Get your Clinical Infectious Diseases paper right the first time: a ready-made structure with the right abstract and citations, so editors see your science, not formatting slips.
4.3
Authored by Sumalatha Gangadhar | Published on 7 August, 2026
Submitting to Clinical Infectious Diseases goes smoothly when your draft already matches the journal's own rules. Editors screen new manuscripts against the Clinical Infectious Diseases guide for authors before peer review, so formatting, structure, and required statements should be right on the first draft rather than repaired during upload. This template sets that structure up for you.
It is a manuscript shell aligned to Clinical Infectious Diseases. It covers front matter, the abstract the journal expects, a body organized to the journal's article types, and a reference list in the journal's required style. Confirm current scope and article types on the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal page before you draft.
Prepare the title, authors, affiliations, and ORCID iDs. Write the abstract to the journal's rule and word limit, organize the body to the article type, and apply the required reference style from the first citation. Complete every declaration (ethics, competing interests, funding, data availability) the Clinical Infectious Diseases guide for authors lists, and cite figures and tables in order.
The common failure modes are formatting or reference style that does not match the guide for authors, missing required statements, and an incomplete portal checklist. Clear all three against the Clinical Infectious Diseases guide for authors before you submit.
The shell mirrors what editorial staff check first: article-type fit, the abstract rules, required declarations, and the journal's reference style. For more detail see the author resources. When your draft is ready, upload it through Editorial Manager.
| Element | Clin Infect Dis requirement |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Structured vs unstructured with precise word limits by article type: Major Article: structured with headings Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions (250-word limit); Brief Report: unstructured (50-word limit); Review Article: unstructured (150-word limit); State-of-the-Art-Review: unstructured (150-word limit); Ethics Rounds: 200 words; Viewpoint: unstructured (150-word limit); Clinical Dilemmas in Infectious Diseases - Clinical Resourcing Cases: None; Editorial: no abstract specified; Voices of ID: N/A; Photo Quiz: N/A; Correspondence: N/A. General requirement for all abstracts: must state the purpose of the research, the methods used, the results, and the conclusions. Do not cite references in the abstract |
| Main text | Word limits include abstract and all manuscript content, but exclude title page, references, and figure legends. By article type: Major Article: 3500 words; Brief Report: 2000 words; Review Article: 3500 words; State-of-the-Art-Review: 5000 words; Clinical Dilemmas in Infectious Diseases - Clinical Resourcing Cases: 2500 words; Ethics Rounds: 2000 words; Viewpoint: 3000 words; Editorial: 1200 words; Voices of ID: 2000 words; Photo Quiz: Question 350 words, Answer 750 words; Correspondence: 500 words |
| Declarations | Ethics approval/consent as applicable; competing interests; funding; data availability |
| Figures/tables | Publication-ready; cited in order |
| Supplemental | Upload separately when used |
| Keywords | 3-10 keywords required (separate from the abstract) |
| References | Based on ICMJE Recommendations (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors). References numbered consecutively as they appear in the text, with numbers in brackets (e.g., [3, 7–9, 57]). References can be formatted in any readable style at submission, but must follow CID reference style (ICMJE-based) at revision |
| Peer review | Single-anonymous (single-blind): External peer review is a single-anonymous process at the journal, meaning that reviewers are anonymous to each other and a paper's authors, while their identities are known to the editors handling the manuscript |
| Submission | www.editorialmanager.com/cid/default.aspx |
Read the Clinical Infectious Diseases guide for authors once before drafting and once before upload. Draft the abstract after results are stable. Set the reference style before adding citations. Keep a cover letter that states your contribution and fit to Clinical Infectious Diseases in under a page.
Skim two or three recent Clin Infect Dis papers to calibrate depth and figure style. Make the novelty clear in the first two pages. Deposit data and code when the policy on the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal page requires it. Disclose any preprint or conference version with identifiers in the cover letter.
Do one focused pass against the Clinical Infectious Diseases guide for authors: scope, length, reference style, required declarations, and figure quality. Then submit through Editorial Manager.