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Author Guidelines

Contemporary Nurse welcomes electronic submission of articles in the following areas:

  • Original Research articles across all specialised areas of nursing education, teaching and practice including: aged care, clinical practice, community nursing, cross-cultural nursing, family health, health advocacy, health equity, mental health, methodology, palliative care, remote and rural nursing, traditional and complementary nursing, workplace issues, etc.
  • Literature Reviews from graduate theses that bring new or neglected areas into focus.
  • Research Methods and Practice Protocols of value to researchers and practitioners.
  • Opinion section - short articles presenting viewpoints on current issues in nursing knowledge.
  • Students' Corner section - undergraduate students' well-graded papers that contribute to nursing knowledge (submitted with recommendation from supervisor).
  • Exemplar section - brief descriptions of nursing practice that have made a critical difference.
  • Reviews section - reviews of books, journals, educational software and portals (submitted to Book Reviews Editor).
  • Noticeboard section - notices of upcoming events such as conferences.

There are no page charges and no monetary payments to contributors. Upon publication the Publisher will provide Authors with an electronic copy of the published articles in PDF format and discounts for requested print copies.

Feature Articles

Feature articles include Research Papers, Clinical Practice, Community Nursing, Nursing Management, Literature Reviews, Research Methods, Practice Protocols and Student Papers.

In general, the length of Feature Articles should be between 4000-6000 words plus Figures, Tables and References. Authors should use concise headings and sub-headings to identify sections of their article. There should be no information in the manuscript that could identify authors or institutions, such as coding with initials etc. Ethical clearance must be shown for research papers, and the ethical processes followed must be included in the body of the manuscript.

Diagrams should be supplied as computer-generated or bromide of the same, or as high quality line illustrations drawn in black and white with excellent definition. Papers presented at conferences need to be accompanied by full details (conference title, date and venue).

Opinions, Exemplars, Responses and Rejoinders

The general presentation should follow the submission guidelines established for Feature Articles, except that abstracts and photographs are not required.

Opinions should be approximately 250-500 words, written by an author who feels strongly about a current issue in nursing.

Exemplars are to be approximately 500-1000 words, describing a nursing incident where the author made a difference to a client and/or their family. It is to be written in narrative style, and may have no references. It is important that authors are careful about confidentiality and patient anonymity; this may be achieved by changing some details in the Exemplar.

Responses are to be approximately 500 words, written in response to an article in any issue of Contemporary Nurse. A 500-word Rejoinder will be offered to the original author.

Initial submission

The publisher, eContent Management Pty Ltd, uses a semi-automated manuscript tracking system to receive and accept reviews of research articles, case studies and literature reviews. Manuscripts submitted for publication are subject to a peer review process. To ensure prompt review of your manuscript, and to preserve anonymity in the review process, please observe the instructions on-screen and take note that:

  1. Manuscripts should be saved as a Microsoft or Open Office Word files. These should contain: title of the manuscript, key words, article text, references, figures, and tables in that order, as one document.
  2. A 100-150-word abstract is loaded into a form on a following page. You should copy/paste it from a existing document.
  3. Do not include any author information or acknowledgements in the manuscript or abstract. In Microsoft Word, please check the box 'Remove personal information from file properties on save' under Tools/Options/Security. Open Office users should consult this online help wiki for removing personal user data.
  4. Your manuscript will be forwarded directly to reviewers and should not contain any identifying information.
  5. Other information such as manuscript title, author postal and email contact details are added on the next page. All correspondence will be sent to the the first listed author.
  6. Please list all authors in the order they are to appear on the title page.
  7. Acknowledgements are added to the manuscript by the author following peer review and acceptance to publish.

Resubmitting manuscripts

The above requirements also apply to authors resubmitting revised manuscripts. Peer review recommendations are to be addressed and incorporated by authors before submitting.

It is important that authors re-submitting revised manuscripts indicate how they have addressed the referees' comments, in summary form, at the head of their revised manuscript document to assist further assessment by the original reviewers before the manuscript can proceed to publication.

These requirements also apply to authors returning revised versions of manuscripts which have been accepted with minor revision.

Please refer to the 'Style guide' below for references, citation and spelling conventions and to 'Tables and figures' below for acceptable file and photo types for print publishing.

Style Guide

Contemporary Nurse uses an adaptation of the Harvard system of referencing (see Referencing Style below). 'American' or 'English' spellings are acceptable, providing they are used consistently. Translation of articles from other languages into English is encouraged and should be provided by professional translators. The Editors reserve the right to make editorial and literary corrections.

Style Summary
  • Publication titles such as books and journals that are formally registered with an ISBN or ISSN are in title case and italic;
  • Articles and chapters within them are initial capitals only and roman (ie not italic);
  • Unpublished material (whether a book, report, article, paper, which is not registered) is roman (ie not italic).
  • Where there are multiple works by the same author/s, the earliest work appears first in the References List.
  • If there is more than one work by the same author/s in the same year, each year is annotated with an a, b, c, and so on - 2004a; 2005b.
Referencing Style

eContent Management Pty Ltd uses an adaptation of the Harvard system of referencing. The accuracy of References is the author's responsibility. Authors are required to submit their work with complete, up-to-date citations.

A list headed References and comprising full details of all sources, in alphabetical order, is to be provided at the end of the article for submission.

The style for citations within the text is shown below. Before submission, it is essential that you check that all in-text citations appear under References, and vice-versa. Please ensure consistency of referencing style throughout the manuscript.

In-text Citations

Citations within the text require only authors' surname/s and date/s in brackets within the text - (Wilson 2005).

If the author name/s appears as part of the text flow, the year (and specific page number if necessary) appears in parentheses immediately after the name - 'Wilson (2005: 221-233)'.

Where there are three authors, for the first citation, use all surnames and the date - (Grant, Luxford & Darbyshire 2005) - and thereafter, for that citation, use - (Grant et al 2005).

Where there are four or more authors, use the following throughout the text - (Kristjanson et al 2005). [Note that all author names must be included in the References List.]

Multiple references are separated by a semi-colon - (Minton & Carrier 2005; Martin & McCann 2005; Kirk & McManus 2002).

Second and third level citations - ... (Oltjenbruns (2001) cited in Stroebe M et al (2001) pp.169-197).

Reference List

Books, book chapters, edited books

Each reference must include author/s names and initials, year of publication, book title, publisher and place of publication and, if appropriate, page numbers:

Barkway P (2005) Theories on mental health and mental illness, in Elder R, Evans E and Nizette D (eds) Practical Perspectives in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Ch 7, Elsevier, Sydney.

Davidson P, Elliott D and Daffurn K (2003) Leading contemporary approaches to nursing practice, in Daly J, Speedy S and Jackson D (eds) Nursing Leadership, Churchill Livingstone, Sydney.

Graham H (1987), Smith GD and Morris J (1994) cited in Jarvis MJ and Wardle J (1999) Social patterning of individual health behaviours: The case of cigarette smoking, in Marmot M and Wilkinson R (eds) Social Determinants of Health, pp.240-255, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Hamilton H (1994) Winning finance for your project, in Robertson J (ed) Handbook of Nursing Research, pp.147-153, Churchill Livingstone, Melbourne.

McCoppin B and Gardner H (1996) Nursing Practice 2nd edn, pp.100-105, Arc, Sydney.

Journals and Periodicals

Each journal reference must include author surname/s and initials or organisation name, year of publication, full title of article, full name of journal, volume and (optional) issue numbers, and page range (in full) of the article. If the same author/s have published more than once in the same year, the articles are differentiated by marking the years with 'a', 'b':

American Thoracic Society Board of Directors (1999) Pulmonary rehabilitation - 1999, American Journal of Critical Care Medicine 159: 1666-1682.

Chapman R and Orb A (2001) Coping strategies in clinical practice: The nursing students' lived experience, Contemporary Nurse 11(1): 95-103.

Harvey E, Oxman A and O'Brien MA (2001) Changing provider behaviour: An overview of systematic reviews of interventions, Medical Care 39(8)(Suppl 2): 112-145.

Streubert HJ and O'Toole M (1991) Review of research on male nursing students, in Baj PA and Clayton G (eds) Review of Research in Nursing Education, 4: 31-50, NLN, New York cited in, Paterson BL, Tschikota S, Crawford M, Saydak M, Venkatesh P and Aronowitz T (1996) (eds) Learning to care: Gender issues for male nursing students, Canadian Journal of Nursing Research 28(1): 25-39.

Reports, Theses, Symposia and Conference papers (published and unpublished)

Al-Yaman F, Bryant M and Sargeant H (2002) Australia's Children: Their Health and Wellbeing, pp.x-xii, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2000) Australia's Health 2000: The Seventh Biennial Health Report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, AIHW, Canberra.

Maloney M (1996) Power in a Residential Facility for Disabled People: A Critical Ethnographic Account. PhD thesis, Deakin University, Victoria. [If the thesis has been published, the title is in italics.]

National Public Health Partnership (NPHP) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (1998) Encouraging Quality Public Health Research: Workshop Proceedings. A workshop jointly sponsored by NPHP and NHMRC, October 1998, Canberra.

Singh S and Richards L (1999) 'Missing data: Finding 'central' themes in qualitative research'. Paper: Issues of Rigour in Qualitative Research Conference, 6-10 July, Association for Qualitative Research, Melbourne.

Tuckett A (2004) 'Truth-telling in Aged Care: A Qualitative Study'. Unpublished doctoral thesis. School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove.

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2001) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, WHO, Geneva.

Internet Citations

American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), American Nursing Association (ANA), American Hospital Association Online Store (AONE) and National League for Nursing (NLN) (2001) Strategies to reverse the new nursing shortage. A policy statement from Tri-Council members: AACN, ANA, AONE and NLN, accessed at http://www.nursingworldorg/pressrel/2001/pr0206.htm on 28 December 2004.

Carver J (2004) Love and Stockholm Syndrome: The mystery of loving an abuser. Mental Health Matters, accessed at www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/print.php?artID=469 on 15 July 2004.

World Health Organization WHO (2000) Nursing and midwifery services facing crisis, experts say, WHO, Geneva, accessed at www.who.org.com on 25 November 2004.

Artwork Presentation
Tables and Figure graphics:

Each table or figure should have a sentence in your text that introduces it. Useful tables and figures do not duplicate the text or each other. Carefully consider what each table or figure adds to your work. Look at tables and figures in published, hard-copy issues of Contemporary Nurse to get ideas for preferred formats.

Figures and Tables should be placed at the END of your text file (following references) with their desired locations cross-referenced within the text, as follows:
[Insert Table 1 here]

They should be centered and numbered consecutively (one sequence for Tables, one for Figures) using Arabic numerals (eg Table 1, Figure 2, etc) and have self-explanatory captions, in bold, title-style, left-aligned, above the figure or table, eg
Figure 2: Distribution of the Online Learning Literature

Important: Artwork labels (such as axes labels or legends, etc) are to use minimal capitalisation, and appear using only bold, roman or italic Helvetica, Arial or Times New Roman fonts, otherwise distortion occurs.

The final published dimensions will be 200mm x 145mm, placed portrait or landscape. Artwork must be suitable for immediate BLACK and WHITE reproduction (do not use similar colours), because it will not be redrawn.

Artwork is required to be presented to the publisher with NO COLOURS OTHER THAN BLACK (ie only 100% black or greys). If other colours are used, printability is jeopardized and, importantly, so is readability.

Use more than one page if needed for Tables to achieve a neat, readable presentation. Do not use code names and abbreviations, eg Use 'Profitability' not 'PRFT'.

Each table should report one type of analysis (identified by its title), and each column and row should contain only one type of data. Place labels across the top or down the side. The body of your table should contain only data.

Photographs

If author photographs are to be supplied, they should be clear, with good contrast, be of the head and shoulders, and be cropped to approximately 40mm x 50mm in dimension.

Electronic black and white (greyscale) TIFFs of high resolution (300 dpi minimum) are preferred, around 300KB in size.

Low resolution (ie under 150 dpi) JPEGs or GIFFs are NOT suitable for printing. Do not repeat-save JPEGs, because the JPEG automatically compresses with each save, thereby losing detail each time.

JPEG files are 'lossy' files; that is, each and every time a JPEG is saved, it is compressed, which means it loses information or detail each time. As well, JPEGs prepared for the web are usually reduced to 72 dpi for fast downloads. The resolution needed for print production is 300 dpi minimum.

In contrast, TIFFs don't compress with each save, which is a strong reason to receive TIFFs in the first instance. GIFFs are the same as JPEGs and are also usually low-resolution for web publishing. High resolution GIFFs will reproduce.

 

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. Author Warranties:

    The authors warrant that the material has not been previously published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

    By submission of material to Contemporary Nurse, all authors warrant that the material is their own, original material or that copyright clearance has been acquired to reproduce other material from employers, third parties or attributed to third parties. It is the responsibility of the authors to secure the release of any copyright material and to provide written evidence to this effect to eContent Management Pty Ltd. It is also the authors' responsibility to obtain clearance for reproduction from the organisation which commissioned the work if applicable.

  2. Submission of material to Contemporary Nurse journal implies all authors' consent to assignment of the material's copyright to eContent Management Pty Ltd when that material is accepted for publication in the journal, for the full legal term of copyright and any renewals thereof throughout the world in all formats and in any medium of communication (see Copyright section).

  3. By submitting material to Contemporary Nurse, all authors of the material agree to indemnify eContent Management Pty Ltd, and its heirs and assigns in business, against any litigation or claims that may arise from the content of or opinions in the material provided. On acceptance for publication, an agreement specifying these terms will be sent to the corresponding author for signature by all authors of that manuscript.

    (Note: On acceptance for publication, an agreement specifying the terms noted here and above will be sent to the corresponding author for signature by all authors of that manuscript. No printers proof will be sent to the author. The copy provided by the author on acceptance is the version used for typesetting. The publisher reserves the right to make editing corrections.)

  4. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
  5. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
  6. Your abstract will be copy/pasted into the 2nd page of this web form.
  7. All citations refer to a publication listed in the References section of the manuscript and all references have been cited in the text.
 

Copyright Notice

Copyright of published articles is held by eContent Management Pty Ltd. No limitation will be placed on the personal freedom of authors to copy or to use in subsequent work, material contained in their papers. Please contact the Publisher for clarification if you are unsure of the use of copyright material. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of research and private study, or criticism and or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the Publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Agency Limited:

Level 19, 157 Liverpool Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Tel: +61 (0)2 9394 7600, Fax: +61 (0)2 9394 7601
www.copyright.com.au

 

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes below and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party:

  • Authors agree that the publisher of the journal may send them materials related to the subject of the journal from time-to-time.

 



Contemporary Nurse

ISSN 1037-6178
©2009 eContent Management