Journal/Authors Guidelines for JNS

Authors Guidelines for JNS

The Journal of Nursing Science is a biannual refereed journal that publishes original research and scholarly work that contributes to the development and understanding of all aspects of nursing. Suitable manuscripts undergo a double blind peer review process to determine suitability for publication. The editor makes the final decision regarding acceptance of a manuscript for publication.

Acceptance Criteria

The Journal welcomes submissions of evidence-based clinical application papers and descriptions of best clinical practices, original research reports, case studies, narratives, commentaries, and other manuscripts on a variety of clinical and professional topics. In summary, we welcome the following range of other submissions:
• Research Papers.
• Short Reports.
• Study Protocols.
• Letter to the Editor.
• Review Articles and Systematic Reviews.
• Editorials and Commentaries (invitation by the Editor in Chief and editorial members, but we will consider unsolicited proposals).

Manuscript Length
• Original research, practice or education articles: 4,000 words including abstract and acknowledgments.
• Special reports: 2,000 words.
• Short stories/commentary from the field/letters to the Editors: 1,500 words.
• Figures and tables supplementary material is kept to a minimum and should not exceed three for each.
 Note: A word count for the text only (excluding figures, tables and references)

Style

Manuscripts should be written in English (British or American) as long as consistency is observed. The manuscript is to be typewritten in 12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced and numbered pages. Abbreviations should be used sparingly and only where they reduce the repetition of long, technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, use the abbreviation. Drugs should be referred to by their generic names, rather than brand names.

Inserts

Figures, graphs and tables should be numbered and presented at the end of the manuscript with indication of their location in the text.

Title Page

The title page should carry the following information; the author/s given name and surname; qualifications; present position; place of work; postal address; email address; and phone number/s. An author should be identified with whom the editorial team can correspond. Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these Presentation of the Manuscript Research manuscripts should generally be presented under the following headings
• Title
conveys the nature of the paper and does not exceed 12 words, informative and contain the major key words, including the country (countries) where the project took place.
• Key Words
Up to six essential words.
• Abstract
All articles must have a brief abstract not more than 250 words. It should provide the context or background for the study and should state the study’s purpose, basic procedures main findings. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study and implications for practice. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references, and should not be written in various sections under headings..
•  Introduction
This should establish the relevance of the particular research and set the scene for the paper. A literature review should be included either as part of the introduction or as a separate section.
• Method / Methodology
Sufficient detailed methodology should be provided to describe and justify the approach and demonstrate rigor.
• Findings
This should describe the results as fully as possible and explain their relevance to nursing. Limitations of the study should also be highlighted.
• Discussion
This section should draw the findings together and demonstrate how they relate to the original aims of the study.
• Conclusion
The author/s provides a is section should draw the findings together, demonstrate how they relate to the original aims of the study, and make recommendations.
• Recommendations
Where recommendations are made they should be grounded in the substantive content of the paper.

Acknowledgements

The source of financial grants and other funding should be acknowledged, including a frank declaration of the authors' industrial links and affiliations. The contribution of institutions also should be acknowledged. Acknowledgements given to anonymous reviewers are not allowed.

Reference list

Within your article cite primary references only. No more than 30 references are to be used. Seek out and use the most current and up-to-date references (evidence) in your text; Matters of fact that are well-established in nursing, such as normal pulse rate ranges, don not need to be referenced. In formatting your cited references, follow the standards set for references only in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, sixth edition (APA) but also add in the volume number for the publication when available.

Web addresses

The full web address should be included followed by the date accessed in brackets

General Points

1. Manuscripts: should be submitted as attachment by email to the Editor in Chief. Authors must supply an email address as all correspondence will be by email. At least two files should be supplied: a cover letter to the Editors in Chief and the manuscript (in Word format ) The letter should be uploaded as a file not for review
2. nbsp;Submissions should be one and half-spaced
3. All margins should be at least 30 mm
4. All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page.
5. Turn the hyphenation option off; include only those hyphens that are essential to the meaning.
6. The cover letter to the Editors in Chief should declare that:
- ALL or part of the manuscript, has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
- All authors approve the content of the manuscript and have contributed significantly to research involved/ the writing of the manuscript.
- The protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted research ethics committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken. You must give the proper title of the committee(s) in the cover letter as well as the manuscript.
- All participants gave informed consent for the research, and that their anonymity was preserved; and Any financial or personal matters that may pose a conflict of interest.
- Statistic validity If complicated statistical data are provided, the authors may be requested to submit a statement issued by a certified statistician regarding the validity of methods used

The Review Process

All submitted manuscripts will go under anonymous pee-review process. Authors are expected to hear from the Editor-in –chief within 2 months.

Plagiarism Policy

Respecting intellectual property rights is a foundational principle of Ethics. Plagiarism, in which one misrepresents ideas, words, computer codes or other creative expression as one's own, is a clear violation of such ethical principles. Plagiarism can also represent a violation of copyright law, punishable by statute. Plagiarism manifests itself in a variety of forms; including Self-plagiarism is a related issue. Self-plagiarism is defined as the verbatim or near-verbatim reuse of significant portions of one's own copyrighted work without citing the original source. Note that self-plagiarism does not apply to publications based on the author's own previously copyrighted work (e.g., appearing in a conference proceedings) where an explicit reference is made to the prior publication. Such reuse does not require quotation marks to delineate the reused text but does require that the source be cited. Plagiarism in any form, at any level, is unacceptable and is considered a serious breach of professional conduct, with potentially severe ethical and legal consequences. All manuscript will be checked for plagiarism using various approached.