About this journal

Published by AOSIS from 2019.

Focus and Scope

The Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases (SAJID), formerly called the Southern African Journal of Epidemiology and Infection (SAJEI), first appeared in 1985 as a joint publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of Southern Africa (IDSSA), the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Society of Southern Africa (STDSSA) and the Epidemiology Society of Southern Africa, the latter having subsequently been succeeded by the Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA). Presently SAJID is published under the auspices of the Federation of Infectious Diseases Societies of South Africa which is an umbrella organization incorporating IDSSA, STDSSA as well as the Infection Control Society of South Africa (ICASA), the National Antibiotic Study Forum (NASF) of South Africa, and the South African Society of Travel Medicine (SASTM).

Publications of SAJID centre round aspects of epidemiology and infection, particularly those of importance to the societies of FIDSSA. Topics around infection include clinical and epidemiological aspects of communicable diseases, laboratory diagnosis of infections, characterisation of infective agents by molecular techniques and the study of transmission patterns of pathogens in institutional and community settings. Other infection related studies cover surveillance of vaccine-controllable and other infectious diseases, drug susceptibility patterns of hospital-acquired and community-acquired pathogens and infection control strategies for the southern Africa region. SAJID also promotes greater collaboration between clinically oriented and laboratory-based divisions within the FIDSSA societies, and the establishment of quality assurance programmes and other measures to enhance and maintain standards of diagnostic and public health microbiology.

Scientific papers in the SAJID aim to advance the understanding of all aspects of epidemiology, public health, clinical microbiology and infection. The journal strives to promote research and exchange of information on specific areas of infectious diseases, medical microbiology and virology, covering fields of interest of the societies of FIDSSA and PHASA. Manuscripts describing research performed at southern African institutions and in southern African settings enjoy a high priority, as do health matters covering Africa and the developing world, as well as global issues such as malaria and other tropical diseases, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. The scope of interest of SAJID is wide but the journal aims to maintain and improve the standard of its publications.

The SAJID’s subscribes to the Uniform Requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (www. icmje.org). which state the ethical principles in the conduct and reporting of research and provide recommendations relating to specific elements of editing and writing.

Ethics

The SAJID abides by the high ethical standards of the Commission on Public Ethics (COPE) (www.publicationethics.org) and ICMJE. Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author’s own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of the work are unacceptable practices.

Originality

SAJID will not publish manuscripts that overlap substantially with articles already published or accepted for publication, whether in print or the electronic media, even if the new submission contains data not included in the published or accepted work. This policy does not preclude consideration of a report that follows a presentation at a meeting/conference or expands preliminary findings published or presented as an abstract. Submissions for republication of articles must be accompanied by a statement that the article is republished with the knowledge of the author and Editor and the permission of the original copyright holder.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author’s own work, in whole or in part without proper citation, will not be tolerated by the SAJID. If an attempt at undisclosed duplicate publication is identified, the article will be rejected, the owners of the copyright notified and the violation may be reported to FIDSSA or PHASA.