Authors Guidelines

Journal of Client – Centered Nursing Care (JCCNC) is an international, peer-reviewed, and open access online journal that aims to promote nursing practice field through publishing the last evidence-based, peer reviewed basic and clinical researches and provides an international platform for exchanging knowledge, research findings and nursing practice experience. Different manuscript types are accepted for publishing in JCCNC, including original articles, brief reports, review articles, editorials, case reports and letter to editor. 
 
1. Ethical Guideline 
1.1. Authorship 
1.2. Contributors Listed in Acknowledgments 
1.3. Related Authors 
1.4. Privacy Statement 
1.5. Copyright
1.6. Conflict of interests 
1.7. Ethical Consideration 
1.8. Plagiarism
2. Submission
2.1. Pre-submissions 
2.2. Submission Preparation Checklist 
2.3. Submission of Manuscript 
2.4. Author Registration 
2.5. Manuscript 
2.6. Submission Files 
2.6.1. Title Page 
2.6.2. Abstract 
2.6.3. Highlights
2.6.4. Plain Language Summary
2.7. Manuscript Types:
2.7.1. Original Articles 
2.7.2. Brief report 
2.7.3. Review Articles 
2.7.4. Editorials 
2.7.5. Case Report 
2.7.6. Letters to Editor 
2.8. References 
2.8.1. In-Text Citation 
2.8.2. Reference List 
2.9. Tables 
2.10. Figures 
2.11. Supplementary Data 
2.12. Proofs 
3. Open Access Policy 


 

1. Ethical Guideline 
Journal of Client – Centered Nursing Care (JCCNC) is committed to apply ethics of publication, based on the COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practices. Also, in medical studies, JCCNC has engaged to apply ethics of research, based on Declaration of Helsinki: Statement of Ethical Principles for Medical Research. In addition, JCCNC has promised to apply ethics of research, based on American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, in psychological studies. So, the research’s ethical considerations must be addressed in the Materials and Methods section. In this regard, please apply  following principles in your manuscripts:

1.1. Authorship 
Authorship credit should be based on: 
1) Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 
2) For quantitative studies, a statistician should be included as one of authors; however, for simple descriptive statistics, a statistician can be included in the acknowledgment. 
3) Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 
4) Final approval of the version to be published; and 
5) 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. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. 
 When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript . These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship/contributorship defined above, and editors will ask these individuals to complete journal-specific author and conflict-of-interest disclosure forms. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name. The authors can list other members of the group in the Acknowledgment. The NLM indexes the group name and the names of individuals the group has identified as being directly responsible for the manuscript; it also lists the names of collaborators if they are listed in Acknowledgments. 
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship. These persons should be acknowledged in the acknowledgment section. 
All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed. 
Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Increasingly, authorship of multicenter trials is attributed to a group. All members of the group who are named as authors should fully meet the above criteria for authorship/contributorship. 
The group should jointly make decisions about contributors/authors before submitting the manuscript for publication. The corresponding author/guarantor should be prepared to explain the presence and order of these individuals. It is not the role of editors to make authorship/contributorship decisions or to arbitrate conflicts related to authorship. 

1.2. Contributors Listed in Acknowledgments 
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chairperson who provided only general support. Authors should declare whether they had assistance with study design, data collection, data analysis, or manuscript preparation. If such assistance was available, the authors should disclose the identity of the individuals who provided this assistance and the entity that supported it in the published article. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged by mentioning their names and locations. 
Groups of persons who have contributed materially to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be listed under such headings as “clinical investigators” or “participating investigators,” and their function or contribution should be described—for example, “served as scientific advisors,” “critically reviewed the study proposal,” “collected data,” or “provided and cared for study patients.” Because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions, these persons must give written permission to be acknowledged. 

1.3. Related Authors 
Where authors of a paper are related this should be disclosed at the time of submission. Please provide details of the family relationship between such authors. 

1.4. Privacy Statement 
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party 

1.5. Copyright
Under  Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (June 20, 2003), Negah Journals are fully compliant with open access mandates, by publishing its articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC-BY-NC). Authors retain copyright of their work and can deposit their publication in any repository. This means that articles can be freely redistributed and reused by the author and others as long as the article is properly cited. Published articles in Negah Journals can be deposited immediately into an online repository or social network without any cost. Negah Journals articles can be emailed to colleagues, printed, archived in a collection, included in course-packs, and distributed without restrictions. Please read the full Creative Commons license for further information.

1.6. Conflict of interests 
Journal of Client-Centered Nursing Care (JCCNC) as a member of Negah Journals, published by Negah Institute for Scientific Communication, is committed to apply ICMJE recommendation on “Author Responsibilities—Conflicts of Interest” in authors’ conflict of interest issues. Authors should disclose, at the time of submission, information on financial conflicts of interest or other interests that may influence the manuscript. Authors should declare sources of funding for the work undertaken, too. 

1.7. Ethical Consideration 
Requirements to ensure the paper is considered ethical points are as follows: 
• In the Method section, researchers should explicitly mention the review and ethics committee approval. 
• In the case of researches on human subjects, inform consent and other ethical considerations should be mentioned in the “methods” section of the manuscript. 
• All manuscripts from RCT researches should be registered and include their registration number. An example of a valid registry for RCTs is (www.irct.ir). 
• It is necessary to add references for illustrations, Tables and figures previously published. 

1.8. Plagiarism
Journal of Client-Centered Nursing Care (JCCNC) as a member of Negah Journals, has accepted all terms and conditions of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) on plagiarism. So, in any case of plagiarism, which is brought to the journal’s editors attention and accompanied with convincing evidence, we act based on flowcharts and workflows determined in COPE. Meanwhile, to detect and prevent plagiarism in the journal articles, all submissions will be checked with iTheticate software in both stages of submission and acceptance.


 

 For more information on the journal’s ethical Principles, please refer to following links:

- JCCNC’s Principles of Publishing Ethics
- JCCNC’s Ethical Principles for Medical Research
- JCCNC’s Ethical Principles for Psychological Research


2. Submission

2.1. Pre-submissions 
Authors are welcome to send an abstract or draft manuscript to obtain a view from the Editor about the suitability of their paper. In JCCNC, we are looking for manuscripts which will have widely impact on nursing practice. The relevancy of submitted papers to the aim and scopes of JCCNC is essential. It will be reviewed by editors before peer-reviewing to assess this essential criterion. 

2.2. Submission Preparation Checklist 
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines. 
1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (This explanation should be provided in Comments to the Editor). 
2. The submission file is in Open Office, Microsoft Word (*.doc, *.docx), RTF, or WordPerfect document file format. 
3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided. 
4. The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. 
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines. 

2.3. Submission of Manuscript 
• All manuscripts should be submitted electronically via our website: http://jccnc.iums.ac.ir. Authors may track the status of their own manuscripts. 
• By doing so you agree to the terms and conditions of submission 
• Complete instructions for submitting a paper are available in below. 
Keep a backup and hard copies of the material submitted. 
At first, registration should be done. A user ID and password can be obtained. If you are not first time user, login and enter your username and password to start submitting a paper. If you have forgotten your username/password, go to the “reset password” and enter your email address that mentioned in registration form. The system will send you a new password to your email which you can change it to your own choice password. 

2.4. Author Registration 
Go to the: http://jccnc.iums.ac.ir. As first time users go to “Registration.” Then consider your password of your choice. Enter your personal and academic information. Finally select “Submit” button. 

2.5. Manuscript 
All manuscript must be submitted on-line through the JCCNC Open Journal System at the Iran University of Medical Sciences website http:// jccnc.iums.ac.ir. Select “submitting a manuscript”. Please follow on screen instructions and steps to upload different parts of your article and comments to the editor at the website. Authors are advised to write in clear and simple English and to have their article checked by colleagues before submission. Writing in a good English language is essential for submitting. While the editors fully understand the extra challenges posed to authors whose native language is not English, we must ask that all manuscripts be reviewed and edited by a native speaker of English with expertise in that area prior to submission. 
Each of the following sections should start on a separate page: abstract, text, references, tables, and figures’ legends. Indent the first line of each paragraph. Abbreviation (except for measurements) and acronyms are discouraged. Use metric units whenever practical. All pages should be numbered, with the title page as page number one. Use active rather than passive voice whenever possible. Avoid footnotes in the text. The right margins of the text should be ragged rather than justified. Information identifying authors should be omitted from the manuscript pages, except for the title page (see below). Acknowledgments should be listed on a separate page. 
General Considerations in Preparation of Manuscript Include: 
• Running header (shortened title) 
• Given name(s) and surnames of authors (see Authorship section above) 
• Author affiliations: department, institution, city, state, country 
• Corresponding author: name, physical address, phone, fax, email 
• Abstract maximum 300 words and 3–6 keywords 
• Manuscripts will be accepted in LaTeX as long as the native LaTeX and a PDF is also supplied. The preferred electronic format for text is Microsoft Word 
• Clear concise language with American spelling
• Word counts are not specified. In general, shorter items range from 1000 to 3000 words, qualitative studies up to 4500 words, and reviews from 3000 to 7,500 
• Considering 2.5-cm margins and double-spacing, use a 12-point font
• Adding page numbers 
• Spell out acronyms in the first instance in the abstract and paper
• Use International Systems of Units (SI) symbols and recognized abbreviations for units of measurement 
• Do not punctuate abbreviations eg, et al, ie
• The maximum total number of tables and figures should be up to 6.
• Generic drug names are used in text, tables, and figures 
• Ensure tables and figures are cited 
• Suppliers of drugs, equipment, and other brand-name material are credited in parentheses (company, name, city, state, country) 
• Reference list in Harvard style 

2.6. Submission Files 
Main submission file must be prepared in Microsoft Word document file format (*.doc). Please do not use sophisticated formatting and page styles, as these lead to some problem in file processing. If the references have been prepared using Endnote software or similar programs, please ensure to remove the reference manager links from the file before submission. Otherwise these references may not be visible under certain platforms. All tables must be present in the main submission file and they may not be embedded as graphics. All figures, pictures, graphics or images must be submitted as supplementary files. All submission to JCCNC will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. For double-blinded review, submit title page and manuscript as separate files. For uploading the files, select “Brows” and locate your files. At the end, review the submission form and files before sending to the journal. Select submit after approving the information. An email will be sent to confirm receipt of the manuscript with a manuscript code which should be used in all communications. Furthermore the status of the manuscript can be checked at any time. Decision about the manuscript will be send by email. 

2.6.1. Title page 
The title page should include the main title, an abbreviated running title of 45 characters or fewer, a word count for the text, the full names and affiliations of each author, the name and complete Email address of the author to whom reprint requests or correspondence should be addressed, financial support information, including granting agency and grant number. The institutions listed should reflect the authors’ affiliations at the time that the work was done, rather than their present affiliation. Orcid code of all the authors, and cellphone number, email address and work phone number of corresponding author is required for all submissions. If any of the above is not included, the article will not be considered in the review process.

2.6.2. Abstract 
An abstract should accompany each original article, review article. The abstract should be limited to 300 words for original or review articles and 100 words for brief reports or case report. It should include the Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion sections separately, except for review articles and case reports. It should describe the research purposes or motivation for the paper, the main findings or viewpoints and central conclusions. It should be factual, and give quantified findings in preference to descriptive language. It should contain no references or abbreviations. On the abstract page, authors should include a list of important keywords, which will be published with the paper and used for indexing. Key words should conform to the Medical Subject Headings used in Index Medicus (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/) if possible. 

2.6.3.Highlights
All the articles must have a list of bullet points that link the main findings of an article, conveying the essence of the research and also its uniqueness, but excluding the background, method section and other information that might be seen in an abstract. Three to five highlights are needed, and each one must not exceed 90 characters, including spaces. Highlights must be concise and condense a great deal of information into a very little text.  We advise that you write the highlights after you have completed the article.

2.6.4. Plain Language Summary
All the articles have to include Plain Language Summary in 200-300 words. Consider that Plain Language Summary is different from abstract and it has to be written for non-specialists. To provide it, consider the following points: 1. think about your audience (e.g. journalists, science-interested public), 2. Get rid of jargon, 3. Explain what the study is about. Remember, others will need more context about what you studied, 4. Explain what you found, 5. Explain why this matters. Discuss the importance of these findings not just in terms of their implications for your field but in terms of their relevance to the public.

2.7. Manuscript Types:

2.7.1. Original Articles 
Original articles should be limited to 3,000 words. The paper should clearly describe the reason for undertaking the work, and present methods used and the results found in separate sections. Scientific interpretations based on the findings should be presented in a discussion section; a self-critical / examination of the findings is encouraged. Required sections of original articles are Background, Materials & Methods, Results, and Discussion. 

2.7.2. Brief report 
Brief reports are treated like original articles, except that they should be limited to 1400 words, with an abstract of 100 words or fewer. 

2.7.3. Review Articles 
A review article is an analysis and collection of the current state of the research on a particular topic. However qualitative and quantitative reviews are welcomed. It is not an original article with new data but represents: 
• The main people working in a field 
• Recent major advances and discoveries 
• Significant gaps in the research 
• Current debates 
• Ideas of where research might go next 
Review articles are usually invited by the editor, although we will consider unsolicited material. All review articles, even if invited, undergo the same peer-review and editorial process as original research reports. The text is limited to 3000-7500 words, with a maximum of 6 tables and figures (total) and up to 100 references. If applicable the PRISMA checklist should be used. Required sections of review articles: Background, Methods, Results, Discussion. 

2.7.4. Editorials 
Unsolicited editorials will be reviewed for publication as short commentaries on topics of current interest to Nursing practitioners. Editorials should be 1,200 words or fewer. 

2.7.5. Case Report 
Case report is a detailed report of the assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation and follow up of an individual patient and contains: 
1) Unique cases that may represent a previously undescribed condition; 
2) Unexpected and important association of two or more diseases; 
3) Any other clinical observation based upon well-documented cases that provides important new information. 

2.7.6. Letters to Editor 
Letters to editor on any topic of nursing research, knowledge and practice will be considered for publication. Manuscripts submitted as a Letter to the Editor: 
• Should be related to a paper previously published in a JCCNC, or in a response to letter to the editor, or address an issue of wider concern within the scope of the journal; 
• Have a word count of no more than 500 words; 
• May contain figures and tables (see specifications for these); 
• Have references formatted in Harvard. 

2.8. References 
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all references. It is recommended to use a tool such as End note for reference management. JCCNC has applied Harvard reference style (author’s name date). 

2.8.1.In Text Citation 
JCCNC uses the ‘author-date’ style of referencing. That is, in-text references (generally) appear in the following format: (Author’s Last Name, Year of Publication ). Example: (Austen 1813 ). You are also permitted to include the author’s name in a sentence, omitting it from the brackets. Example: Austen (1813) observes that ... 
Direct quotes should be cited by page number (s).When citing a source you have not read yourself, but which is referred to in a source you have read, use the following method: Moore (as cited in Maxwell 1999, p. 25) stated that…Remind that you would cite Maxwell, not Moore, in the Reference List. 
If more than one reference should be cite for a text, it is necessary to present them in chronological date order and separate them with semicolon. Example: (Austen 1813; Maxwell 1999). For references with two or three authors, their names should be mentioned and the last authors should be separated with “&”. For references with more than three authors, the first author’s name and "et al." should be cited in the text and the references list. Example: (Rafii et al. 2014) or Rafii et al. (2014) reported that… 

2.8.2.Reference List 
The reference list should appear at the end of your work on a separate page in alphabetical order and it should only include references you have cited in your work. Also, all references should have a hanging indent. That is, all lines of a reference subsequent to the first should be indented. 
Examples: 
A. Books 
When a book is cited, the edition of it should be mentioned. 
One Author: Cochrane, A 2007, Understanding urban policy: a critical approach, Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA. 
Two or three authors: Palmer, GR & Short, SD 2010, Health care and public policy: an Australian analysis, 4th edn, Palgrave Macmillan, South Yarra, Vic. 
E-Book – online book: Niemann, S, Greenstein, D & David, D 2004, Helping children who are deaf: family and community support for children who do not hear well, Hesperian Foundation, Berkley, CA, viewed 11 June 2007, http://www.hesperian.org/ publications _download_deaf.php 
Chapter in edited book: Richards, KC 1997, ‘Views on globalization’, in HL Vivaldi (ed.), Australia in a global world, Century, North Ryde, NSW. 
B. Journal Articles 
When an article is cited, the full name of Journal should be mentioned. 
Journal article with one author: Jackson, A 2007, ‘New approaches to drug therapy’, Psychology Today and Tomorrow, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 54-9. 
Journal article with two or three authors: Kramer, E & Bloggs, T 2002, ‘On quality in art and art therapy’, American Journal of Art Therapy, vol. 40, pp. 218-31. 
Journal article with more than three authors: Elo, A, Ervasti, J, Kuosma, E & Mattila, P 2008, ‘Evaluation of an organizational stress management program in a municipal public works organization’, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 10-23. 
C. Online references 
For online references it is necessary to identify the address where the reference is available at. Also the date of access to file should be mentioned. 
D. References with other language 
If reference is not English, it is essential to indicate it in a parenthesis at the end of the reference. Also the title of papers with other language should be captured by brackets "[]".

For more information on the journal reference guideline, please click here.

2.9. Tables 
Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. Use only horizontal rules. Tables should be typed double spaced, placed within the text at the appropriate points rather than at the end of the text, and numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text. Table headers should be fully descriptive of the contents, and whenever possible should be comprehensible without reference to the text. Place abbreviations immediately below the table (in footnote) and use superscript a, b, c, … as identifiers. The maximum total number of tables and figures should be up to 6.

2.10. Figures 
Each figure must be prepared and submitted as a graphic file (tiff image, JPG files) with high resolution. Graphics downloaded from Web pages are NOT acceptable. Upon acceptance of the paper the authors must prepare and submit the figures in a high resolution format in accordance with the Pubmed Central preferred image file specification at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/about/preferred.html. Supply Line Art 900 dpi, Combination (Line Art + Halftone) 900 dpi, Halftone 300 dpi. Failure to submit the required image format in time may cause delay in the publication of the accepted papers. Keep wording on figures to a minimum, with explanations written in the figure legends. Legends for figures should be placed at the end of the main submission file. Provide a descriptive legend. Figure legends should not be part of the figure proper. Line drawings and graphs should be professionally drawn and lettered; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. Place abbreviations immediately below the figure and use superscript a, b, c… as identifiers. Submit multi-panel figures, ie with parts labeled a,b,c,d, as one file. 

2.11. Supplementary Data 
Any supplementary data should be kept to 6 typeset pages or 2,400 words. If you have any more than this you should provide a link to the supplementary data on an external website, your institute’s website for example, and/or Dove Medical Press may be able to upload the raw supplementary data to the http://www.dovepress.com/ website and provide a link in your paper. We welcome video files either as supplementary data or as part of the actual manuscript to show operations, procedures, etc. 

2.12. Proofs 
Upon acceptance of a paper for publication, email will be send to corresponding author for proof correction. An instruction will be sent with the proofs. 
You will receive the typeset page proofs for approval. 
Check amendments made by the editor have not rendered the material inaccurate 
Check you have answered all the editor’s queries. 
Ensure your corrections are minimal and absolutely necessary. 
Mark the adjustments clearly in the text and margins, and keep a copy of what you send to the editor. 
Notify the editorial office of all corrections within 72 hours of your receipt of the material. 
Ensure all authors sign and return the Author Approval and final page of Publication Agreement. 


3. Open Access Policy 
Journal of Client Centered Nursing Care is owned by Iran University of Medical Sciences and published by Negah Institute for Scientific Communication. Our philosophy in JCCNC is that all research is for the benefit of humankind and research is the product of an investment by society and therefore its fruits should be returned to all people without borders or discrimination, serving society universally and in a transparent fashion. That is why JCCNC provides online free and open access to all of its research publications. So, all the publishing costs have been supported by Iran University of Medical Sciences, therefore, authors may publish their manuscripts and audiences can download and share the articles, freely.

For more information, authors can contact: jccnciums.ac.ir Support can be contacted by phone number: +98 (21) 88882885-6, +98 (21) 66935997. 


View: 20994 Time(s)   |   Print: 5231 Time(s)   |   Email: 0 Time(s)   |   0 Comment(s)

Designed & Developed by : Yektaweb