoli G, Taddei R, Rinaldi L, Veneziano V, Musella V, Cascone C, Sibilio G, Malone JB, 2004. Use of remote sensing and geographical information systems to identify environmental features that influence the distribution of paramphistomosis in sheep from the southern Italian Apennines. Vet Parasitol 122:15-26.
  
  for books
  
  Elliott P, Wakefield J, Best N, Briggs D, 2000. Spatial Epidemiology - Methods and Applications, Oxford University Press, 494 pp.

Permissions

In case extracts (text/figures/tables) from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright holder(s) and credit the source(s) in the article, for example: 'Adapted from Cringoli et al., Vet Parasitol 2004;122:15-26; with permission.' The Editorial Office of Geospatial Health needs to receive a copy of the written permission before proceeding with publication. Please download here the 'License and Disclaimer' agreement.

All manuscripts submitted to Geospatial Health are first checked for completeness (criteria for desk reject are available in the Guide for Authors - section Overview) before being sent to an Editor, who decides whether they are suitable for peer review. If an Editor is on the authors' list or has a competing interest in a particular manuscript, another member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to oversee peer review. When making a decision, Editors will consider the peer-reviewed reports, but they will not be bound by the opinions or recommendations contained in them. A single peer reviewer's or the Editor's concern may result in the manuscript being rejected. Peer review reports are sent to authors along with the editorial decision on their manuscript. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred. If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern. Please see the About the Journal page for more information.

Submissions by an Editor
Papers submitted by an Editor or Board Member (including submission as a co-author) are handled by one of the other Editors who are not at the same institution as the submitting author/co-author. The Editor will select reviewers and make all the Editorial Decisions on the paper; if in doubt, the Editor will consult with one another. The journal's review software does not allow a conflicted editor to access their manuscript but in the role as Author, which does not disclose relevant editorial information on the manuscript itself.

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship according to the ICMJE criteria. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should only be based on substantial contributions to: i) conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data, and to ii) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and on iii) final approval of the version to be published; and iv) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Authors should provide a brief description of their individual contributions. Those who do not meet all four criteria should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. Those whose contributions do not justify authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a single heading. Authors can find detailed information on the Publisher's website.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Technology

Authors must disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the creation of submitted work. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be held accountable for the work's accuracy, integrity, and originality, all of which are required for authorship. Because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that is incorrect, incomplete, or biased, authors should carefully review and edit the result. Authors should be able to assert that their paper contains no plagiarism, including text and images generated by AI.

Changes in Authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor:  Authors are requested to sign and send to the Editors a statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and from the author(s) to be removed or added.
Please note that you will not be able to make any changes to the authors, or order of authors, of your manuscript once the editor has accepted your manuscript for publication. 

The corresponding author will receive a PDF proof and is asked to check it carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only).
Corrections other than printer errors should be avoided. Costs associated with such corrections will be charged to the authors.
Please be aware that the Publisher is unable to accept corrections made in ways other than specified at https://www.pagepress.org/site/guidance

Authors are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, it is recommended to state this.

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. An Informed Consent statement is always required from patients involved in any experiments. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.  Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the World Medical Association (2016 revision). When reporting experiments on ecosystems involving non-native species, Authors are bound to ensure compliance with the institutional and national guides for the preservation of native biodiversity.