Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Thank you for your interest in Asian Community Health Nursing Research. Please read the complete Author Guidelines carefully prior to submission, including the section on copyright. To ensure fast peer review and publication, manuscripts that do not adhere to the following instructions will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision before undergoing peer review.

Note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

Once the prepared manuscript is in accordance with the Guidelines, it should be submitted online.

We look forward to your submission.

2. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND LENGTH

Articles types published by ACHNR include:

Original research of all designs and methods, related to clinical practice, education, health policy, health management, health service delivery and evaluation, or public health.

Word numbers: Due to space restrictions, the length of a manuscript must not exceed the totals stated below. Over-length manuscripts will be returned to authors for revision prior to being considered for peer review. The title page and reference pages are not counted in the word total.

Research article, Education or Practice articles: 3,000 - 4,000 words

Review article: 3,000 - 6,000 words

3. PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Pre-submission English-language editing: Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission to improve the English. American or British English is accepted, but not a mixture of these.

All measurements must be given in SI units.

Abbreviations should be used sparingly and only where they reduce the repetition of long, technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, use the abbreviation.

Drugs should be referred to by their generic names, rather than brand names.

Parts of the Manuscript

Manuscripts should be presented in the following order: (i) title page ( On a separate page) (ii) abstract and key words, (iii) text, (iv) acknowledgements, (v) contributions (vi) references, (vii) appendices, (viii) figures( each complete with title and footnotes and (ix) tables (each complete with title and footnotes).

Title page

The title page should contain:

A short title of 12 to 20 words. The title should be informative and contain the major keywords, including the country or countries where the project took place and the study design. The title should not contain abbreviations

The full names of the authors

The addresses of the author’s affiliated institutions at which the work was carried

An authorship declaration. For ALL types of manuscripts, all those listed as authors must certify their contribution, which will form part of the publication. Please insert the each author's initials in capitals against at least one of the following: Study Design; Data Collection and Analysis; Manuscript Writing.

The full postal and email address, plus telephone numbers, of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript should be sent

A short running title (less than 50 characters, including spaces)

Acknowledgements. The source of financial grants and other funding should be acknowledged, including a frank declaration of the authors’ industrial links and affiliations. The contribution of colleagues or institutions should also be acknowledged.

The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote.

Main text file

The length of papers should adhere to the guidelines outlined for each manuscript type. As papers are double-blind peer-reviewed the main text file should not include any information that might identify the authors.

The main text file should be presented in the following order: (i) abstract and keywords, (ii) text, (iii) references, (iv) tables (each table complete with title and footnotes), (v) figure legends and (vi) appendices. Figures and supporting information should be supplied as separate files. Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.

(i) Abstract and Keywords

All articles must have an abstract that states in 250 words or less the purpose, basic procedures, main findings, principal conclusions of the study, and implications for practice. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references, and should not be written in various sections under headings.

No more than six key words (for the purposes of indexing) should be supplied below the abstract in alphabetical order.

(ii) Text

Authors should use subheadings to divide the sections according to the type of article:

Original (research) article: Introduction, Study Aim or Purpose, Methods, (design, participants, setting, ethical considerations (including name of research ethics committee(s), protection of participants, how they maintained ethical integrity, any important ethical issues), data collection, data analysis), Results, Discussion (including any limitations of research), Conclusion (including implications for practice), Acknowledgements, and References.

Systematic Review article: Introduction, Aim or Purpose, Methods (including the type of review, inclusion or exclusion criteria used for literature, data bases surveyed, number of articles reviewed), Results, Discussion, Conclusion (including implications of findings for practice), Acknowledgements, References, Figure legends, Figures and Tables.

(iii) References

References should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition). This means in-text citations should follow the author-date method whereby the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998). The complete reference list should appear alphabetically by name at the end of the paper (http://www.apastyle.org/). Please note that a DOI should be provided for all references where available. For more information about APA referencing style, please refer to the APA FAQ.

(iv) Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Number tables consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals. Type tables on a separate page with the legend above. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

(v) Figure Legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Figures

All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals, and cited in consecutive order in the text. Preparation of Electronic Figures for Publication: Although low-quality images are adequate for review purposes, publication requires high-quality images to prevent the final product being blurred or fuzzy. Submit EPS (line art) or TIFF (halftone/photographs) files only. MS PowerPoint and Word Graphics are unsuitable for printed pictures. Do not use pixel-oriented programs. Scans (TIFF only) should have a resolution of 300 dpi (halftone) or 600 to 1200 dpi (line drawings) in relation to the reproduction size (see below). EPS files should be saved with fonts embedded (and with a TIFF preview if possible).

For scanned images, the scanning resolution (at final image size) should be as follows to ensure good reproduction: line art: >600 dpi; half-tones (including gel photographs): >300 dpi; figures containing both halftone and line images: >600 dpi.

4. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Two Word-files need to be included upon submission: A title page file and a main text file that includes all parts of the text in the sequence indicated in the section 'Parts of the manuscript', including tables and figure legends but excluding figures which should be supplied separately.

Title page should contain three sections in addition to authors and institutions:

Disclosure: Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest by disclosing any financial arrangements they have with a company whose product figures prominently in the submitted manuscript or with a company making a competing product, or any conflict relating to technology or methodology.

Acknowledgements: should contain all sources of funding or products.

Permissions: should list details of permissions for instruments used in the study.

5. TRIAL AND RESEARCH GUIDELINES

The Editor recommends the following guidelines for evidence-based reporting of randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

For reporting randomized controlled trials refer to the guidelines of The CONSORT Statement: http://www.consort-statement.org/.

For systematic reviews and meta-analyses refer to the guidelines of The PRISMA Statement: http://prisma-statement.org/.

6. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Accepted papers will be passed to JP’s production team for publication. The author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email from the production team.

Proofs

>Once the paper has been typeset the corresponding author will receive an e-mail alert containing instructions on how to provide proof corrections to the article. It is therefore essential that a working e-mail address is provided for the corresponding author. Proofs should be corrected carefully; the responsibility for detecting errors lies with the author.

Clinical Trial Registration

The journal requires that the clinical trials submitted for its consideration are registered in a publicly accessible database. Authors should include the name of the trial register and their clinical trial registration number in the ‘Acknowledgements’ section of their manuscript. If you wish the editor[s] to consider an unregistered trial, please explain briefly why the trial has not been registered.

Authorship and Acknowledgements

All contributing authors must have significantly contributed to the research and writing of the manuscript, and approved the content before submission, or resubmission. The journal adheres to the definition of authorship set up by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria: i) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; ii) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; iii) Final approval of the version to be published, and iv) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should be mentioned under ‘Acknowledgements’.

Research reporting guidelines

Authors are encouraged to use the relevant research reporting guidelines for the study. This will ensure that you provide enough information for editors, peer reviewers and readers to understand how the research was performed and to judge whether the findings are likely to be reliable.

The key reporting guidelines are:

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs): CONSORT guidelines

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA guidelines and MOOSE guidelines

Observational studies in epidemiology: STROBE guidelines and MOOSE guidelines

Diagnostic accuracy studies: STARD guidelines

Quality improvement studies: SQUIRE guidelines