Revised Articles

Revised articles must be resubmitted within two months of receiving feedback. If the manuscripts are not submitted within this two-month period, the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to withdraw them.

Proofreading and Final Check

In our dedication to upholding scientific integrity, Microbiota in Health and Disease adheres to a rigorous proofreading process following peer review, ensuring thorough scrutiny before publishing a paper. At this stage, publishing editors meticulously review the manuscript, identifying and addressing editorial inconsistencies, ambiguities, and any grammar mistakes. Any remaining queries are resolved through discussion with the author. This meticulous process is designed to minimize errors that could require post-publication corrections. If minor revisions are necessary, the article will only be published once the identified issues are satisfactorily addressed by the authors.

Galley Proofs

The Corresponding Author will receive an e-mail containing the galley proof within one month from acceptance. The galley proofs can be downloaded as a PDF file. Authors can annotate and upload their edits on the PDF version or provide them in a separate Word document. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail that we send to the authors. We discourage excessive changes made to the proofs by the authors (usually exceeding 300 characters). To ensure a fast publication process for accepted articles, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within three days.

Authors must carefully check the article’s typesetting, editing, correctness, and completeness (including author names, affiliations, and corresponding author information), figures, and tables before publication. At this stage, significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered with permission from the Editor in Chief. All corrections must be returned to us at submission.microbiota@verduci.it in a unique communication. Proofreading is performed on the manuscript file by the Editorial Office before creating the galley proof, but the authors are encouraged to double-check the galley proof very carefully before sending their approval. The Editorial Office will do everything possible to get accepted articles published quickly and accurately.

Corrections

After acceptance, authors cannot apply major corrections to the manuscript, Figures, Tables, or authorship. Before publication, we send galley proofs twice to authors, who are asked to carefully check them and send their approval for publication.

We set no time limit for notifying errors or publishing corrections. Anyway, the editorial team will evaluate corrections case by case to determine the impact of the amendments within the manuscript and decide how to handle them. To ensure that corrections are handled consistently, one editor deals with them all.

In case authors discover a mistake between the online version and PDF galley proof, we will normally correct it by making the article correct in both versions.

Publishing Schedule

Post-Publication Concerns

Post-publication critiques may be submitted to the journal as “letters to the editor” and “commentaries” via Publishing Manager, providing a foundation for the raised criticisms. The journal provides original authors with the opportunity to respond to criticisms through a “reply letter.” Both the critique and response letters are peer-reviewed.

To report serious post-publication concerns, you can write to submission.microbiota@verduci.it. When complaints are raised, applicants should provide evidence to support the claims. The journal adheres to COPE guidelines for addressing post-publication concerns, such as errors, substantial mistakes leading to invalidated conclusions, plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, and undisclosed conflicts of interest.

The Editor in Chief and the Editorial Board Members may start an independent investigation with a new set of reviewers to establish any error and/or malpractice. The authors are promptly informed about the investigation and may be required to provide a detailed and official reply letter to concerns. If the investigation yields a result, such as a correction or retraction, the journal will promptly notify both the individual who initially raised the concern and the authors involved.

Upon becoming aware, the journal adheres to COPE guidelines when addressing concerns raised on a social media platform about a published article.

Erratum

Honest errors require the publication of a correction when they are detected. The journal publishes erratum when a significant error has been detected in a published article and some changes are required.

Significant mistakes involve several aspects, including but not limited to tables, incorrect information in the final statements, spelling errors, etc.

To notify a mistake and request for corrections, corresponding authors must send an email stating the type of error and the requested corrections at submission.microbiota@verduci.it. All authors have to agree with the correction by signing a formal document.

Should the error arise from the journal or publisher, it will be distinctly identified through a specified publisher’s note.

Retractions

Serious errors that invalidate the results and conclusions of the study may require retractions. The journal adheres to COPE Retraction Guidelines when dealing with retractions. In particular, the Editor in Chief will consider retractions when:

• There is clear evidence the findings are unreliable due to significant errors, fabrication, or falsification (e.g., data manipulation) or the article presents ethical issues;
• The article involves plagiarism or the findings were previously published without proper attribution, disclosure, permission, or justification (i.e., duplicate publication);
• There are copyright infringements or serious legal issues (e.g., libel, privacy violations);
• The author(s) failed to disclose a significant conflict of interest that could have influenced the work’s interpretation or the recommendations made by editors and reviewers.

Retractions are published following Good Publication Practice as reported in COPE and in ICMJE guidelines.

• A retraction notice, with a direct link to the original retracted article, will be published in the in the first available issue;
• The retraction notice will clearly state the title and authors, the issue of publication, the DOI, and the PMID in the retraction heading;
• The retraction notice will be freely available to all readers and will state who is retracting the article and the detailed reason(s) for retraction.
• The original retracted article will be flagged as retracted with a red label on the original PDF file.

All requests for retractions by authors must be sent by the corresponding author who should provide detailed reasons for retraction. Authors should also provide a signed document stating that all authors agree with retraction and related reasons. The Editor in Chief reserves the right to start an investigation after authors’ request to retract the manuscript to assess the article’s results and validity.

In case a third party informs us about mistakes, problems or manipulation related to data or research itself, the Editor in Chief will conduct an independent investigation according with COPE Guidelines, to establish whether the published data are reliable or accurate. In particular, the journal follows the COPE’s guidance to deal with warnings of image manipulation in a published article.

The Editor in Chief reserves the right to retract an article without the consent of the authors in case of malpractice or evident mistakes.

Expressions of Concern

In line with ICMJE recommendations, the Editor-in-Chief may issue an Expression of Concern if serious concerns arise after publication, to alert readers that an ongoing investigation is in progress and may require additional time to conclude. An Expression of Concern may also be issued if an investigation is inconclusive but strong evidence suggests the concerns are valid.

The notice, linked to the original article, will be published in the next available issue and will include the title, authors, publication issue, DOI, and PMID in the heading. It will be freely accessible to all readers and will clearly outline the reasons for the investigation.