Author Guidelines
General Guidelines
Audience
The audience for Farmeconomia. Health economics and therapeutic pathways consists of health economists, market access experts, and in general everyone who have an interest in pharmacoeconomics, health economics, health policy, and public health.. Authors should bear in mind the multidisciplinary status of the readership when writing the article.
Key formatting points
Please ensure your paper concurs with the following article format:
- Title: concise, preferably not more than 180 characters.
- Author(s) names, affiliations and email.
- Corresponding author: including full name, and e-mail. Address, phone and fax numbers may also be reported.
- Type of article: Review, Original research, Methods, Brief Drug Profile
- Abstract: less than 300 words. No references should be cited in the abstract.
- Keywords: approximately 3-5 keywords.
- Body of the article: article content under relevant headings and subheadings.
- References (For full details on formatting see “References” section below):
- Should be numerically listed in the reference section in the order that they occur in the text or in Tables and Figures
- Should appear as a number i.e., [1,2] in the text
- Quote the first six authors’ names. If there are more than six, then quote first three, et al.
- Figures/Tables (For full details on formatting see “Manuscript preparation” section below): summary figures/tables/boxes are very useful, and we encourage their use. The author should include illustrations and tables to condense and illustrate the information they wish to convey. Commentary that augments an article and could be viewed as “stand-alone” should be included in a separate box. An example would be a summary of a particular trial or trial series, a case study summary or a series of terms explained. If any of the figures or tables used in the manuscript requires permission from the original publisher, it is the author’s responsibility to obtain this. Figures must be in an editable format.
Type of Articles
Reviews
Review should be focused on a specific drug, class of drugs, or pathology.
- Reviews on specific drug or class of drugs must include clinical issue and therapeutic role. Pharmacoeconomic profile and synthesis of the available economic evidence should receive the greatest emphasis.
- Reviews on pathology must include clinical issue and therapeutic options; cost of illness should receive the greatest emphasis.
An abstract of less than 300 words is required. The text is limited to about 6,000 words (not including abstract, tables, figures, and references); about 6 tables, and no reference limit.
Original research
Original researches include original works of research and analysis especially regarding economic evaluations such as cost-effectiveness, cost-utility, cost effectiveness analysis, and budget impact model. The articles should include description of how the data of cost was identified and quantified and, in case of a budget impact model, how the model was structured.
A structured abstract of less than 300 words is required. The text is limited to about 6,000 words (not including abstract, tables, figures, and references); about 6 tables (a detail of cost data input and of results should be included), and there are no reference limits.
Methods
Articles should focus on specific methods and techniques used in economic analysis. Principles and applications of the techniques must be illustrated and practical examples of use should be reported.
An abstract of less than 300 words is required. The text is limited to 4,000 words (not including abstract, tables, figures, and references); about 3-4 tables, and no reference limit.
Focus on
Articles should cover an aspect of an issue that is relevant to the journal’s readership. For example it could be a discussion on the adoption of a new technology, or on issue concerned pricing and reimbursement. This section also include small-scale researches, preliminary results or brief reports that bring out a message adequate for the journal's scope and of particular interest to the community.
An unstructured abstract of less than 300 words is required. The text is limited to 1,500-3,000 words (not including abstract, tables, figures, and references); max 2 tables/figures, and no reference limits.
Brief drug profile
It’s a brief review on the clinical and pharmacoeconomic aspects of a specific drug. The article should begin with a brief discussion on the disease for which the drug has received the indication. In case of two or more indications in each article will be discussed only one. Indication and dosing, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, efficacy and safety should be reported. Pharmacoeconomics profile should be focus on review of economic evaluations of the drug or the cost of illness, if economic analysis are not available in literature.
The text is limited to 3,000 words (not including tables and references); about 3 tables, and no reference limit. Abstract is not needed.
Editorial
Editorials are short articles on issues of topical importance. They aim at offering a personal perspective on a topic of recent interest. Therefore, we encourage our editorial writers to express their opinions, giving the author the opportunity to present criticism or address controversy.
Figures and tables can be included in editorials, if necessary.
Abstract: not needed
Manuscript preparation
Headings
No more than three levels of subheading should be used to divide the text and should be clearly designated.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined on their first appearance, and in any table and figure footnotes. It is helpful if a separate list is provided of any abbreviations.
Language
The submitted manuscripts may be written in English (U.S. English spelling) or in Italian (abstract, keywords, and title, however, have to be written in English).
SEEd offers a service for authors who are not native English. Please contact us if you need any language service, as English language editing or translation.
References
- Author’s names should appear without full stops in their initials
- Quote the first six authors’ names. If there are more than six, then quote first three, et al.
- Journal name should be in italics and abbreviated to standard PubMed format followed by period
- Volume number followed by semicolon
- Page number range separated by a hyphen with no spaces
- DOI numbers
Examples
- Journal example:
- Houssami N, Abraham LA, Miglioretti DL, et al. Accuracy and outcomes of screening mammography in women with a personal history of early-stage breast cancer. JAMA. 2011;305(8):790-799. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2011.188
- De Giorgis S, Brunetti N, Zawaideh J, Rossi F, Calabrese M, Tagliafico AS. Influence of Breast Density on Patient's Compliance during Ultrasound Examination: Conventional Handheld Breast Ultrasound Compared to Automated Breast Ultrasound. J Med Ultrasound. 2020;28(4):230-234. https://10.4103/JMU.JMU_13_20
- Book example: Lunet N. Meta-analysis of observational studies. In: La Torre G (ed). Applied Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Torino: SEEd Medical Publishers, 2010
- Meeting abstract example: Smith AB, Jones CD. Recent progress in the pharmacotherapy of diseases of the lower urinary tract. Presented at: 13th International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry. Atlanta, GA, USA, 28 November-2 December 1994
- Website example: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc, 2003. Available at: http://ww.m-w.com/dictionary.htm
or: National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Antisocial personality disorder. London: NICE, 2009. Available at: http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG77/PublicInfo/pdf/English (last accessed January 2011)
Figures and schemes
Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. Define in the legend all abbreviations that are used in the figure.
Figures should be placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
Schemes, diagrams and flow-charts should be provided in an editable electronic format such as PowerPoint, or Excel.
Tables and boxes
Tables should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text. Define in the legend all abbreviations that are used in the table/box. Tables and boxes can be incorporated into the body of the manuscript, preferably in either Word or Excel format.
Tables and Figures Copyright
If a table, or a figure or a box has been published previously (even if you were the author), acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material where necessary.
As the author of your manuscript, you are responsible for obtaining permissions to use material owned by others. Since the permission-seeking process can be remarkably time-consuming, it is wise to begin writing for permission as soon as possible.
Please send us photocopies of letters or forms granting you permission for the use of copyrighted material so that we can see that any special requirements with regard to wording and placement of credits are fulfilled. Keep the originals for your files. If payment is required for use of the table/box, this should be covered by the author.
Author Fees
This journal charges the following author fees.
Fast-Track Review: 835.00 (EUR)
With the payment of this fee, the review, editorial decision, and author notification on this manuscript is guaranteed to take place within 10 business days after submission and payment of the fast-track fee (€ 835).
Please note that this payment is strictly to facilitate the rapid review process and does not in any way guarantee acceptance or publication of your article.
If you wish to make use of this facility, please choose the ‘fast track review’ option when submitting your article. If you choose the ‘fast-track’ review option, you are agreeing to pay the € 835 for this service.
Article Publication Charge (APC): 1485.00 (EUR)
All manuscripts are published by Farmeconomia – Health Economics & Therapeutic Pathways under the Open Access publishing model (CC BY-NC 4.0).
That means that all the articles are freely available on line. This is made possible by an Article Publication Charge (APC) that covers the cost of the services we provide.
The APC, payable when your manuscript is editorially accepted and before publication, is charged either to you, your institution or funder. Following payment of the APC, papers will be published and made open access.
For referees that have reviewed at least one article, a 30% discount on the publication fee for possible article submissions on the journal is applied (APC = €1,040).
Payment can be made by any of the following methods:
- Credit card. Payment can be made online using a secure payment form as soon as the manuscript has been editorially accepted. We will we send a receipt by email once payment has been processed.
- Wired Bank Transfer. You will receive an invoice to be payed within 30 days of the manuscript receiving editorial acceptance.
- PayPal. Payment can be made as soon as the manuscript has been editorially accepted. We will we send a receipt by email once payment has been processed.
No taxes are included in this charge. If you are resident in any European Union country you have to add Value-Added Tax (VAT) at the rate applicable in the respective country. Institutions and holders of VAT registration number not based in the Italy can have the VAT charge recorded under the EU reverse charge method, this means VAT does not need to be added to the invoice. You are required to supply us the VAT registration number.
If you would like your article to be published open access, but you genuinely cannot afford this fee, then individual waiver requests are considered on a case-bycase basis and may be granted in cases of genuine need. Priority for this waiver programme will be given to applications by authors from countries eligible for the Research4Life programme (see www.research4life.org/institutions.html).
If you do not have funds to pay such fees, you will have an opportunity to waive each fee. We do not want fees to prevent the publication of worthy work.
