Contemporary Nurse

Manuscripts submitted to the journal for peer review must not contain information that identifies the authors. This information is often embedded in the document, left by authors on title pages, or inferred in acknowledgements text.

When preparing a document for submission (or resubmitting a revised document), authors should consider the following.

Removing document information

Microsoft Word (and its Open Office analogues) will embed identifying information in the document properties and tag comments and tracked-changes with the user who made them. These can be removed with tools that come with software.

Using Office 2003 or earlier:

1. Under the Tools menu, select 'Options'.
2. Select the Security tab from the Options dialog box.
3. Check that 'Remove personal information from file properties on save ' is ticked and press the 'Ok' button.
4. Save your document with a new filename and lodge this new file with your submission.

Using Office 2007 or later:

1. Save your document with a new filename.
2. Under the Office menu, choose 'Prepare' and then 'Inspect Document'.
3. Check that 'Document Properties and Personal Information' is ticked.
4. Press the 'Inspect' button and Word will scan the current document.
5. If any document or personal information is found, press the 'Remove all' button to delete it.
6. Any revisions of comments embedded in the document will be retained but the user that .entered it will renamed to 'A','B' etc.
7. Save the document to retain these changes.

Removing comments and revisions

Microsoft Word (and other word processors) can track the changes (or revisions) to a document and allow comments to be placed throughout the document. When authors are satisfied that document is ready for sending to the journal, a 'clean' version should be saved prior to submitting the it.

Office 2007 or later:

1. Save your document with a new filename.
2. Under the Office menu, choose 'Prepare' and then 'Inspect Document'.
3. Check that 'Comments, Revisions, Versions and Annotations' is ticked.
4. Press the 'Inspect' button and Word will scan the current document.
5. If any comments or revisions are found, press the 'Remove all' button to delete them (caution: this will accept all changes tracked in the document)
6. Save the document to retain these changes.

Using Office 2003 or earlier:

1. Save your document with a new filename.
2. Display the Track Changes toolbar if not visible (under the View  menu, select 'Toolbars' and then 'Reviewing').
3. Click on the downward-pointing arrow next to the 'Accept Change' icon and select 'Accept All Changes'.
4. Click on the downward-pointing arrow next to the 'Reject Change/Delete Comment' icon  and select 'Delete All Comments in Document'
5. Save the document to retain these changes.

Removing title pages

When authoring manuscripts, authors will often  include a title page to compile author information and affiliations. Although it is useful to have this information in the manuscript, it must be deleted before sending to reviewers.

The journal submission checklist requires the contributing author to ensure that this information is deleted from the manuscript.

We recommend authors save title pages as a separate file and upload it as a supplementary file during the submission process. OJS allows for multiple supplementary files for each submission so additional files (e.g. source data, graphics , scans etc) can also be uploaded.

The submission form allows authors to leave instructions about the use of supplementary files and they can be set to be 'not available' for reviewers.

Acknowledgements

Authors should remove any Acknowledgements text prior to uploading manuscripts. The online submission process allows for this information to be captured in a web form rather than stored in a manuscript.

If submissions are accepted for publication, authors can add this information back into their final version of the manuscript that they upload for the journal editorial staff to copyedit.