Author Guidelines

Publication Ethics

Overview

Publication of scientific work and its proper transmission to scientific community, researchers and general public needs certain Ethical Standards to be followed. These standards ensure that credit of high quality scientific work goes to the people who have generated that idea and worked for it. This is also necessary to win public trust in scientific findings. Pakistan Journal of Nursing (PJN) abides by Code of Conduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and aims to adhere to its Best Practice Guidelines.

Plagiarism

PJN is committed to publishing only original material, i.e., material that has neither been published elsewhere, nor is under review elsewhere. PJN uses the Turnitin software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized from a manuscript by other authors, whether published or unpublished, will incur plagiarism sanctions.

Duplicate Submission

Manuscripts that are found to have been published elsewhere, or to be under review elsewhere, will incur duplicate submission/publication sanctions. If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they are required to cite the previous work and indicate how their submitted manuscript offers novel contributions beyond those of the previous work.

Citation Manipulation

Submitted manuscripts that are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, will incur citation manipulation sanctions.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Submitted manuscripts that are found to have either fabricated or falsified experimental results, including the manipulation of images, will incur data fabrication and falsification sanctions.

Improper Author Contribution or Attribution

All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians.

Redundant Publications

Redundant publications involve the inappropriate division of study outcomes into several articles.

Sanctions

In the event that there are documented violations of any of the above mentioned policies in any journal, regardless of whether or not the violations occurred for PJN, the following sanctions will be applied:

1. Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript.
2. Immediate rejection of every other manuscript submitted to PJN by any of the authors of the infringing manuscript.
3. Prohibition against all of the authors for any new submissions to PJN, either individually or in combination with other authors of the infringing manuscript, as well as in combination with any other authors. This prohibition will be imposed for a minimum of 36 months.
4. Prohibition against all of the authors from serving on the Editorial Board of PJN.
5. In cases where the violations of the above policies are found to be particularly flagrant, the publisher reserves the right to impose additional sanctions beyond those described above.

Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

General: The manuscript including all tables should be formatted in Microsoft Word or a text-only file and must conform to acceptable English language. The manuscript should be prepared double-spaced with 0.5 inch margin on both side and 1 inch margin at bottom and top. Standard abbreviations shall be used consistently throughout the article. Abbreviations shall be spelled out the first time they appear in the text and followed in parentheses by the abbreviation. All pages should be numbered starting from the title page in the upper right corner of each page.

Title Page: The title page should be included in all manuscripts which includes the type of article (i.e. original article/ case report/ review article etc.), title of manuscript, author’s full name in order of priority, highest earned academic degrees, institutional affiliations and location. Postal address, contact telephone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail address of corresponding author should be given at the bottom of the page. The contribution of each author in manuscript should be mentioned separately.

Original Article: Text for original articles shall not exceed 5000 words and manuscript should be prepared under following headings starting from separate page i.e. Title page, Structured abstract, Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement, Funding source, Contribution of authors, Conflict of interest and References.

Structured Abstract: Should not exceed 250 words and use following subheadings:  Objectives, Study design, Place & duration, Methodology, Results, Conclusion and Key words (3 to 5). The abstract shall not contain data not presented in the manuscript.

Introduction: Should contain brief review of the topic with strictly relevant references and historical background and the rationale and the objectives of the study shall be mentioned at the end.

Methodology: Should be started with study design as well as place and duration of the study. It should clearly state inclusion and exclusion criteria of the subjects. The methods and the apparatus used should be identified (with manufacturer’s name and address in the parenthesis), and procedures described in sufficient detail to make a clear understanding of methodology to the readers. Well-established methods shall be cited with references. Statistical tools used for analysis of results shall also be mentioned with enough detail to enable the readers or researchers to verify the reported findings. Subheading and numbering in different criteria should be avoided as far as possible unless essentially required.

Results: Important findings must be narrated in the text with tables and explained in logical sequence in percentages as well as numeric [e.g. 23.37 % (n=32) or 23.37%, n=32]. Only important observations should be emphasized in precise manner and repetitions shall be avoided. Table number should be mentioned in text while describing its findings. Tables, Bar graphs or Pie diagrams should not be more than five and lengthy tables containing irrelevant information should be avoided.

Discussion: The findings should be compared with already existing local and international literature supported with references. It should emphasize the new and important aspects, implications and any limitations of the study. The discussion should be crisp and to the point, keeping in view the aims and objective of the study.

Conclusion/ Recommendations: Should be specific towards the objectives of study and in author’s own interpretation. It should not be linked to other studies.

If author(s) want(s) to present appropriate recommendations or suggestions, these may be included after conclusion section under separate heading.

Acknowledgements: Persons who have contributed intellectually or technically to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be named and their function or contribution shall be clearly described. For example “scientific advisor”, “Critical review of study proposal”, “data collection” or “participation in the clinical trial”. Such persons must have permitted to be named.

References:  List must be numbered serially in the order in which the references appear in the text and typed double-spaced on separate sheets. References shall be latest (preferably last 10 year) national and international, up to 20-25, cited in Vancouver’s style in conformation the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” (http://www.icmje.org).

Example: References citations to periodicals should include, in the following order: names of the first 6 authors (then et al), title, journal, year, volume, and pages e.g.

• Iqbal Z. Evidence based nursing care in Pakistan. Pak J Nurs. 218; 1(1): 71-8.

Journal abbreviations must follow the style used in Cumulated Index Medicus. Book references shall include, in the following order: names of the first 6 authors, chapter title, editor(s) book title, volume (if any), edition (if any), city, publisher, year and pages of citation (if any); for example:

• Inayat S. Ward sanitation practices. In: Iqbal Z, Javed S, Smith D, editors. Role of quality education in nursing. St. Louis: Mosby; 2015.p.103-55.

Meanwhile, reference to chapter in book shall be given in following order:

• Inayat S. Performing medical handwashing. In: Iqbal Z, Smith DJ, eds. Handbook of nursing care and education. St. Louis: CV Mosby, 2015:102-15.

Illustrations: Figure may be submitted in electronic format, each on separate page at the end of manuscript and shall be numbered in the order they are mentioned in the text. They should be labeled appropriately at bottom and numbered in Roman numerals (i.e. I, II). All images should be at least 5 inches wide in JPEG, GIF, PNG or PDF format in minimum 600 dpi.  Suitable figure legends shall be typewritten double spaced on a separate sheet of paper and included at the end of the manuscript. If a figure has been taken from previously copyrighted material, the legend must give full credit to the original source and letter of permission must be submitted with the manuscript.

Tables & Graphs:  Shall be self-explanatory and should be numbered in the order of their mention in the text and should not be more than five in number. Provide a brief title for each table/graph along with number in Roman numerals (i.e. I, II) at the top for table and at the bottom for graphs. Place each table on a separate page of manuscript at the end. Abbreviations shall be defined in a double-spaced footnote at the end of the table. If any material in a table or a table itself has been taken from previously copyright material, a double-spaced footnote must give full credit to the original source and permission of the author and publisher must be obtained. Send letters of permission to the Editor with the manuscript.

Measurements: All measurements should be in international standard metric units.

Case Reports: Only those case reports which are original and likely to significantly influence nursing practice preferably with original figures or illustrations etc. are considered for publication. It shall include a detailed analysis of the case and a review of the available literature. Case report text should not be more than 1500 words containing not more than 20 latest references. It should be written under following subheadings in sequence: title page, brief non structured abstract, Key words, introduction, case report, discussion, conclusion and references. It is better to put original pictures of patient (with findings), procedure, X-ray, US etc. and they should be anonymized according to standard guidelines.

Review articles: Substantive reviews of nursing and biomedical topics will be considered for publication. Some current issue or topic should be thoroughly reviewed covering all aspects in brief. It should not be more than 4000 words and maximum of 40 latest national and international references are allowed.

Editorial: It should be a brief, substantial commentary on special subjects limited to 2000 words (including references and tables).

Letter to Editor: Brief letters or notes to the Editor regarding recently published material or information of timely interest are accepted for publication. A response to the letter will be requested from the authors of the article in question and both the letter and the response will be published together. Letter shall be no longer than 500 words including 5 to 7 references and one table or figure.

Short communication: should have a maximum of 1000 words excluding structured abstract of 100-150 words with 3-4 key words and one table or figure. Communication regarding a research study should be written in plain text (without heading) but containing brief methodology, results and discussion in separate paragraphs and references (up to 10.) short communication regarding some topic review should comprise of non structured abstract, discussion and references.

Undertaking

Any author interested to get his/her manuscript / research work published in PJN has to submit and undertaking (PJN-F001) that this work is original and neither published in parts nor as a whole elsewhere. If any sort of plagiarism is detected at any stage then appropriate action will be taken against the responsible Author as per PJN Plagiarism Policy.

Ethical Approval

Author should identify that informed consent was obtained when applicable. The manuscript should also include the notation that the study was approved by the institutional committee on human research. Photographs of identifiable persons must be accompanied by signed releases showing informed consent. When reporting experiments of human subjects, it should be clearly indicated whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, revised in 1983. Patient’s names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material should not be used. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution or a national research council’s guidelines for or any national law on, the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. All clinical research papers must be accompanied by evidence of peer review. The date of project approval, when available, should also be included. Author has to submit evidence of his research or study approval from Institutional Ethical Committee.

Conflict of Interest

Authors of manuscripts submitted to Pakistan Journal of Nursing must inform about funding sources for the research they intend to publish. They shall also disclose any associations that might be construed as a conflict of interest (stock ownership, consultancies, etc.)

Review Process of PJN

PJN has a uniform and structured, double blind peer-review process during which all manuscripts go through certain steps before a manuscript is accepted for publication. A manuscript goes through following steps during PJN review process:

1. After receiving a manuscript online, an acknowledgement email will be automatically sent to the corresponding author, mentioning a unique reference No. allotted to that manuscript which will be used for future correspondence. After this, manuscript will be sent for initial editorial review, to assess whether the submitted manuscript is written according to PJN authors guidelines and format and suitable for review or not. If manuscript is found suitable for further processing the correspondence author is informed within 02 weeks regarding acceptance for further processing otherwise the author is asked to re-submit his manuscript after making necessary amendments as per PJN guidelines and format.
2. After editorial review, the manuscript will be sent to the plagiarism committee for evaluating its Similarity Index (SI) using Turnitin software. This process takes 02 weeks. If SI is found more than 19% (permissible limit set by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan), the manuscript will be sent back to author for necessary amendments or comments otherwise the manuscript will be sent to next step of the review process.
3. In next step, the manuscript will be sent to two reviewers (one internal/one external) of concerned specialty who will review the manuscript meticulously keeping in view all technical details. The reviewers will submit their review report within 6-8 weeks.
4. After receiving the reviewers’ comments, the correspondence author will be informed immediately about the reviewers’ comments and asked to make necessary amendments in manuscript in the light of reviewers’ comments or give their reflection where they don’t agree with the reviewer’s comments within two weeks.
5. After receiving the amended version  from author, the manuscript will be evaluated by the editorial committee to see whether necessary amendments advised by reviewers  were incorporated in the manuscript properly or not and whether the  manuscript needs further review or not. This process will take two weeks to complete.
6. If the editorial board decides that manuscript needs no further amendments or review, then the corresponding author will be informed about the acceptance of manuscript for publication through email and the galley proof of accepted manuscript is finally sent to the author for final proof reading.
7. After receiving galley proof from author, the manuscript will be shortlisted for forthcoming issues and put in priority list which will be decided by editorial board and author will be informed regarding volume and issue number of the PJN.
8. The accepted print version of manuscript will be uploaded on the PJN website in Ahead of Publication domain.

Please note that minimum duration of the process of manuscript is about six months but it varies depending upon the response from reviewers and author.