Guide to Authors

The Editorial Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to International Journal of Nursing Research alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the International Journal of Nursing Research readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in International Journal of Nursing Research are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.

Clinical trial registry

International Journal of Nursing Research favors registration of clinical trials and is a signatory to the Statement on publishing clinical trials in Indian biomedical journals. Indian Journal of Continuing Nursing Education would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: http://www.ctri.in/; http://www.actr.org.au/; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/:  http://isrctn.org/ http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp and http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr . 

This is applicable to clinical trials that have begun enrollment of subjects in or after June 2008. Clinical trials that have commenced enrollment of subjects prior to June 2008 would be considered for publication in International Journal of Nursing Research only if they have been registered retrospectively with clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to public without charging any fees.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below:

  1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
  2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3. Final approval of the version to be published.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors. The journal prescribes a maximum number of authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope and number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should provide a justification, if the number of authors exceeds these limits.

Contribution Details

Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review. Authors' contributions will be printed along with the article. One or more author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'.

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests

All authors of must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or is important to the outcome of the study presented. Authors should also disclose conflict of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

Submission of Manuscripts

All manuscripts must be submitted on-line through the website http://innovationalpublishers.com/Journal/ijnr/ First time users will have to register at this site. Registration is free but mandatory. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their user name and password.

Article processing charge:

If you experience any problems, please contact the editorial office by e-mail at [email protected] The submitted manuscripts that are not as per the “Instructions to Authors” would be returned to the authors for technical correction, before they undergo editorial/ peer-review. Generally, the manuscript should be submitted in the form of two separate files

[1] Title Page/First Page File/covering letter:

This file should provide

  1. The type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, Letter to editor, Images, etc.) title of the manuscript, running title, names of all authors/ contributors (with their highest academic degrees, designation and affiliations) and name(s) of department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited. All information which can reveal your identity should be here. Use text/rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files.
  2. The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references, tables and abstract), word counts for introduction + discussion in case of an original article;
  3. Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these;
  4. Acknowledgement, if any.

One or more statements should specify

1) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair;

2) acknowledgments of technical help; and

3) acknowledgments of financial and material support, which should specify the nature of the support. This should be included in the title page of the manuscript and not in the main article file.

  1. If the manuscript was presented as part at a meeting, the organization, place, and exact date on which it was read. A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant publication of the same or very similar work. Any such work should be referred to specifically, and referenced in the new paper. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted paper, to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.
  2. Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and its URL)
  3. Conflicts of Interest of each author/ contributor. A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself or in an authors' form
  4. Criteria for inclusion in the authors’/ contributors’ list
  5. A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work, if that information is not provided in another form (see below); and
  6. The name, address, e-mail, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that information is not included on the manuscript itself.

[2] Blinded Article file: The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract Till References (including tables) should be in this file. The file must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgements. Page headers/running title can include the title but not the authors' names. Manuscripts not in compliance with the Journal's blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. Use rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 1 MB. Do not incorporate images in the file. If file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.

[3] Images: Submit good quality color images. Each image should be less than 2 MB in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1600 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images can be submitted as jpeg files. Do not zip the files. Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file.

[4] The contributors' / copyright transfer form (template provided below) has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks of submission via courier, fax or email as a scanned image. Print ready hard copies of the images (one set) or digital images should be sent to the journal office at the time of submitting revised manuscript. High resolution images (up to 5 MB each) can be sent by email.

Contributors’ form / copyright transfer form can be submitted online from the authors’ area on http://innovationalpublishers.com/Journal/ijnr/ .

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to International Journal of Nursing Research (IJNR)" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (October 2008). The uniform requirements and specific requirement of International Journal of Nursing Research (IJNR) are summarized below. Before submitting a manuscript, contributors are requested to check for the latest instructions available. Instructions are also available from the website of the journal (http://innovationalpublishers.com/Journal/ijnr/) and from the manuscript submission site http://innovationalpublishers.com/Journal/ijnr/SubmitPaper ). International Journal of Nursing Research (IJNR) accepts manuscripts written in American English.

Copies of any permission(s)

It is the responsibility of authors/ contributors to obtain permissions for reproducing any copyrighted material. A copy of the permission obtained must accompany the manuscript. Copies of any and all published articles or other manuscripts in preparation or submitted elsewhere that are related to the manuscript must also accompany the manuscript.

Type of Paper

Original article:  Original Research article should include Title, Abstract, Introduction, Methods and Materials, statistic analysis, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements and References, graphical abstract. The manuscript should not be exceeding 30 typewritten pages including tables and figures.

Review articles: Review articles are welcome but should be typical and not just an overview of the literature. Moreover, the review should discuss in the short length and with the help of figures and tables.

Opinions & Perspectives: Opinions & Perspectives: on topics of current and future interest by renowned scientists, researchers are welcomed.

Polices: Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with "Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to International Journal of Nursing Research (IJNR)" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION: Authors should avoid unnecessary errors and are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor. Manuscripts should be typewritten in Times New Roman, font 12, Title shall be in a font size 14. All section titles in the manuscript shall be in font size 12, boldface capitals. Subtitles in each section shall be in font size 12, boldface lower case followed by a colon. Double spacing all portions of the manuscript— including the title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, individual tables, and legends—and margins 2 cm on each side. Authors should number all of the pages of the manuscript consecutively, beginning with the title page (excluding the abstract page).

Title Page:

Title: Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Concise titles are easier to read than long, convoluted ones. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

Author's name and institutional affiliations: The full name of the authors should be clearly mentioned. In addition, present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names and disclaimers, if any.

Corresponding author: corresponding address should be provided. The name of the corresponding author should be clearly indicated who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication.

Moreover,

Ensure that the author name should be given first, then author title, affiliation, the complete name of the institution, city, postcode, province, country, and phone no, fax no, and email address.

Supportive foundations: The corresponding author of a manuscript for IJNR has the duty to ensure that all the named authors have seen and approved the original and any revised version of the paper and is in agreement with its content before it is submitted to the Editorial Office.

The complete name and number of supportive foundations should be provided. Running title: the running title should be short and indicate the major content of the article.

Conflict-of-Interest Notification: To prevent the information on potential conflicts of interest from being overlooked or misplaced, it needs to be part of the manuscript. Thus, all authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal, or other relationships with other people or organizations for the study. However, it should also be included on a separate page or pages immediately following the title page.

Abstract: The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results, and major conclusions. It should not be more than 250 words.

Keywords: Following the abstract, provide a maximum of 5-6 keywords, which reflect the content of the study.

Introduction: Provide a context or background for the study (that is, the nature of the problem and its significance). State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. It should not be more than 2-3 pages.

Material and methods: The Methods section should include only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was being written; all information obtained during the study belongs in the Results section. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference.

Statistics: Statistics is mandatory for this journal. Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results.

Results: Results should be clear and concise form. Do not repeat the same result again and again. The extra or supplementary material should be expressed as figs, tables etc. The explanation should be step-wise and must be Logical.

Discussion and Conclusions: Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Briefly summarize and explain all results. In particular, avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless the manuscript includes the appropriate economic data and analyses. The conclusions of the study may be presented in a short.

Acknowledgments: The corresponding author should also ensure that all those who have contributed to the research are acknowledged appropriately either as a co-author. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., research assistance, providing language help, writing articles etc).

References: Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source. Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa).

Reference Style and Format: References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. Text: Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets [Reference no] in line with the text. Some examples;

[1] Author (1), author (2) and author (3), year, title, the name of the journal (In short, as mentioned on PUBMED), volume no; page no from-to.

[2] Rastogi A, Stavchansky S, and Bowman PD, 2012 Prolonged Release of the Local Anesthetic Butamben for Potential Use in Pain Management, Pharmacol & Pharmacy, 3;291-294

[3] Fassett RG, Venuthurupalli SK and Gobe CG et al., 2012, Biomarkers in chronic kidney disease: a review, kidney inter, DOI (if not yet generate volume no and the page no).

[4] Stachurska A, Kozakowska M, and Jozkowicz A, 2011, Aristolochic acid I and ochratoxin A differentially regulate VEGF expression in porcine kidney epithelial cells—The involvement of SP-1 and HIFs transcription factors, Tox Letters, 204;118–126.

Tables: Tables capture information concisely and display it efficiently; they also provide information at any desired level of detail and precision. Type each table with double spacing on a separate sheet of paper. Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table and give proper heading on the table. Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. All units should be mentioned as per the requirement.

Abbreviations: Use only standard abbreviations; the use of nonstandard abbreviations can be confusing to readers.

Galley Proofs: The Electronic proofs will be sent (e-mail attachment) to the corresponding author as a PDF file. Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. If the corresponding author is not satisfied or found a mistake, can send the manuscript back to the journal for necessary correction. The authors will have free electronic access to the full text (in both HTML and PDF) of the article.

Copyright: The entire contents of the International Journal of Nursing Research (IJNR) are protected under Indian and international copyrights. However, the Journal grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International Public License.

All accepted manuscripts must be accompanied by a signed copyright form to progress through to the final stages of production.

Manuscript Article processing charge: The journal does not charge for submission and processing of the manuscripts. Article processing charge: Foreigner 350 USD or Rs. 3500 for Indians (from 1 January 2022).

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

  1. Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.
  2. If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity, or a description that has obvious indication to the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.
  3. To protect the patient's identity, the recognizable facial features not related to the study should be digitally blurred
  4. Written informed consent is the preferred method for obtaining consent. If verbal consent is obtained, the authors must ensure that the verbal consent is recorded in the medical case record of the patient and duly signed by witness.

Sending a revised manuscript

The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the “First Page” or “Covering Letter” file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the ‘referees’ remarks along with point to point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.

Scientific Misconduct

If plagiarism is detected after publication, the Journal will investigate the same, and if established, the authors' institution and funding bodies would be notified, and the article will be retracted. To report plagiarism, please contact the Journal office, preferably through email for better documentation of correspondence.

For duplicate publication, fabricated data, undisclosed conflict of interest, plagiarism and/or other issues of publication and scientific misconduct, IJNR follows the guidance produced by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

IJNM endeavors to avoid all possible misconduct. All manuscripts are checked for plagiarism using Google. If the Editor or a reviewer is concerned that some aspect of a submitted article may constitute a misconduct in research, publication or professional behavior, the Journal communicates the same to the author(s) and seeks clarification. However, if the concerns are not satisfactorily resolved by discussion with the author(s), the Journal may report the same to appropriate authorities such as their institutions and, for duplicate publication, the journal in which the previous publication had appeared.

The Journal also encourages its readers to report any published article in which they suspect misconduct through e-mail or letter. Anonymity of the complainant would be maintained at all times.

Reprints and proofs

Journal provides no free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs.

Publication schedule

The journal publishes articles on its website quarterly of the issue a year (Four issues a year) on acceptance.

Copyrights

The entire contents of the International Journal of Nursing Research (IJNR) are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 Unported License.

Checklist

Covering letter

  • Signed by all contributors
  • Previous publication / presentations mentioned
  • Source of funding mentioned
  • Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors

  • Last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
  • Author for correspondence, with e-mail address provided
  • Number of contributors restricted as per the instructions
  • Identity not revealed in paper except title page (e.g. name of the institute in Methods, citing previous study as 'our study', names on figure labels, name of institute in photographs, etc.)

Presentation and format

  • Double spacing • Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
  • Page numbers included at bottom
  • Title page contains all the desired information
  • Running title provided (not more than 50 characters)
  • Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
  • Abstract provided (structured abstract of 250 words for original articles, unstructured abstracts of about 150 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor)
  • Key words provided (three or more)
  • Introduction of 75-100 words
  • Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
  • The references cited in the text should be after punctuation marks, in superscript with square bracket.
  • References according to the journal's instructions, punctuation marks checked
  • Send the article file without ‘Track Changes’

Language and grammar

  • Uniformly American English
  • Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 spelt out
  • Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelt out
  • Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
  • If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
  • Species names should be in italics

Tables and figures

  • No repetition of data in tables and graphs and in text
  • Actual numbers from which graphs drawn, provided
  • Figures necessary and of good quality (colour)
  • Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)
  • Labels pasted on back of the photographs (no names written)
  • Figure legends provided (not more than 40 words)
  • Patients' privacy maintained (if not permission taken)
  • Credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided
  • Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote.