Guide for Author

Author Guidelines

We differentiate between the requirements for new and revised submissions. You may choose to submit your manuscript as a single Word file to be used in the refereeing process. Only when your paper is at the revision stage, you will be requested to put your paper in to a 'correct format' for acceptance and provide the items required for the publication of your article.

TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT

Original Articles

Original Articles should report original clinical studies or research not previously published or being considered for publication elsewhere. The text should not exceed 7000 words, including list of authors and their affiliations, corresponding author, acknowledgements and figure legends, with an abstract of maximum 250 words, a list of minimum 25 references primarily from international journal indexed by Scopus or Web of Science, and maximum 5 figures/tables (see below for more details on the layout).

Systematic Reviews

Systematic Reviews are exhaustive, critical assessments of evidence from different data sources in relation to a given subject in the areas of nursing. A systematic search of the relevant data sources should be carried out and the items collected should be carefully evaluated for inclusion based on a-priori defined inclusion/exclusion criteria. A description and an analytical graphic representation of the process should be provided. The specific features of the participants' or patients' populations of the studies included in the review should be described as well as the measures of exposure and outcome with the indication of the corresponding data sources. A structured abstract is required (like for Short reviews). The text must not exceed 7000 words including the acknowledgments, with no more than 4 tables and/or figures and minimum 40 references.

Meta-analyses

Meta-analyses should follow the same guidelines as for systematic reviews. They are expected to provide exhaustive information and statistical assessment of pooled estimates of pre-defined outcomes, study heterogeneity and quality, possible publication bias, meta-regression and subgroup analyses when appropriate. Depending on the type of study, Authors are invited to submit PRISMA flow diagrams or MOOSE checklists. Both systematic reviews and meta-analyses will be dealt with ordinarily as original articles as far as the editorial process is concerned.

TITLE AND AUTHORSHIP

The title should describe the summary of the research (concise, informative, no abbreviation, and maximum 12 words).

Authorship of articles should be limited to those who have contributed sufficiently to take public responsibility for the contents. Full names of authors (without academic title); author's affiliation [name(s) of department(s) and institution(s)]; corresponding author's name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address. Corresponding author is the person responsible for correspondence during the publication process  and post publication.

ABSTRACT

Abstracts should be less than 250 words, and should not include references or abbreviations. They should be concise and precise with enough information, highlighting the points and importance of the article. In general they should include the following:

  • Introduction: One or two sentences of background and purpose of study.
  • Method: describe the research design, settings (please do not mention the actual location, but use geographic type or number if necessary); Participants (details of how selected, inclusion and exclusion criteria, numbers entering and leaving the study, relevant clinical and demographic characteristics).
  • Results: report main outcome(s) /findings including (where relevant) levels of statistical significance and confidence intervals.
  • Conclusions: should relate to study aims and hypotheses.
  • Keyword: Provide between three and five key words in alphabetical order, which accurately identify the paper's subject, purpose, method and focus.

TEXT

The text should be structured as introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion. Footnotes are not advisable; their contents should rather be incorporated into the text. Use only standard abbreviations; use of nonstandard abbreviations can be confusing to readers. Avoid abbreviations in the title of the manuscript. The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on first mention unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measurement. If a sentence begins with a number, it should be spelled out.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT (OPTIONAL)

Acknowledgments should be limited to appropriate professionals who contributed to the paper, including technical help and financial or material support, also general support by a department chair-person.

TABLES AND FIGURES

Tables should be numbered in arabic numerals, captions should be brief, clearly indicating the purpose or content of each table. If your manuscript includes more than 5 tables in total, or for very large tables, these can be submitted as Supplementary Data and will be included as such in the online version of your article.

REPORTING GUIDELINE

Reporting guidelines supported by journals are listed below: