Information For Authors

Interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

All manuscripts submitted for publication to the Journal of SPJ PUBLICATION (SPJP) should include the following details: 

  • Cover Letter
  • Title Page
  • Manuscript File 
  • Tables & Figures. 
  • Undertaking by authors & copyright transfer agreement. 
  • Ethical Confirmation (If Applicable)

TITLE PAGE

The title page should include (i) name(s) of the author(s); (ii) highest degree; (iii) name(s) of the Department(s); (iv) designations (academic position) of authors in the department; (v) complete postal addresses, mobile number and e-mail id of all authors; (vi) name of corresponding author with all above-mentioned details. All the content should be written in Times New Roman with font size 12, single-spaced, and justified.

The title page also should include: (i) Type of manuscript: original article/ review (ii) Title; (iii) Short title; (iv) Number of Tables; (v) Number of Figures; (vi) Source of financial support in the form of grants.

MANUSCRIPT FILE

Manuscripts must be submitted through the online submission portal only. Pages should be numbered consecutively, and the contents arranged in the following order:

  • Title including Authors' Names (Full Name in Sequence) and Affiliation Details (Present Working Address with Designation), Email ID of All Authors/Co-Authors.
  • Abstract
  • Keywords
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement (If Applicable)
  • Ethical statement.
  • References

Title: The article's title should be brief, cohesive (avoiding broken or hyphenated titles), and simultaneously descriptive enough to facilitate indexing and information retrieval effectively.

Abstract & Keywords: Except reviews, all manuscripts must include a structured abstract (approximately 250 words) with headings for Introduction & Objectives, Material and Methods, Results, and Discussion-Conclusions. The abstract should be concise, outlining the paper's scope and notable results. It should emphasize the primary findings and conclusions, enabling abstracting services to be used without alterations. A set of suitable keywords (3-5 in number) arranged alphabetically should also be provided.

Introduction: The Introduction or background should be concise, clearly outlining the paper's scope. When reviewing the literature, focus solely on the reasons for conducting the current study, offering essential background information. Clearly articulate the study's objective in this section, providing ample justification by the end.

Material & Methods: The article emphasizes comprehensive reporting standards for scientific research. It requires explicit mention of nomenclature, material and equipment sources, and procedures adopted, with a focus on enabling result reproducibility. Ethical standards for experiments on human subjects and animals, aligned with national guidelines, must be adhered to. Specific details on the care, use, and certification of laboratory animals are essential. Drugs and chemicals used should be precisely identified. Study design elements, including participant selection, sample size calculation, eligibility criteria, and study location, need clear articulation. Clinical trials must be registered, with registration numbers provided. Results from randomized clinical trials should detail study elements, masking methods, and statistical analyses, including significance levels. Standard statistical methods may reference established literature, while detailed descriptions are reserved for novel approaches.

Results: The result includes only essential data for understanding the study's discussion and main conclusions. The data should follow a coherent sequence, avoiding redundancy with tables and figures. Only significant observations should be emphasized, and duplication of data in both tabular and graphic forms should be avoided. Interpretation of the data is reserved for the Discussion section, not the Results section.

Discussion and Conclusion: The discussion section should interpret results without duplicating information from the results section. It should connect new findings to existing knowledge, make logical deductions, and acknowledge any study limitations. Conclusions should align with the study's goals, avoiding unsupported statements. Hypotheses, if present, must be identified, and recommendations can be included if deemed necessary and relevant within the discussion. The section is recommended to conclude with a summarizing remark.

Acknowledgement: acknowledgements should be concise and reserved for specific scientific or technical assistance, excluding routine departmental facilities or general encouragement. Financial support or sponsorship from national or international funding agencies should be acknowledged.

Conflicts of Interest: A conflict of interest arises when authors or their institutions have financial or personal connections with individuals or organizations that may unduly impact their actions. Submissions must explicitly reveal any relationships that might be perceived as posing a potential conflict of interest. Authors are required to disclose all financial and personal associations that could potentially influence their work. If no conflicts of interest exist, authors should explicitly state this fact.

References: The maximum limit for references in Original Research Articles is typically set at 25, following the Vancouver style. References to cited literature should be sequentially numbered and positioned at the end of the manuscript. In the text, references should be indicated above the line (superior). Whenever possible, the mention of author names under references should be minimized.

TABLES & FIGURES:

Tables (and MS Word-format graphs) should be integrated into the main article file, numbered consecutively with Roman numerals. Tables should have concise titles, brief column headings, and abbreviated measurement units placed below the headings. Statistical variations such as SD and SE should be identified, and structural formulae in tables should be avoided. Abbreviations must be explained in footnotes. Figures, in JPEG format (not exceeding 1 MB), should be sequentially numbered with Arabic numerals, accompanied by appropriate titles and legend explanations. Multi-panel figures should be labelled A, B, C, etc. Photomicrographs should include internal scale markers, legible symbols, arrows, and letters, and graphs in JPEG or PDF format can be submitted as figures. Proper acknowledgement of published material and submission of copyright permissions are essential.

ABBREVIATIONS

Utilize only standard abbreviations adhering to the International System of Units (SI) in the text, tables, and figures. Prefer generic names for drugs; if proprietary brands are essential, include the brand name, manufacturer, and country in parentheses after the first use of the generic name. Ensure consistency throughout.

ETHICAL CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE

All research involving patients, volunteers, human biological material, or animals must provide a scanned copy of the Ethical Clearance Certificate.

UNDERTAKING BY AUTHOR(S) & COPYRIGHT TRANSFER AGREEMENT

All authors are required to submit a signed undertaking, following the journal's specified format, confirming their agreement to be listed as co-authors in the designated order on the title page. Each author should provide their name, affiliation, and position during the research, along with current contact details. If a junior author has left the institution, a senior author may sign on their behalf. Papers with corporate authorship must identify key individuals responsible, acknowledging other contributors separately. Authors will be requested to sign a copyright transfer agreement, granting the journal authority to address copyright infringements independently. This streamlines the process and avoids repeated author consultations.

FOR REVIEW ARTICLE

Limit the article to 7000 words, excluding the abstract and references (limited to 75), and include no more than 8 figures. The abstract should be non-structured, and the article file should consist of Background, Discussion, and Conclusion sections. Adhere to the previously mentioned guidelines for abbreviations, tables, and figures, ensuring consistency throughout the submission.

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE (APC)

Authors are required to pay a processing fee after the acceptance of the article. Fee details for authors with affiliation details from India and overseas are specified. Extra fees may be charged based on additional editing work, complexity of tables/figures, and more pages. The final publication fee will be communicated to the corresponding author post-acceptance.  

NOTE: The above guidelines ensure a standardized format for manuscript submission, fostering transparency and efficient processing. 

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE

The Scientific Journal of Professional Nursing and Practice embraces a fully open-access model, ensuring unrestricted utilization and reuse of all published articles while duly acknowledging the authors.

To sustain this model, authors are required to cover a one-time Article Processing Charge (APC), encompassing expenses related to peer review administration, article production in PDF and other formats, dissemination of papers across various platforms, and other publishing functions. No fees are imposed for rejected submissions, and there are no additional charges based on article length, figures, or supplementary data.

In contrast to conventional publishers, Open Access publishers such as the Scientific Journal of Professional Nursing and Practice do not rely on subscription sales for revenue. Instead, we ensure free accessibility to all articles. Consequently, an Article Processing Charge (APC) is applicable upon acceptance for publication, ensuring the sustainability of this open-access approach.

Article Processing Charges

  • Foreign Authors: 32 USD (30 USD for APC and 2 USD for transaction charges).
  • Indian Authors: INR 1770/- (INR 1500 for APC and INR 270 for GST @18%).

It's important to note that authors bear any transaction fees incurred. Publication decisions at the Scientific Journal of Professional Nursing and Practice are entirely driven by editorial criteria, remaining unaffected by fee payments. Corrections to manuscripts are provided free of charge if requested within 3 days of online publication under the "Issue in Progress" section.

Once an article is assigned a volume, issue number, and DOI, changes will be implemented only after payment of applicable charges, equivalent to 50% of the article processing fees. Authors can pay via Direct Deposit or online methods like net banking, NEFT, or IMPS.

Notably, payments by cheque or demand draft are not accepted.

Copyright Statement

Manuscripts are accepted under the condition that they have not been concurrently submitted to another journal and have not been previously published. All publications in the Scientific Journal of Professional Nursing and Practice will be owned by the SPJ Publication under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Submitted manuscripts must be original work not previously published or under consideration elsewhere. The editors and SPJP utilize the CrossCheck software powered by iThenticate to combat plagiarism, double publication, and scientific misconduct. Manuscripts suspected of plagiarism may undergo investigation and retraction.

Authors intending to reproduce text, tables, or figures from a published source must obtain written permission from the copyright holder, even if it is their work. Permission is also necessary for previously unpublished material provided by others. Failure to obtain permissions may lead to significant publication delays.

Conflict of Interest Resolution

Any conflicts related to published content are addressed impartially. Both the whistleblower and the author present their arguments, and a decision to retain or reject/retract the content is made.

Patient Permission Policy

For patients with recognizable photographs, a signed permission form is mandatory. Failure to provide this requires obscuring the patient's identity before publication, potentially affecting the educational value of the photograph.