Author Guidelines

Nursing: theory, research, education is an electronic, peer-reviewed, scientific journal with the aim of publishing articles supporting the development of theory, research and education in nursing. It provides space for extension of nursing potential and its cooperation with related branches (midwifery, medical branches, psychology, sociology, bioethics and so on). The journal accepts original, so far unpublished research studies, theoretical studies and reviews of academic texts featuring contemporaneity and content relevance.

Manuscripts are accepted in Slovak, Czech or English. Authors hold responsibility for linguistic quality (language as well as grammar accuracy of the article).

Manuscripts can be sent in electronic form to the editorial board email address: redakcia@osetrovatelstvo.eu

Editorial board requires electronic submission of a manuscript as Word document (.doc, .docx). In case the author uses a programme different from MS Word, please contact the editorial board at the email address: redakcia@osetrovatelstvo.eu. The submission must be sent by the first author from their own email address due to further correspondence. The article will be divided by the author in two files:

1. title file (information on the authors and contact data) marked by the author in the form of surname_title.doc
2. article file (text of the article without any identification data on the authors) marked by the author in the form of surname­_text.doc

Submissions will be registered with the date of delivery of the electronic submission to the email address of the editorial board. The editorial board will confirm the submission within ten weekdays.

Concurrently it is necessary to send the author's declaration signed by all authors to the address:

Editorial board of the journal
Ošetrovateľstvo: teória, výskum, vzdelávanie
Ústav ošetrovateľstva JLF UK
prof. Katarína Žiaková, PhD.
Malá Hora 5
036 01 Martin

Published manuscripts become the property of the journal and each further printing in other publications is allowed only through quoting the original publication.

• Ethical principles of publishing
• The way and duration of review process
• Manuscript style and format
• Quotations in the text and bibliographic references
• Title page (title file)
• Format and style of individual types of articles (article file)

Ethical principles of publishing

(Based on the document Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals. WAME Publication Ethics Committee, 2011)

Editors and editorial board

Editors evaluate manuscripts without any personal involvement in view of the author and/or institution where the author works. They observe possible conflict of interest and plagiarism. In case of conflict of interest or violation of ethical principles of publishing they will report the findings to a relevant institution and refuse to publish the manuscript. During the review process editors undertake to maintain the confidentiality of information on the authorship of the manuscript towards the reviewers, the editorial board and the publisher. They also obligate themselves not to use any part of the unpublished manuscript without a written agreement of its author. The publisher can in no way intervene in the reviewing or publishing process. Acceptance and publication of the submission is decided by the editorial board. Scientific level as well as ethical aspect of the journal is in the responsibility of the editorial board chairman together with editor-in-chief and editorial board.

Reviewers

Reviewers undertake to write a review from the position of experts equal to the author with the aim to reach the best quality of a judged work. With their peer reviews and possible further consultations they help editors to make a decision on the publication of the submission. In case the addressed reviewers are unable to peer review the work due to their qualifications or time restrictions, they will notify the editorial board about that fact. Reviewers express their opinions clearly, with respective argumentation and recommend the corrections or development of the submitted work always with the aim to improve the quality of the work. Reviewers judge the contents of the text (contemporaneity, originality of a manuscript, abstract and key word relevance, use of special terminology, quoted literature relevance, methodological and methodical aspects of a study, results interpretation quality, degree of comparability with other studies, conclusion validity and contribution to nursing practice/theory).

Authors and authorship

Submitted works must comply with basic ethical principles for the research on human subjects. It must be written in a manuscript that the study involving the article was approved by an ethical commission (with the name of the commission). It is also necessary to state that the participation of respondents in the study was voluntary and all the data was handled with corresponding confidentiality. Authors are obliged to specify contingent financial resources and give their opinion to potential conflict of interest. Authors declare that the submitted work was not sent to or published by another journal. Authors try to reach the highest quality of their articles, methodological accuracy as well as objectivity when discussing results. They do not use any parts of others’ text or research in the manuscript without citing the source and original author. Such behaviour is considered as plagiarism. Authorship and sequence of co-authors of the article should reflect the real share of creative work put into the article.

Advertisement

The journal offers space for advertising (and sponsorship of the journal) mainly aimed to medical products and services. The editorial board and publisher have the right to reject offered advertisement or sponsorship for any reasons. The editorial board together with the publisher guarantee mutual independence of edition process and advertising and no influence of the advertisers and sponsors on publication and review processes. The publisher and the editorial board obligate themselves that no advertisement or notice about the sponsor of the journal will be written in the articles or in place other than determined space of the journal website.

All the involved parties joining the publication process obligate themselves to adhere to ethical principles of publishing and in case of violation report it to the editorial board chairman.

The way and duration of review process

To be included in the review process a manuscript must meet all the formal requirements stated in the author guidelines. Review process is double blind and performed by two independent reviewers. The editorial board reserves the right to decide about publishing the article in the journal based on the peer reviews. The reviews from both the reviewers will be sent to the first author email address within two months. A reviewer can recommend further development or changes in the article. In this case the author will be asked to rework the manuscript or justify why he or she does not accept the reviewer’s recommendations in three weeks at the latest from sending reviews. Developed and reworked parts will be highlighted by the author in red colour. The editorial board reserves the right for small formal corrections. The author will get the final version of the manuscript for approval before publishing in pdf file. The author’s response will be awaited until five weekdays. In case of no response from the author the article will be published without author’s final approval.

Manuscript style and format

The length of a manuscript is limited to 12 standard pages (21,600 keystrokes together with spaces). Recommended MS Word setup: Times New Roman font, size 12, one-and-a-half line spacing, all the margins set up to 2.5 cm, left alignment, no word division.
No use of bold and italicized writing. Bold writing can be used only for titles of articles and their parts, names of tables and figures.

Tables, charts and figures

Maximum amount of tables and figures is five and they must be located in the proper part of the article (not to be sent separately). Tables and figures have to be numbered and titled and referred to in the text. Font size in the table or chart is set up to 10 pt. They have to be formatted according to the example:

Table - example

(Title of the table - bold, table headers - bold, initial letters in single rows - capital. Explanations of used abbreviations or other notes are located below the table.)

Figure - example

Fig. 1. Vzťah medzi kvalitou života (AWI) a počtom chronických komplikácií

(The abbreviation Fig. is also used for charts, photographs, schedules, pen-and-ink drawing and so on.)

Abbreviations and notes

Abbreviations are to be used as little as possible. If an abbreviation is used, it has to be explained. In case notes are used, they have to be numbered in the text and included after the conclusion and before the List of Bibliographic References.

Quotations in the text and bibliographic references

The way of quoting in the text of the article as well as the List of Bibliographic References have to be done according to following examples. References in the List of Bibliographic References are sequenced by the alphabetical order involving only references to the documents quoted in the article.

A. Quotation in a text

(Name of the author, year of publication, page/pages) - in case of an identified author
(Kozier et al., 1996, p. 166) or Kozier et al. (1996, p. 166)

(Name of the document, year of publication, page/pages) - in case of an unidentified author:
(Dementia Care Practice, 2009)

Note:
Page/pages are not written if the document is not paged or if whole the document is referred to in the text.

B. List of bibliographical references

Printed information sources:

Monographs
ACKLEY, B.J. – LADWIG, G.B. 2006. Nursing Diagnosis Handbook: A Guide to Planning Care. St. Louis : Mosby, 2006. 1353 p.

Note:
All the authors are stated. In case of several authors (more than three), first author is stated with the supplement “et al”.

Part of a monograph (chapter)
ŽIAKOVÁ, K. et al. 2010. Achieving proficiency in clinical practice – satisfaction of nursing students and nurses with mentorship. In ROSENBERG, A. et al. Contemporary issues of nursing education and practice. Stavanger : University of Stavanger, 2010, pp. 74-80.

Authorised entry in a dictionary
HUTTLINGER, K. 2006. Content Analysis. In FITZPATRICK, J.J. – WALLACE, M. et al. Encyclopedia of Nursing Research. New York : Springer Publishing Company, 2006, pp. 104-106.

Article in conference proceedings
CARLSSON, A. et al. 2006. Burn injuries in small children a population-based study in Sweden. In Trends in Nursing IV. Ostrava : University of Ostrava, 2006, pp. 38-43.

Article in a journal
GURKOVÁ, E. – ČÁP, J. – ŽIAKOVÁ, K. 2009. Quality of life and treatment satisfaction in the context of diabetes self-management education. In International Journal of Nursing Practice, 2009, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 91-98.

Information sources in electronic form:

Article in electronic conference proceedings
SADLER, J. et al. 2009. Nursing students Learning Together. In Theory, research and education in Nursing and in Midwives [CD-ROM]. Martin : Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin Comenius University, 2009, pp. 363-371.

Article in an electronic journal
GURKOVÁ, E. – ČÁP, J. – ŽIAKOVÁ, K. 2009. Quality of life and treatment satisfaction in the context of diabetes self-management education. In International Journal of Nursing Practice [online], 2009, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 91-98. [cit. 2010-02-21]. Available on-line: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1440-172X.2009.01733.x/pdf.

Electronic document with no author name
Dementia Care Practice. Recommendations for Professionals Working in a Home Setting, Phase 4. [online]. 2009. [cit. 2012-04-05]. Available on: http://www.alz.org/national/documents/Phase_4_Home_Care_Recs.pdf.

Title page (title file)

Title file should involve following:

• Title
  Maximum length of ten words, title in Slovak (or Czech) and English
• Author’s/authors’ name and surname
  ames and surnames in full form including titles
• Name of workplace/workplaces
  Official full name of workplace
• Address
  Correspondence and contact email addresses of all authors

Example of a title file

Article title

*Name Surname, **Name Surname
*First author’s workplace
**Second author’s workplace

Names and surnames of all authors and co-authors with titles.
Full names of workplaces together with correspondence and email addresses of all authors.

Format and style of individual types of articles (article file)

Theoretical study

Study of a theoretical type should consist of following parts:

• Title
  Maximum length of ten words, written in Slovak (or Czech) and English.
• Abstract
  Structured abstract in Slovak (or Czech) and English is required. In the abstract target, resources, methods, results and conclusion will be mentioned briefly. The length is up to 250 words.
• Keywords
  Maximum number of key words is seven. Key words will be written in Slovak (or Czech) and English.
• Introduction
  Introduction should include displaying sphere of problems in the contemporary context in respective field, determination of study targets or defining observed problems.
• Methods
  Methods should involve the way of choice of sources of literature (databases, search terms, inclusion and exclusion criteria), the way of analysis (identification of observed phenomena and the way of evaluation).
• Results
  Presentation of own results of analysis.
• Conclusion
  Conclusions resulting from performed analysis.
• List of Bibliographical References

Research study

Study of a research type should consist of following parts:

• Title
  Maximum length of ten words, written in Slovak (or Czech) and English.
• Abstract
  Structured abstract in Slovak (or Czech) and English is required. In the abstract target, methods and sample, results and conclusion will be mentioned briefly. The length is up to 250 words.
• Keywords
  Maximum number of key words is seven. Key words will be written in Slovak (or Czech) and English.
• Introduction
  Introduction should involve resources of the study and its context in the researched area.
• Aim
  Determination of aims or research problems and hypotheses.
• Súbor
  Charakteristika súboru, typ výberu, zaraďovacie a vyraďovacie kritériá pre respondentov.
• Methods
  This part should include the type of study, brief description of methods used for collection and analysis of data (e. g. the use and justifying the choice of measurement tools, statistical methods).
  In the end of this part it is necessary to state the approval of an ethical commission and possible conflict of interest (Ethical aspects of the study and conflict of interest).
• Results
  Results of single determined targets (of problems and hypotheses) are presented with the use of tables, charts or figures with verbal description.
• Discussion
  Discussion should involve comparison of results with other studies and relevant theory as well as study limitations.
• Conclusion
  Conclusions directly resulting from results and discussion.
• List of Bibliographical References

Review of a book, text or monograph

Review should involve bibliographical data about reviewed publication (author, title, publishing, place of publishing, publisher, year of publishing, volume). It should also involve brief description of a structure of a publication, its basic aims and for whom it is intended. Review should be describing the contents of the publication through basic outlines, appreciating the positive features and pointing out the negative ones. The length is set up to the maximum of three standard pages (5.400 keystrokes with spaces).

Example of an article file

Article title

Abstract (by the guidelines for an empirical or theoretical article)

Keywords: word, word, word, word

The text of the article by the guidelines for an empirical or theoretical article or a review.