  Star-forming and starburst galaxies, which are well-known cosmic-rays
reservoirs, are expected to emit gamma-rays and neutrinos predominantly via
hadronic collisions. In this Letter, we analyze the 10-year Fermi-LAT spectral
energy distributions of 13 nearby galaxies by means of a physical model which
accounts for high-energy proton transport in starburst nuclei and includes the
contribution of primary and secondary electrons. In particular, we test the
hypothesis that the observed gamma-ray fluxes are mostly due to star-forming
activity, in agreement with the available star formation rates coming from IR
and UV observations. Through this observation-based approach, we determine the
most-likely neutrino counterpart from star-forming and starburst galaxies and
quantitatively assess the ability of current and upcoming neutrino telescopes
to detect them as point-like sources. Remarkably, we find that the cores of the
Small Magellanic Cloud and the Circinus galaxy are potentially observable by
KM3NeT/ARCA with 6 years of observation. Moreover, most of the nearby galaxies
are likely to be just a factor of a few below the KM3NeT and IceCube-Gen2
point-like sensitivities. After investigating the prospects for detection of
gamma-rays above TeV energies from these sources, we conclude that the joint
observations of high-energy neutrinos and gamma-rays with upcoming telescopes
will be an objective test for our emission model and may provide compelling
evidence of star-forming activity as a tracer of neutrino production.
