Information for authors

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

INTRODUCTION

Journal of Nursing, Social Studies, Public Health and Rehabilitation is an international scientific peer-reviewed transdisciplinary journal covering the fields of nursing, health and social sciences, public health, social medicine, preventive medicine and related areas.

Aim and scope of the manuscripts

The editorial board of Journal of Nursing, Social Studies, Public Health and Rehabilitation takes under consideration for publication: original articles, review articles, and case reports from all fields covered by the journal. Articles from the field of nursing and health and social studies will be prioritized.

Submission of papers

It is understood that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its essential substance, tables or figures have been published previously in print form or electronically and are not under consideration by any other publication or electronic medium. All manuscripts submitted for publication should be written in clear, plain and good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of both). In cases where the corresponding author is not a native speaker, we strongly recommend having the manuscript approved by a native English speaker. The Journal of Nursing, Social Studies, Public Health and Rehabilitation undertakes no language correction. Correct English language throughout the manuscript is entirely the responsibility of the author. Papers with insufficient English language will be rejected by the Editor-in-Chief immediately after submission, and will be returned to the author without further processing. All authors must submit a statement signed by the first author that the work has not been published previously or submitted elsewhere for review and copyright transfer.

BEFORE SUBMISSION

Ethics in publishing

The Editors and the Publisher support the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, as revised in 1983, and expect that the authors of manuscripts submitted to the Journal will have obtained ethical consent and followed those legal and regulatory requirements for human experimentation with drugs, including informed consent, according to procedures which apply in their institution and country. If the work involves the use of experiments on animals, please indicate whether any guides (of the institution or national research council) or national laws on the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure of biomedical financial interests and potential conflicts of interest All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence/bias their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include any arrangements they may have with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product. Journal policy requires that reviewers, associate editors, editors, and senior editors reveal in a letter to the Editor-in-Chief any relationships that they have that could be construed as causing a conflict of interest with regard to a manuscript. The letter should include a statement of any financial relationships with commercial companies involved.

Authorship and responsibility

The intellectual content of the paper is the sole responsibility of the author. The Editors and the Publisher accept no responsibility for the opinions and statements of the authors. While every effort will be made by the Editors and the Publisher to avoid inaccurate and misleading data, they accept no liability whatsoever for the consequence of inaccurate information. The authors undertake to keep the Editor and the Publisher fully and effectually indemnified against any liability of claims that may arise from the publication of inaccurate and/or unsubstantiated results.

Copyright

The author has to transfer the world copyright of their manuscript to the Journal of Nursing, Social Studies, Public Health and Rehabilitation. All submitted manuscripts should therefore be accompanied by a statement signed by the first author that the article is original, is not under consideration elsewhere, and has not been previously published in another journal. Nevertheless, authors will be entitled to publish any part of their paper elsewhere without permission, provided it contains the usual acknowledgments and reference to the original source. Authors will be notified if a request to publish a part or whole of their paper is received. Illustrations, figures, tables or quotations from other publications are already copyrighted and can be reproduced only with written permission from the copyright owner. Written permission to use these should accompany the manuscript.

PREPARATION

Review process

All submitted manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editor-in-Chief. Those manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication are rejected promptly. Other manuscripts are sent to relevant senior scientists for peer review. The identities of both peer-reviewers and authors are kept confidential. The comments by the reviewers may be conveyed to the authors by the Editor, at his discretion. Manuscripts are reviewed with due respect for the author’s confi­dentiality. At the same time, reviewers also have rights to confidentiality, which are respected by the Editor. The Editor ensures both the authors and the reviewers that the manuscripts sent for review are privileged communications and private intellectual property of the author. When submitting a manuscript for consideration for publication, authors may suggest the names of potential reviewers of their choice. If an author for any reason wishes to withdraw his/her submitted manuscript from publication, the Editor will always respect this request unless the submitted and accepted manuscript has already passed publishing procedures. The original material of rejected articles will be returned to the author.

Article length and structure

Technical organization of the manuscript

The authors are advised to write clearly and simply, and to prepare the text without any graphical formatting (different types and sizes of fonts, dividing of text, page frames, bullet lists, incorporated graphs, pictures, macros etc.). When processing the manuscript, please use the following:

• Page size A4, 1.5 line spacing, 60 characters per line and 30 lines per page, font Times New Roman, size 12.
• Distinguish consistently between numbers 1 and 0 and letters O and I.
• In text use only parenthesis ( ); use square brackets [] only for reference citing.
• Always add a space after punctuation, never before.
• Use ENTER only when starting a new paragraph.
• Use only italic or bold formatting for highlighting the text; do not underline or change the character spacing of the text.
• When numbering paragraphs or lines do not use MS Word’s function “numbered lists”.
• All pages should be numbered consecutively at the bottom of the page in the middle using Arabic numerals, beginning with the title page.
• All additional material must be added after the main body of the manuscript (i.e. after the references), page size A4, 1.5 line spacing; 60 characters per line and 30 lines per page.
• The manuscript should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief in the electronic version by email, on CD or DVD.

Subdivision

The structure of the manuscript should be in the following sequence: (1) title page, (2) abstract (structured for Original papers and non-structured for Review Articles), (3) Key words, (4) abbreviations, (5) text including tables and figures (Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion), (6) Acknowledgments, (7) References. The use of footnotes is not permitted (numbered comments/footnotes can be added at the end of the main text, before the Reference section). There are no limits to the total word limit independently of the category (Original papers, Review papers, Case Reports, etc.). The Editors reserve the right to alter the manuscripts whenever necessary to make them conform to the stylistic and bibliographic conventions of the Journal of Nursing, Social Studies, Public Health and Rehabilitation.

Essential title page information

• Title. Concise and informative.
• “Running headline.” If necessary, place a running headline straight after the title with a maximum of 40 characters, including word spaces.
• Author names and affiliation. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that they are all accurately spelled. Present the authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Provide the full postal address, including the country name, including the e-mail address. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.

Abstract and Key words

Abstract and Key words follow directly after the Title page (no extra page) A structured abstract (Original articles) and non-structured abstract (Review papers) not exceeding 200 words should state what was done – objectives, methods, results, discussion and conclusion. Additional headings may be used. At least 5 to 8 Key words should be used, separated by semicolon (;). The next section can start directly after this on the same page.

Abbreviations and units

A list of abbreviations and symbols used in the manuscript should be spelled out in full. Abbreviations and symbols must be standard and SI units system (The International System of Units) should be used throughout. Drugs should be described by their official names, but trade names should be indicated in brackets (the first time a drug is quoted in the main text).

Main text

The text is conventionally divided into sections headed: Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Lengthy papers may require subheadings for clarification.

Introduction

State clearly the purpose of the paper. Do not review the subject extensively and give only pertinent references.

Material and methods

Describe your selection of the observational subjects (respondents) clearly. Describe the study population in detail. Identify the methods and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. If the methods used are new or substantially modified, describe them and state their limitations. When reporting research on human beings, the authors must include an assurance that the work was approved by a medical ethics committee and that the subjects gave their informed consent to participate (see Ethics in publishing).

Statistics

Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported details. The design of the study and the data sources should be clearly identified. The statistical methods used should be described so that it is clear which method was used and where. Give relevant references and additional details if nonstandard methods or analyses have been applied. The basic principle is to supply sufficient information about the design and analysis to allow the research to be repeated by someone else. The presentation of the analysis should include relevant summaries of the data, not just the results of significance testing. The use of confidence interval is encouraged.

Results

Do not repeat in the text all the data displayed in the tables or figures; only important observations should be emphasized or summarized.

Discussion

Emphasize only the new and important aspects and conclusions of the study, including the implications and the limitations of the findings and their relation to other relevant studies. Avoid unqualified statements and conclusions that are not supported by the data. Do not claim priority, and do not allude to work in progress. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such. Recommendations, when appropriate, may be included.

Conclusion

The conclusions should be clearly linked with the objectives of the study.

References

Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.

Citations in the text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either “Unpublished results” or “Personal communication”. Citation of a reference as “in press” implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Reference style

Text: All citations in the text should refer to:

1. Single author: the author’s name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two authors: both authors’ names and the year of publication;
3. Three or more authors: first author’s name followed by “et al.” and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically. Examples: “reports and open studies are available (Norton 2000, Edwards et al. 2001, Krusz and Stillman 2001). Mathew et al. (2000) used a fixed and relatively low dosage of valproate and accomplished…”

Reference list: References should be numbered and arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters “a”, “b”, “c”, etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Michalka P, Novotný J, Hassoun OE, Jakubovský J, Slobodníková L, Vician M, West DJ, Jr. (2008). Morphological relationship between macro- and microorganism. Coccidia in the appendix of rabbit. Journal of Nursing, Social Studies and Public Health. 9/2: 140–150.

Bužgová R (2008). Spokojenost seniorů s institucionální péčí v Moravskoslezkém kraji. Kontakt. 10/2: 257–263.

Reference to a book:

Ringsven MK, Bond D (1996). Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY). Delmar Publishers. 358 p.

Reference to a book with authors as editors:

Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors (1996). Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone. 298 p.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP (1995). Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh J, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press. p. 465–478.

Reference to conference proceedings:

Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors (1996). Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International congress of EM and Clinical Neurophysiology; Oct 15–19, 1995; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Reference to a conference paper:

Bengtsson S, Solheim BG (1992). Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Rienhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World congress on Medical informatics; Sept 6–10, 1992; Geneva, Switzerland. Amsterdam: North-Holland. p. 1561–1565.

Reference to dissertation thesis:

Kaplan SJ (1995): Post-hospital home health care: the elderly’s access and utilization (dissertation). St. Louis (MO): Washington Univ.

Reference to a website:

Národní rozvojový program mobility pro všechny; 2004. [online] [cit. 2005–02–21]. Available from: http://www.nrzp.cz/doc/NRPM.doc

Reference to an article in an online periodical:

Pomahač R (2003). Etika ve veřejné službě pro nové tisíciletí – recenze. Veřejná správa. 19: [online] [cit. 2003–05–07]. Available from: http://www.mvcr.cz/…recenze.html

Tables and figures (figures, illustrations, graphs, etc.)

Please submit tables and figures as editable text and not as images. Tables and figures should be placed next to the relevant text in the article. Number tables and figures consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text; provide them with a concise title and legend. Be sure that each table and figure is cited in the text. All tables and figures should be specifically referred to in the text, e.g. Table 3, Figure 3. Figures/illus­trations, etc. must be supplied with the manuscript by e-mail in high resolution (EPS (or PDF), TIFF (or JPEG) files are acceptable). All figures (figures, illustrations, photographs, representational drawings, graphs, etc.) must be professionally executed; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable.

Formats

Figures must be sent electronically as separate attachments: If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply “as is” in the native document format. In other cases please convert the figures to EPS (or PDF), TIFF (of JPEG) – bitmap raster images, keep to a minimum of 300 dpi. All exceptions to the above should be agreed upon after contacting the Technical Editor.

Acknowledgments

The scientific and material contributions of others to the work should be acknowledged. Any grant supports should be listed and permission for reproduction of Publisher material acknowledged. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from anyone acknowledged by name. The acknowledgments will be published as an appendix to the text.

After acceptance

Proofs

Before publication the corresponding author will receive a copy of the final version of the paper, which should be read carefully for errors and returned promptly. Proofs will be sent for the correction of typographic errors only. No other changes will be accepted. Proofs not returned within 7 days will be considered as approved by the author(s).

Doctoral theses and dissertations in brief

This Journal encourages the submission of important works by young investigators, researchers and practitioners. In this section the Editor wishes to recognize innovative research conducted during graduate and postgraduate studies. Each doctoral thesis or dissertation should contain an abstract and provide a concise synopsis (10 manuscript pages maximum) of the major findings presented in the final version.

Letters to the Editor

The Journal of Nursing, Social Studies and Public Health and Rehabilitation has a section carrying comments, questions, or criticism about articles that have been published and where the original authors can respond. This section takes the form of Letters to the Editor, where other topics and views from readers may also be published and discussed.

Supplements

Monographs or series of articles that have undergone regular scientific review, university approved theses, conference proceedings, symposia on related issues or topics, etc. may be printed as supplements to the Journal of Nursing, Social Studies, Public Health and Rehabilitation. Supplements are published as separate issues of the Journal and are negotiated in advance with the Editor-in-Chief, and must be prepaid prior to publication.