Eurosurveillance is an independent peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The journal is free of charge to both authors and readers and aims to be the authoritative and representative public health voice of the communicable disease community in Europe and beyond. All articles undergo a rigorous peer review by independent reviewers to guarantee unbiased selection based on scientific quality. Most articles are submitted from independent authors, but the journal also serves as a channel for the dissemination of scientific information from the ECDC itself.

Articles in Eurosurveillance are indexed by PubMed/Medline. Although the main focus of the journal is on Europe, non-European authors are also encouraged to submit articles, provided that they also add value to a European audience.

Our main objectives are to:

• provide facts and guidance for health professionals and decision-makers to facilitate the implementation of effective prevention and control measures;
• support the preparedness and response to health threats in Europe through the rapid dissemination of high-quality authoritative scientific information on major outbreaks or emergency situations;
• provide a European-specific platform for health professionals to share scientific findings in infectious disease epidemiology, prevention and control;
• disseminate surveillance data on communicable diseases and publish analyses and interpretations of these data;
• offer assistance to authors from all European Union Member States in improving the impact and quality of national information on communicable diseases.

Eurosurveillance is primarily aimed at all those concerned with communicable disease epidemiology, prevention and control in Europe and worldwide. In addition to public health professionals and decision-makers at all levels, medical practitioners, microbiologists and scientists in the field of communicable diseases and members of the relevant health organisations, we also welcome interested professionals from other related fields such as pharmacists, behavioural scientists and scientific journalists.

• Eurosurveillance is published in a weekly online version, with both short news and rapid updates (previously Eurosurveillance weekly release) and longer in-depth articles (previously Eurosurveillance monthly release). Most articles are also published in a quarterly paper print compilation.
• We publish preliminary outbreak reports and alerts, as well as in-depth analyses of outbreaks and epidemiological disease patterns based on surveillance data, and scientific studies. We also cover practices, policies and guidance regarding communicable disease prevention and control, major developments in the field of laboratory diagnostics, vaccines and immunisation, drug resistance and therapy, and summaries of reports from national institutions/organisations. Letter and news sections provide additional fields for exchange of information.
• Most articles in Eurosurveillance concern infectious disease events and trends in Europe, but we also report major events from other parts of the world, particularly regarding emerging communicable diseases of particular importance to the European region.
• In specific circumstances, Eurosurveillance also covers other potential threats to the health of European citizens, such as heat waves.

More information on the article categories and formats can be found in the For authors section of our homepage.

Eurosurveillance is published in English. In the Archives, some full articles and abstracts published before 2008 are also available in French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

Long articles (formerly a part of Eurosurveillance monthly release) have been indexed by MEDLINE since January 2001, while short articles (formerly Eurosurveillance weekly release) have been indexed by MEDLINE since January 2005. The Index Medicus abbreviation for Eurosurveillance is Euro Surveill.

The ECDC grants editorial freedom to the editorial team of Eurosurveillance. The views expressed in the journal are those of the authors and may not necessarily comply with views and policy of ECDC. Eurosurveillance follows guidelines on editorial independence produced by the World Association of Medical Editors (http://www.wame.org/wamestmt.htm#independence) and the code on good publication practice produced by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines/).

Except where otherwise stated, reproduction of documents/information/articles for personal use (i.e. for educational purposes, research, private study or internal circulation within an organisation) or for further non-commercial dissemination to end users is authorised subject to the condition that appropriate acknowledgement is given to the source.

Reproduction for commercial purposes is subject to the conclusion of a license agreement with ECDC. Applications should be addressed in writing to the Eurosurveillance editorial team (eurosurveillance@ecdc.europa.eu).

Furthermore, authors are requested to sign a written agreement, regarding copyright when submitting an article for the first time, applying to all present and future contributions submitted to the journal. The agreement should be sent to the Eurosurveillance office by fax or mail.

The citations should be in accordance with sample references given by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).

To make the citing of articles in Eurosurveillance easier, we have introduced an electronic page-numbering system for short, weekly articles since January 2005 and for the long, monthly articles since March 2007.

Although most of the online content appears in the printed compilation of Eurosurveillance, please cite the article using its electronic page number. The electronic page numbers also appear in the printed compilation from July 2007.

Citations and electronic page numbers for each article can be found at the foot of the webpage on which they appear.

If you think you could help us to peer-review articles, please contact eurosurveillance@ecdc.europa.eu and tell us your areas of expertise.

If you have any questions about Eurosurveillance, please contact our editorial team at eurosurveillance@ecdc.europa.eu

The online and print formats of Eurosurveillance are assigned separate ISSNs.
Online content: ISSN 1560-7917
Print compilation: ISSN 1025-496X