Author Guidelines

Advanced Virology (AV) is online, open access and peer-reviewed journal published biannually online using the Continuous Article Publishing (CAP) model.

Aims and Scope

Advanced Virology aims to comprehensively cover articles on all aspects of virology, including research on the viruses of animals, plants, insects, archaea, fungi, bacteria and protozoa. Advanced Virology encourages original and high-impact research articles on viral genome structure, assembly, replication, gene expression, cellular interactions, diversity, epidemiology, evolution and ecology. Manuscripts introducing new concepts or advances in viral pathogenesis, immunity, prevention, vaccines, antiviral agents, virus-host interactions and disease mechanisms are also appropriate. However, the manuscripts describing new (partial or complete) viral sequences, isolation or characterization of new viral strains will only be published as virus notes. The editors strongly encourage authors to supplement such information by further experimentation to provide a detailed, insightful description of the novel ideas or mechanistic explanations of the new hypothesis.

Besides original research articles, Advanced Virology also provides the opportunity to publish opinions, case studies, short communications and review papers. The opinion and reviews are only accepted by the invited experts in the field of virology. However, authors are encouraged to submit proposals that highlight cutting-edge research, systematic advances and valuable overviews of the developing ideas that are of particular interest to the virology community.

Types of Contributions

Types of Contributions: Advanced Virology publishes contributions under the following headings:

Original Articles: original research articles comprising concise and comprehensive text, in line with the scope of Advanced Virology are considered. Authors are encouraged to provide complete experimental details to ensure the reproducibility of the results.
Reviews: reviews and interpretation papers should provide the introduction, important updates or recent developments in a particular area of research. In addition to invited reviews by experts in a specific field, the journal of Advanced Virology also accepts proposals on topics that are of significant interest and reflect valuable information for researchers.
Short Communications: include brief, original research articles, and short reports that are relevant to the journal scope. Though authors should not unnecessarily divide their work into several related manuscripts, short Communications of preliminary, but significant, results will be considered.
Opinions: opinions are short, clear, concise, and logical opinions of the authors on topics relevant to the journal scope which stimulate discussions within the topic or present a viewpoint.
Virus Notes: the manuscripts describing new (partial or complete) viral sequences, isolation or characterization of new viral strains will only be published as virus notes.
Case Studies: only case studies that contribute to medical knowledge and have educational value or highlight the need for a change in clinical practice or diagnostic approaches are considered. Advanced Virology does not consider case reports describing preventive or therapeutic interventions, as these generally require stronger evidence.
Comments: comments are short articles that outline an observation on a published article, and may be submitted by readers to the journal editor for publication.

In addition to these, Advanced Virology also publishes post-publication notices such as Corrections, Addenda, Retractions, Expressions of Concern, and Removals as and when required.

Open Access Policy

Advanced Virology is a fully open access journal. This means it 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.

Contributions appearing in Advanced Virology are made immediately available worldwide under an open-access license (no embargo period); users have free (no price barriers) and unlimited access to the full text of the contributions; and users are free to re-use the published material, without asking prior permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. Open access publication is supported through a comparatively low Article Processing Charge (APC) for accepted articles paid either by the author(s) or their funder, institution or employer.

Important Note: some contributions in Advanced Virology may contain figures, tables or text taken from other publications, for which Kenzym Publishers does not hold the copyright or the right to re-license the published material. Please note that you should inquire with the original copyright holder (usually the original publisher or authors), whether or not this material can be re-used.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

Open access publishing is not without costs. Advanced Virology therefore requires the author(s) or their funder/institution/employer to pay an article-processing charge (APC) of $375.00 for each article accepted for publication, plus VAT or local taxes where applicable.

Special Waiver: To promote authors to publish their research in recently launched Advanced Virology, all submissions made before September 30, 2023, are eligible to receive a special automatic waiver for APCs.

Advanced Virology does not charge any submission fees or extra charges for the length of the contributions. APCs are payable when a manuscript is editorially accepted but before publication. Editorial decisions are kept independent and are not influenced by APC payment conditions or limitations. For more details, please visit the APC policy we follow.

Upon editorial acceptance of an article, the corresponding author will be notified that payment is due and will be guided through the payment procedure. Currently, we accept only Bank Transfers with bank charges to be borne by the payer.

Copyright and Licensing

Advanced Virology follows the copyright and licensing policies of Kenzym Publishers.

The copyright of a contribution published in Advanced Virology is retained by the author(s). Author(s) grant Kenzym Publishers a license to publish the contribution and identify itself as the original publisher. Contributions are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the contribution for free. In addition, the contribution may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work while ensuring that the authors receive due credit.

Where an author is prevented from being the copyright holder (for instance government employees), a customized copyright statement may be required. Author(s) requiring customizations of this type should inform the editorial office of the Advanced Virology during or immediately after the submission of the manuscript. Changes to the copyright statement cannot be made after the publication of the contribution. Similarly, in exceptional circumstances, contributions may be licensed differently. If you have a specific condition (such as one linked to funding) that does not allow this license, please mention this to the editorial office at submission. Exceptions will be granted at the discretion of the publisher.

Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers

It is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission, prior to submission, to reproduce any published material (figures, tables, text, etc.) that does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyright holder.

Permission is required for:

Your own work published by other publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
Substantial extracts from anyone's work or a series of works.
Use of tables, graphs, charts, schemes and artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
Photographs for which you do not hold the copyright.

Permission is not required for:

Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please note that in this case, you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
Very short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
Graphs, charts, schemes and artwork that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission. However, you may need to check the copyright permissions of any underlying data.

Manuscript Submission Overview

Pre-submission Checklist

To save your valuable time and ensure smooth editorial processing, please check the following points before proceeding to online submission.

Authors should make sure that:

the manuscript is relevant to the Aims & Scope of the Advanced Virology;
the main manuscript text file is prepared as a Microsoft Word file (.doc or .docx), and all other submission files are also in acceptable file formats;
the manuscript is prepared according to the author guidelines, contains all required and applicable sections according to the manuscript structure, and is accurate and readable;
the content of the manuscript has not been previously published, nor is it simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere;
all listed authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to Advanced Virology;
authors have read, understood, and considered Advanced Virology’s policies about publication ethics, research ethics, copyright, authorship, plagiarism, conflict of interest, peer-review, open-access, article processing charge, and other related editorial policies;
authors understand and agree that once accepted for publication, the manuscript publication is subject to payment of full article processing charges (APC) – payable after acceptance – unless a waiver or discount is granted.

Submission Files and Formats

Please prepare submission files as instructed below:

Cover Letter: A cover letter is mandatory for all submissions. It should be concise and explain why the manuscript fits the scope of Advanced Virology. All cover letters are required to include confirmation statements that: all authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to Advanced Virology; and authors confirm that the content of the manuscript (in part or whole) has not been published, or simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere. The cover letter should also include explanations of any issues relating to the journal policies. Any prior submissions of the manuscript to Advanced Virology must be acknowledged with the previous manuscript ID. The names and contact details of suggested and excluded reviewers should also be given in the cover letter.
Main Manuscript Text: The main manuscript text file should be prepared as per the manuscript structure explained below under manuscript preparation. The file should be submitted as Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) file.
Figure Captions: All figure captions and legend. Submitted as Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) file.
Figures*: Each figure as separate high-resolution (300 dpi or higher) image file in the following acceptable formats: TIFF, JPEG, EPS, or PDF.
Tables*: Tables prepared in, and submitted as, Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) file.
Supplementary Materials Files: Files containing supplementary materials, intended for publication along with the article. Acceptable formats: PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, TXT, CSV etc.
Supporting Information: Original, uncropped and unadjusted images such as blots and gel data and/or any other necessary information should be uploaded as a single PDF file.

*At the time of initial submission, tables and figures (review quality) with captions may be placed into the text document at first mention. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, figures must also be submitted separately as high-resolution (300 dpi or higher) image files in the following acceptable formats: TIFF, JPEG, EPS, or PDF.

Submission Process

Advanced Virology accepts manuscript submissions via the online submission portal. To submit a manuscript, the submitting author needs to register and/or log in to the Advanced Virology website. The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer-review process. All eligible co-authors should be listed on the submission system, which can see the manuscript details in the submission system if they register and log in using the e-mail address provided during manuscript submission. Please contact the editorial office via email if face any technical issues during submission.

During submissions, authors need to select the type of their manuscript under the ‘section’ option and may select a ‘category’ based on what best suits the subject matter of their manuscript.

ORCID iD for Authors

Corresponding authors are required to use an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. More information on ORCID can be found on their website. We encourage all authors to list their ORCID iD in the manuscript and during submission.

Free Format Submission

At initial submission, Advanced Virology may relax the strict formatting guidelines, but all manuscripts must contain the required sections and information. References may be in any style, provided that they include all necessary information and are presented in consistent formatting throughout. However, once the manuscript reaches the revisions stage, authors must have to submit the manuscript prepared according to Advanced Virology’s author guidelines for manuscript preparation.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscript Structure

All research manuscripts, including structured reviews, should include:

Front matter: Title, Authors list and affiliations, Corresponding author, Abstract, Keywords
Research manuscript sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions (optional).
Back matter: Supplementary Materials, Funding, Acknowledgments, Author Contributions, Relevant Declarations/Statements, Conflicts of Interest, References.

Reviews other than structured reviews and meta-analyses and other non-research manuscripts such as opinions may replace research manuscript sections with relevant content such as author-defined literature review sections.

Front Matter

The sections included in the front matter are mandatory for all manuscript types.

Title: A concise, relevant, and specific title that gives the reader a clear idea of what the article is about. A title should identify if the study reports trial data, or is a systematic review, meta-analyses, or a replication study.
Authors List and Affiliations: Full first and last names of authors must be provided. Middle names may be provided in full or in form of initials. Affiliations should include complete addresses including city, zip code, state/province, and country.
Corresponding Author: Authors must designate at least one author as the corresponding author, and list the email address and other contact details of the corresponding author(s) at the end of the authors’ list and affiliations.
Abstract: The abstract should be informative and self-explanatory, consisting of a single paragraph, not exceeding 300 words (200 words for opinions and comments). The abstract should minimize the use of abbreviations and should not include references. The abstract should follow the style of structured abstracts, but without the headings: (1) Background: highlight the context and purpose of the study; (2) Methods: describe briefly the main methods and treatments applied and statistical tests used; also include any relevant registration information, if applicable; (3) Results: state concisely the main findings; and (4) Conclusion: indicate the main conclusions or interpretations.
Keywords: Three to ten keywords representing the main content of the article.

Research Manuscript Sections

The research manuscripts should include the following sections:

Introduction: The introduction should explain the background to the study, its aims, a summary of the existing literature and why this study was necessary or its contribution to the field. Specific hypothesis/es and objectives should be included in the final part of the introduction.
Materials and Methods: Materials and methods should be described with sufficient detail so that readers can replicate the study, and should include a complete and clear description of the experimental design, materials/participants, processes, and statistical methods used. New methods and protocols should be described in detail while standard procedures should be referenced with variations specifically described. Accession numbers of RNA, DNA and protein sequences used in the manuscript should be provided in this section, if applicable. Relevant trial registration information should also be included, if applicable.
Results: This section includes a precise and concise description of the experimental results. Results should be either presented in text or as tables and figures; however, data should not be repeated across text, tables and figures.
Discussion: This section should discuss the implications of the findings in the context of existing research and highlight the limitations of the study. The discussion section should avoid extensive repetition of the results. Authors are encouraged to have a discussion section separate from the results; however, this is not a strict rule and the discussion section may be combined with the results section.
Conclusions: A conclusions section is not encouraged; however, it can be added to the manuscript if the discussion is unusually long or complex.
Patents: This section is not mandatory but may be added if there are patents resulting from the work reported in the manuscript.

Back Matter

All manuscripts should include back matter consisting of the following sections:

Supplementary Materials: A statement describing any supplementary materials provided alongside the manuscript (figure, tables, spreadsheets, video, etc.). The name and title of each element should be indicated as follows Figure S1: title, Table S1: title, etc.
Funding: All sources of funding of the study should be disclosed. Funding information should be complete and accurate. The full official funding agency name should be given, and grant numbers should be complete and accurate. Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.

Example: “This work was supported by [name of the funder] under grant no. [xxxx, yyyy, and zzzz] to [specific author(s) initials, if applicable]; [name of the funder] under grant no. [uuuu] and [name of the funder] under grant no. [ssss].

If no funding is received for the study, please add: “This work received no external funding”.

Acknowledgments: In this section authors can acknowledge any support given which is not covered by the author contribution or funding sections. This may include administrative and technical support, or donations in kind (e.g., materials used for experiments). Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the acknowledgements section.
Author Contributions: For manuscripts with more than one author, authors’ contributions should be provided in this section. For this purpose, each coauthor is assigned specific author contribution role(s) using the CRediT The 14 roles are Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, and Writing – review & editing. Author contributions may be provided at the original submission, but must be provided at the revised submission. Because author contributions will be published with the accepted article and cannot be edited after article acceptance, the corresponding author should ensure that author contributions information is accurate prior to final acceptance.
Institutional Review Board Statement: For manuscripts reporting studies involving human subjects or animals, Advanced Virology requires a statement from authors providing the details of the local ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB) that approved the study including the project identification code and date of approval (or confirmation that such approval is not needed or waived including reasons for any such waiver) and/or a statement that how the study conforms to recognised standards (e.g. declaration of Helsinki or US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects). Please note that the editorial office might ask authors for further information. For studies not involving humans or animals, authors may exclude this statement or write ‘not applicable’ under this section.
Informed Consent Statement: For manuscripts reporting studies involving human subjects, Advanced Virology requires a statement from authors confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants of the study or if consent was waived from any participant(s) including reasons for any such waiver. Furthermore, written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients/subjects who can be identified (including by the patients themselves). Please state “Written informed consent has been obtained from the patient(s) to publish this paper” if applicable. All presentations of case studies must have consent for publication. Authors should not send the consent to the editorial office on submission, but the editorial office may request to see a copy at any stage (including after publication). For studies not involving humans, authors may exclude this statement or write ‘not applicable’ under this section.
Data Availability Statement: Authors are encouraged to include a data availability statement directing readers to research data generated or analyzed during the study. Authors may exclude this statement if the study did not report any data.
Conflicts of Interest: Authors must include a statement in this section that identifies, declares, and explains any conflicts of interest. If there are none, the authors should explicitly state there are no conflicts of interest. Any role of the funding sponsors in the choice of the research project; design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results must be declared in this section.
References: Advanced Virology follows the APA style for citations and references. The author-year system for citations is required; do not use numbered references. The references list should be arranged alphabetically by the surnames of the first authors and then by the second and third authors. Single-authored articles should precede multiple-authored articles for which the individual is first author. Two or more articles by the same author(s) are listed chronologically; two or more in the same year are indicated by a, b, c, etc. Only literature that is available through libraries or other readily accessible public media can be cited. Material that does not meet this standard should be cited as personal communication or unpublished data. Advanced Virology encourages citations to data and other citable research materials. Citations and references in supplementary files are permitted provided that they also appear in the main text and in the reference list.

Preparing Tables, Figures and Illustrations

At the time of initial submission, tables and figures (review quality) with captions may be placed into the text document at first mention. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, figures must also be submitted separately as high-resolution (300 dpi or higher) image files in the following acceptable formats: TIFF, JPEG, EPS, or PDF.

All tables, figures, and illustrations should be cited in the text in numerical order. All tables, figures, and illustrations should have a short explanatory title and caption. Spell out abbreviations on first mention in table, figure, and illustration titles/captions, even if they have already been defined in the main text. Authors are responsible for obtaining all permissions for use of figures, tables, or illustrations from other publishers or from individuals whose images are included in photographs. Such permissions should be indicated in the legends and the original source should be cited in the reference list. Permissions allowing the use of the materials in open access publication should be obtained. Authors should furnish these permissions before an accepted manuscript is sent to the production phase.

Tables should be prepared using the table option of Microsoft Word, and should never be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files. Tables should never be split into parts such as Table 1a, Table 1b. Table heads should be brief but complete and self-contained. All variables should be defined and spell out the abbreviations. Each table entry should appear in a new table cell. Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values. Notes may be included as general notes that apply to the entire table. Colour and shading are not allowed to highlight table entries. Instead, superscript lowercase letters and symbols may be used for specific notes and significance notes. Table titles should appear above the table and legends should appear underneath the table. For table entries, 8 pt. is the minimum acceptable font size. Larger datasets or tables too wide for the A4 or Letter landscape page should be provided in additional/supplementary files.

For a manuscript to be sent to the production phase, figure captions should be provided separately in a text file, and should never be included in the graphic file. Define the symbols/figure key used within the graphic file, and further explanation may be provided either in the caption or in a legend. All figure parts should be labelled. Multi-panel figures (those with parts a, b, c, d etc.) should be submitted as single composite image file. Biplots should have equally scaled axes with tick marks. For images of blots and gels, experimental samples and controls used for one comparative analysis should be run on the same blot/gel, and any image processing method (such as adjustment of brightness/contrast) should not alter or distort the information in the figure. Similarly, blot/gels images should retain all important information and bands even if cropped. In order to ensure the integrity and scientific validity of blots (including, but not limited to, Western blots) and the reporting of gel data, original, uncropped and unadjusted images should be uploaded as Supporting Information files at the time of initial submission.

The width of the figures should approximate desired print size, i.e., 80 mm for a one-column figure, and 180 mm for a two-column figure. The height of the figure and legend should not exceed 225 mm. The minimum resolution required is 300 dpi (dots per inch).

For colour figures, authors should consider accessibility by colour-blinded individuals: avoid unnecessary colour; avoid troublesome colour combinations such as greens, reds, browns, and oranges; use green/magenta combination instead of green/red; use greyscale or monochrome images; add textures, shapes or line types to line drawings that require colour.

Supplementary Materials

Advanced Virology may publish supplemental materials in the online version of the article. Any supplemental material must be submitted along with the original manuscript and will undergo peer review. Authors are encouraged to submit materials that contribute to the content and quality of the article including but not limited to datasets, tables, figures, etc. Supplemental material should be formatted with a cover sheet listing authors and manuscript title, and the number of pages, figures, and tables. Tables and figures should be numbered Supplemental Table S1, S2 or Supplemental Figure S1, S2, etc. and should be cited in order in the main manuscript. Citations and references in supplementary files are permitted provided that they also appear in the main text and in the reference list. Supplementary materials other than datasets may be combined into a single PDF or Microsoft Word file, rather than a series of files with individual images or structures. Datasets, however, are encouraged to be submitted as spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. Please contact the editorial office with questions about file types.

Please include a short (one- or two-sentence) paragraph describing the supplemental material in the main manuscript under the ‘Supplementary Materials’ section.

Do not include, in supplementary materials, files such as patient consent forms, certificates of language editing, or revised versions of the main manuscript. Such files, if requested, should be sent by email, with the manuscript reference number, to the editorial office. Please do not send completed patient consent forms unless requested.

Units of Measure

The International System of Units (SI) must be used. Other units may be indicated in parentheses after the SI unit if this helps understanding or is needed for replication of the work.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

The abbreviations and acronyms should be defined the first time they appear in each of three sections: the abstract; the main text; the figure or table. When defined for the first time, the acronym/abbreviation should be added in parentheses after the written-out form.

Equations

Use keyboard formatting where possible (i.e. bold, super-/sub-script etc.); if needed, please use either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Equations should be editable by the editorial office and not appear in a picture format.

Language

All the manuscripts submitted to Advanced Virology should be written in proper scientific and grammatically correct English. For a rapid and smooth peer-review process, clear and grammatically correct English writing will allow journal editors and reviewers to fully understand the scientific contents of the submitted manuscript. So, authors should ensure that the English language of the manuscript is of sufficient quality. Before submission, authors from non-native English-speaking countries should have their manuscripts checked or professionally edited by a native English speaker.

Though English language editing may help, it is not a mandatory requirement. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be selected for peer review or accepted for publication. Authors are liable for all costs associated with language editing.

General Formatting

The manuscript should be double-spaced, using page and continuous line numbers. Tables and references may remain single-spaced. Do not use page breaks in the manuscript.

Please note that editable files are required for processing in production. If the initial submission contains any non-editable files (such as PDFs), the resubmission of the editable file(s) is required before a manuscript is sent to the production phase.

Editorial Procedures and Peer-review

All submissions received by Advanced Virology are first evaluated by the editor(s) and/or member(s) of the editorial board to determine whether the submitted manuscript is suitable for evaluation by the external expert reviewers. Submitted manuscripts are also systematically screened for plagiarism using industry standard plagiarism detection software before undergoing any external peer review. Submitted manuscripts failing these initial checks may be rejected by the editors or returned to the author(s) for resubmission after revisions. Manuscripts passing the initial checks will proceed to the peer-review process.

Advanced Virology applies single-blind review model, where the authors’ identities are known to the reviewers. The manuscript will generally be assigned to at least two independent experts for peer-review. These experts may also include editorial board members of Advanced Virology. The editor(s) will reach a decision based on the review reports and, where necessary, they will consult the member(s) of the editorial board. The editor(s) may apply multiple rounds of review to the revisions to the manuscript made by the authors during the review process. Authors have the option to suggest reviewers and/or request that particular individuals do not review the manuscript. Please read Advanced Virology’s peer-review policy in connection with other editorial policies, for more details.

Original articles, reviews (even if invited), short communications, virus notes, and case studies will always be subjected to peer-review. Opinions and comments will undergo editorial review, and may or may not be subjected to external peer-review.

Once the editor(s) reach a decision, it shall be communicated to the author(s) including any further instructions, if relevant. In case of revisions/resubmissions requested, authors should prepare and respond as instructed within the timeline suggested. In case of a rejection, the author(s) may appeal according to Advanced Virology’s policy for appeal against rejection. In case a manuscript is accepted, it will move to the next stages of production such as copyediting.

Publication Process

Once a manuscript is accepted, it will be processed for copyediting, language editing, proofreading by the authors, final corrections, pagination, and publication on the website of Advanced Virology.

The final publication of a contribution is, however, subject to the author(s) paying the article processing charges (APC) and completing the requirements regarding copyright and licensing agreements. For detailed information please read Advanced Virology’s article processing charge and copyright and licensing policies. If any discount/waiver for APC is applicable, the author(s) should inform this to the editorial office.

Research and Publication Ethics

Advanced Virology supports the Core Practices developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. Authors should observe the highest standards with respect to research and publication ethics. Advanced Virology places a high priority on addressing any violations or investigating allegations of misconduct in accordance with COPE Best Practice Guidelines to the maximum extent possible. Advanced Virology follows the research and publication ethics policies of Kenzym Publishers that should be read for further details.

Anyone can bring to our notice a potential breach of publication ethics at any time: pre- or post-publication. Appropriate investigations into allegations of ethical misconduct may seek legal counsel if necessary.

Research Ethics

Advanced Virology understands the importance of promoting the highest standards of research and is committed to adopting rigorous procedures to ensure that research published in this journal is conducted in a fair and ethical manner.

Research involving human subjects

For manuscripts reporting studies involving human subjects, Advanced Virology requires a statement from authors providing the details of the local ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB) that approved the study including the project identification code and date of approval (or confirmation that such approval is not needed) and/or a statement that how the study conforms to recognised standards (e.g. declaration of Helsinki or US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects). Any manuscripts describing studies not meeting the acceptable criteria will be returned/rejected.

Patient confidentiality

Advanced Virology requires author(s) to follow the ICMJE guidelines for reporting on human subjects. The author(s) should ensure that a patient's right to privacy has not been infringed without prior consent. Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients. For the publication of material that contains detailed patient information about a living individual, signed patient consent must be obtained. Any identifier that might reveal a patient’s identity must be removed (i.e., x-rays, MRIs, charts, photographs, etc.). Written informed consent is required from any potentially identifiable patient or legal representative, and should be presented in either the Methods section or the Acknowledgements.

Animal experimentation

Advanced Virology expects that research involving animals ensures that animals have been treated in a humane manner. Advanced Virology encourages authors to implement the 3Rs principles, and to adhere to animal research reporting standards e.g. the ARRIVE reporting guidelines. Advanced Virology requires authors to confirm that ethical and/or legal approval was obtained prior to the start of the study and provide details of the approving body.

Clinical Trials Registration

Registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry is a mandatory requirement for consideration for publication in Advanced Virology. Clinical trials should be registered at or before the time of first patient enrollment. Registration should be made in publicly accessible databases such as clinicaltrials.gov, the EU Clinical Trials Register and those listed by the World Health Organisation International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. Manuscripts reporting on clinical trials should include registration numbers and the name of the register and cite a reference to the registration in the Methods section. Advanced Virology also requires authors to follow CONSORT guidelines when reporting the results of a randomized trial.

Falsification and fabrication

Advanced Virology enforces stringent policy and procedures to deal with instances of data falsification and/or fabrication. The journal editors work closely with our publisher and other organizations, when necessary, to thoroughly investigate any suspected or alleged instances of data falsification and/or fabrication in submitted manuscripts or published articles. If data falsification and/or fabrication is found and confirmed in a submitted or under-review manuscript, the manuscript will be rejected and the authors will be requested for an explanation. If authors fail to provide a satisfactory explanation, journals may notify the authors’ institution, local ethics committee, or superior. Depending on the severity of the case, Advanced Virology may impose a ban on future submissions from the author or group of authors for a defined period. If data falsification and/or fabrication is found, identified and confirmed after publication, Advanced Virology may correct or retract the paper.

Examples of data falsification or fabrication include: image manipulation; cropping of gels/images to change context; omission of selected data; or making up data sets.

Publication Ethics Statement

Advanced Virology supports the Core Practices developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and places a high priority on addressing any violations or investigating allegations of misconduct in accordance with COPE Best Practice Guidelines to the maximum extent possible.

The corresponding author agrees by submission of a manuscript that:

the manuscript is free of plagiarism;
the manuscript is not simultaneously submitted or under consideration for publication elsewhere;
the work is not previously published;
all those contributing substantial ideas and work have been appropriately acknowledged or given co-authorship;
all authors have agreed to publication in Advanced Virology;
all addresses and institutional affiliations are complete and correct;
all national laws relating to the research have been complied with;
funding sources and conflicts of interest have been appropriately acknowledged; and
authorization to publish all parts of the submission from employers, intellectual property or copyright holders, funders, and others is given.

A published paper subsequently found not to have fulfilled all of these criteria may be retracted or, at the journal's sole discretion, a correction may be published.

Editorial Policies

Advanced Virology follows the editorial policies of Kenzym Publishers that should be read for further details.

Authorship

Advanced Virology understands that authorship has its own privileges (such as entitlement to moral and legal rights, credit and recognition) and responsibilities (such as accountability for the work). Advanced Virology follows the definitions of authorship as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). All submitted manuscripts should include an author contributorship statement that specifies the work of each author. Those who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship criteria should be listed in acknowledgements.

It is the collective responsibility of the authors to ensure that everyone who meets the criteria of authorship is appropriately, clearly, and accurately named as an author. Advanced Virology expects that the published author list accurately reflects individual contributions. Advanced Virology reserves the right to request confirmation that all authors meet the authorship conditions.

The corresponding author should act as a point of contact between the editor and the other authors and should keep co-authors informed and involve them in major decisions about the publication.

Consortium/group authorship should be listed in the manuscript with the other author(s). If authorship is retained by the consortium or group, the consortium or group should be listed as an author. However, where work is presented by the author(s) on behalf of a consortium or group, the consortium/group will not retain authorship and a note will describe that work was presented on behalf of the consortium/group.

Changes in authorship

Requests for changes to authorship are dealt with by journal editors and must be directed via the principal contact listed. Editors will handle such requests in accordance with the relevant COPE guidelines. Typically, each case of changes in authorship will be decided on its merit and requesting author(s) have to provide valid reasons. Changes in authorship, including addition, removal, or reordering of authors list must require all authors, including any to be removed, agree to such change(s) in writing. Changes in authorship post-publication may or may not require a published correction. Kenzym Publishers reserves the right to request the evidence of authorship, and post-acceptance authorship changes will be decided at the discretion of Kenzym Publishers.

‘Ghost,’ ‘guest,’ or ‘gift’ authorship

The editors of Advanced Virology, in close working with Kenzym Publishers and other organizations, take a firm stance against the unethical practices of ghost (the practice of using a non-named author to write or prepare an article for publication), guest, or gift authorship (the practice of naming an individual that made little or no contribution to a study as an author on an article). Investigations regarding allegations and/or suspicion of ghost, guest, or gift authorship are conducted in accordance with the COPE guidelines. Identification of such practices, post-investigation, will lead to the removal of the authors in question from the article through a post-publication correction. Furthermore, Advanced Virology may choose to report the authors in question to the institutional or local ethics committee(s).

Editors and journal staff as authors

Redundant publication (dual submission or publication)

Advanced Virology does not accept previously published manuscripts or process submissions that are simultaneously submitted to another journal. Suspicious or alleged cases of redundant publication are investigated thoroughly by journal editors in accordance with COPE guidelines. Journal managers keep a complete record of all communications among editors, authors, and reviewers as well as store these records safely for a considerable time. Such communication records may be used in investigations of alleged misconduct. Investigations to identify cases of redundant publications and/or outcomes of such investigations may trigger contact and co-operation with other publishers, journals, and parent organizations of the authors.

Plagiarism

Advanced Virology does not accept plagiarism. Processing and evaluation of submitted manuscripts are based on the understanding that they are the original work of the author(s). Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from your own publications, without appropriate acknowledgement or permission. All submissions are systematically screened for plagiarism using industry standard plagiarism detection software. Editors will investigate and handle the allegations of plagiarism according to the COPE guidelines for suspected plagiarism in a submitted manuscript or a published article.

Detection of plagiarism during peer review process will most probably lead to rejection whereas detection of plagiarism post publication may result in the publication of a correction or retraction of the article.

Citation policy

Advanced Virology expects its editors, reviewers and authors to not misuse citations, and suggest reading a COPE discussion document on citation manipulation for best practices.

Authors should ensure that where the material is taken from other sources (including their own published writing), the source is clearly cited and that appropriate permission, if applicable, is obtained. Authors should avoid excessive self-citation and ‘honorary’ citations. Similarly, authors should not cite references that they have not read. Editors and reviewers should not engage in coercive citation manipulation (citation manipulation is considered coercive citation manipulation when it is made a condition for having an article accepted in a journal).

Advanced Virology, in close working with Kenzym Publishers, is committed to investigating thoroughly all suspected or alleged instances of inappropriate requests or occurrences of citation manipulation, and taking appropriate actions where required.

Conflict of Interest

Advanced Virology understands the importance of and is committed to transparency regarding potential conflict of interest. As per the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, “a conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflict of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.” However, blanket ban or harsh policies preventing people with conflicts of interest from publishing may prove counterproductive as it encourages authors to conceal relevant information and interests. Advanced Virology provides the following policy guidelines regarding conflict of interest with respect to authors, editors and peer-reviewers:

Authors

Advanced Virology requires the author(s) to declare all conflicts of interest in relation to their work. Authors are required to list all conflicts of interest in the ‘conflict of interest section’ in the manuscript just before the references. If the author(s) have no conflict of interest to declare, they should provide a statement in the abovementioned section reading: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest”. The editor(s) may ask for further information relating to conflicts of interest.

The corresponding author of the manuscript is responsible to disclose and/or confirm if co-authors hold any potential conflict of interest. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to furnish the written disclosure forms duly completed by all co-authors. Statement and/or disclosure of potential conflict of interests should be submitted prior to the acceptance of the manuscript. The following information should be declared at the time of submission of the manuscript:

all sources of relevant funding, including direct and indirect financial support, supply of equipment, or materials (including specialist statistical or writing assistance);
the role of the research funder(s) or sponsor(s), if any, in the research design, execution, analysis, interpretation, and reporting;
any relevant financial and non-financial interests and relationships that might be considered likely to affect the interpretation of their findings or that editors, reviewers, or readers might reasonably wish to know. These might include, but are not limited to, patent or stock ownership, membership on a company’s board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, consultancy for a company, or receipt of speaker’s fee from a company.

Editors

The journal editors, board members, and staff who are involved with decisions about publication are expected to declare their competing interests at the time of agreeing to their positions and update them periodically.

Where an editor or editorial board member is on the author list, they must declare this in the ‘conflicts of interest’ section on the submitted manuscript. The editors, and other editorial staff, are required to recuse themselves from individual manuscripts if their own interests may be perceived to impair their ability to make an unbiased editorial decision and to avoid creating potential conflicts of interest through assignment of handling editors or peer reviewers.

Peer-Reviewers

Potential conflicts of interest should be considered while assigning peer-reviewers, and editors should ask reviewers to declare potential conflicts of interest when they respond to the invitation and also when they submit the review (since conflicts may also be identified after reading the full manuscript). In case a reviewer declares a potential conflict of interest, the editors should opt for an alternate reviewer. Advanced Virology will remove reviewers from the journal database who fail to declare a conflict of interest.

Advanced Virology will publish authors’ relevant conflicts of interest or a statement of their absence. In case of doubt, the editor(s) should favour greater disclosure. Similarly, Advanced Virology implements disclosure of conflict of interest in connection with editorials and review articles as it is more difficult to detect bias in these types of publications than reports of original research. The editor(s) will handle the investigations of suspected undisclosed conflicts of interest according to the COPE guidelines for undisclosed conflicts of interest in a submitted manuscript or a published article.

Editorial Independence

Advanced Virology enjoys full editorial independence from its publisher. All articles published in Advanced Virology are peer-reviewed and assessed by our independent editorial board, and Kenzym Publishers’ staff are not involved in decisions to accept manuscripts. For details read Kenzym Publishers’ editorial independence policy.

Editors, editorial board members, or any other staff member of Advanced Virology are not allowed to be involved in editorial decisions or handling submissions when they are authors or have contributed to a manuscript. For submission involving editors/editorial staff as author(s), another editor or member of the editorial board is assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript.

Peer-review Policy

Advanced Virology applies single-blind review model, where the authors’ identities are known to reviewers. The review reports are not published online.

The submissions are assigned to an editor, who assesses the manuscripts and decides whether they are suitable for peer review. For submission involving editor(s) as author(s), or where the editor(s) have conflicts of interest, another editor or member of the editorial board is assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. Submissions assessed suitable for peer-review undergo peer-review by at least two independent experts identified by the handling editor. The editor(s) decide on the manuscript based on the peer-reviewers’ reports and these reports are shared with authors along with the decision. The editor(s) are independent in evaluating the reviewers’ reports and are not bound by the reviewers’ recommendations while making a decision.

Advanced Virology provides author(s) an option to nominate potential peer-reviewers by providing suggested reviewers’ contact details (institutional email, where possible, and/or information that can verify the identity of the reviewer such as ORCID, Scopus ID) in the cover letter. However, whether or not to consider these nominated reviewers is at the editor's discretion. The author(s) should not suggest recent collaborators or colleagues who work in the same institution as themselves. Similarly, the author(s) may request that particular individuals do not review the manuscript. Any request for excluding someone as a reviewer should be made in the cover letter and include the underlying reasons. Again, the editor(s) may choose to select an excluded reviewer.

The peer-reviewers should read COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers for best practices.

Confidentiality

Advanced Virology expects its editors and reviewers to ensure that all manuscripts are handled confidentially in accordance with established standards. It expects that if discussions between an author, editor, and peer reviewer have taken place in confidence they should remain in confidence unless explicit consent has been given by all parties, or unless there are exceptional circumstances (for example, when they might help substantiate claims of intellectual property theft during peer review). Similarly, if a reviewer wishes to delegate the review or seek the opinion of a colleague on a specific aspect of the paper, they are expected to clear this with the editor in the first instance.

Suspected or alleged instances of an editor or reviewer appropriating ideas from a manuscript they handled will be thoroughly investigated in accordance with these COPE guidelines.

Peer-review fraud

Advanced Virology provides an option for authors to nominate peer-reviewers or request that particular individuals do not peer-review the manuscript. It is the responsibility of the lead author to nominate only genuine reviewers and provide correct contact details.

Any suspected or alleged instance of authors submitting fabricated reviewer details will be thoroughly investigated. Such allegations, if proven, may result in immediate rejection of a submitted manuscript or retraction of an already published article. Furthermore, Advanced Virology may choose to report the authors in question to the institutional or local ethics committee(s). Depending on the severity of the case, a ban on future submissions from the author group may also be imposed.

Research Data Policy

Advanced Virology understands the importance of open scientific exchange and thus encourages that materials described in the manuscript including all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely should be available to readers. It encourages authors to ensure that their datasets are either deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main manuscript or additional/supplementary files (such as spreadsheets rather than PDFs) whenever possible.

Where ethical, legal or privacy issues are present, data should not be shared. The authors should make any limitations clear in the data availability statement upon submission. Authors should ensure that the data shared are in accordance with the consent provided by participants on the use of confidential data.

Data sharing policies concern the minimal dataset that supports the central findings of a published study.

Pre-prints

Advanced Virology accepts submissions that have previously been made available as preprints provided that they have not undergone peer review. A preprint is a draft version of a paper made available online before submission to a journal. Posting of preprints is not considered prior publication and will not jeopardize consideration at Advanced Virology. However, authors are required to disclose details of preprint posting, including DOI and licensing terms, upon submission of the manuscript or at any other point during consideration at Advanced Virology. Furthermore, once a manuscript is published in Advanced Virology, it is the author’s responsibility to ensure that the preprint record is updated with a publication reference, including the DOI and a URL link to the published version of the article on Advanced Virology’s website.

Preservation and archiving

Advanced Virology understands the importance of digital preservation of the content published in the journal and hence is committed to permanently archiving all content published in Advanced Virology in various databases/archives.

In order to keep the record, all submitted manuscripts and accompanying files/materials are retained by Kenzym Publishers. However, files related to rejected submissions may be deleted on request by submitting authors.

Corrections, retractions, and updates

Each contribution published in Advanced Virology, constitutes the version of record (VoR). Recognizing a published contribution as a version of record establishes the expectation that it can be relied upon as accurate, complete, and citable. Sometimes after a contribution has been published it may be necessary to make a change to the version of record. Such changes are made after careful consideration, and approval, of the editor(s) of the journal who are also supported by our staff.

Necessary changes made to, or retractions of, published contributions are accompanied by post-publication notices which are bidirectionally linked to the original contribution. These post-publication notices i.e. a correction notice, a retraction, or an expression of interest describe the alterations made to the original contribution and are widely indexed. Under some exceptional circumstances, a published contribution may have to be removed from the website and archives. This will be accompanied by a removal notice.

Authors, readers and organizations are encouraged to contact the editorial office of Advanced Virology in the first instance if they become aware of any errors, especially errors that could affect the interpretation of data or reliability of information presented, or ethics issues in the published material. The editor(s) will carefully consider such reports, supported by Kenzym Publishers, and may require additional expert advice before deciding the most appropriate course of action.

Corrections

Changes to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusion of the article, but do not fully invalidate the article, will, at the editor(s)’ discretion, be corrected via publication of a Correction notice that is indexed and bidirectionally linked to the original article.

Publication of correction notices depends on the nature of errors corrected: major or minor errors. For correction notices, major errors or omissions are considered to be any changes that impact the interpretation of the article, but where the scholarly integrity of the article remains intact. In case of major errors, changes will be made to the version of record (online article) and a separate correction notice, bidirectionally linked to the original article, will be issued detailing the error and changes made.

Minor errors and omissions are those that do not impact the reliability of, or the reader’s understanding of, the scholarly content. Any minor errors will not be accompanied by a separate correction notice. Instead, a footnote will be added to the article detailing to the reader that the article has been corrected.

Retractions

In situations, when the interpretation or conclusion of an article is substantially undermined, it may be necessary for published articles to be retracted. This could be due to inadvertent errors made during the research process, gross ethical breaches, fabrication of data, large amounts of plagiarism, or other reasons. Such articles threaten the integrity of scientific records and need to be retracted. Advanced Virology deals with the retraction process in accordance with COPE guidelines for retraction. If a published article is to be retracted, it shall accompany the publication of a retraction notice. Retraction notices are indexed and bidirectionally linked to the original article. The original article is watermarked as retracted and the title is amended with the prefix “Retracted article:” Partial Retractions might be published in cases where results are only partially wrong.

Expressions of concern

In some cases, editor(s) may consider publishing an expression of concern notice, where concerns of a major nature have been raised (e.g. serious research or publication misconduct), but where the outcome of the investigation is inconclusive or where due to various complexities the investigation will not be complete for a considerable time. An expression of concern notice will detail the points of concern and what actions, if any, are in progress. An expression of concern notice may be superseded by a subsequent correction or retraction notice, but will remain part of the permanent published record.

Removal of published content

Under some exceptional circumstances, Advanced Virology and Kenzym Publishers reserve the right to completely remove a published material, or part of it, from its online platforms and relevant index databases, where leaving it available will constitute an illegal act or be likely to lead to significant harm. Such actions may be taken under rare circumstances when there are serious problems that cannot be resolved by a retraction or correction. Removal of published content will be considered in situations such as: (i) content is defamatory, infringes a third party’s intellectual property right, right to privacy, or other legal right, or is otherwise unlawful; (ii) a court or government order has been issued, or is likely to be issued, requiring removal of such content; (iii) content, if acted upon, would pose an immediate and serious risk to health. Removal may be temporary or permanent. The metadata (e.g. title and authors) will be retained and will be accompanied by a statement explaining why the content has been removed.

Updates and scholarly discussions

Addenda

If the author(s) of a contribution needs to update or add some key information then, this can be published as an addendum which may or may not be subject to peer-review depending on the editor(s) assessment. However, the addenda do not contradict the original publication and are not used to fix errors (for which a correction notice will be published). Addenda are bidirectionally linked to the original contribution.

Comments including response and rejoinder

Comments are short articles that outline an observation on a published article and may be submitted by readers to the journal editor for publication. Comments may be subject to peer review, and will be shared with the authors of the published contribution to invite them to submit a response which may also be subject to peer review. The authors’ response may be shared with the commentator to allow him to submit a rejoinder which may be subject to peer review as well. No further correspondence will be considered for publication. The editor may decide to reject correspondence at any point before the comment, response and rejoinder are finalized. All published comments, responses, and rejoinders will be bidirectionally linked to the published contribution to which they relate.

Appeal against rejection

Authors can appeal against a rejection of a manuscript if they can demonstrate that an error has been made by an editor or reviewer in determining the final decision, demonstrate a convincing case of bias in the process, or if important additional data is provided. Such appeals should be directed to the journal editor via the editorial office of Advanced Virology. Only one appeal is permitted for each manuscript. Final decisions on appeals will be made by the editorial board member handling the paper or the editor.

Complaints

Complaints about our processes or about publication ethics will in the first instance be handled by the editor responsible for the journal. If the editor is the subject of the complaint, please approach the editorial and publishing management team by email at advanced.virology@kenzym.com and policy.complaint@kenzym.com.

Kenzym Publishers is committed to ensuring that journal editors adhere to the best practices and industry standards, for example COPE guidelines. Editor(s) may seek advice from our staff, and then decide on a course of action and provide feedback to the complainant. Please understand that complaint resolution and/or any relevant investigations may take some time.

If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint, it will be escalated to the journal's editorial and publishing management team for investigation. If no publishing contact is identified in journal guidelines, send the query to policy.complaint@kenzym.com.

Advertising Policy

Advanced Virology follows the advertising policy of Kenzym Publishers which is as below:

Kenzym Publishers understands that receiving sponsorships or advertising should not interfere with editorial independence and hence is committed to adhering to best practices when dealing with any sponsorship or advertising. Our policy guideline for accepting sponsorship or advertising from companies, societies, or other organizations is as:

all advertising (or sponsorship or funding) must first be approved by the publisher. Kenzym Publishers reserves the right to refuse to accept sponsorship/advertisement from any commercial enterprise, company or industry and will not be bound to offer any justification for its decision to do so;
all advertising (or sponsorship or funding) is handled separately from editorial content. Sponsors don’t have control over the editorial decision, and more specifically:
- editorial and advertising sales administration are completely separate operations;
- editorial decisions are never influenced by potential advertising or reprint revenues;
sponsors are requested to guarantee that they shall not attempt to influence editorial process in any way and that they understand and recognize the risks inherent in any possible conflicts of interest associated with the financial support and funding of publishing enterprises.
in the case of journal/publications published by Kenzym Publishers on behalf of societies or other organizations, we expect societies/organizations to be transparent in their process for selecting third party support for the journal/publication, such as printers or advertising support.

Publisher Note

Kenzym Publishers stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Maps published in any of our journals/publications are at the discretion of the author(s). Kenzym Publishers do not endorse any maps and are neutral to any political claims that published maps may present.

Opinions and conclusions expressed by authors are their own and are not considered as those of the Kenzym Publishers, its staff, or its advertisers. Advertisements in our journals/publications do not constitute an endorsement of the product. Trade names are sometimes mentioned in papers published in our journals/publications. No endorsement of those products by the publisher is intended, nor is any criticism implied of similar products not mentioned.