Author Guidelines

1. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Thank you for your interest in Nursing & Health Sciences. 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.
Please also note that page charges may apply if articles are longer than specified page lengths.

Once you have prepared your submission in accordance with the Guidelines, manuscripts should
be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nhs
We look forward to your submission.

2. EDITORIAL AND CONTENT CONSIDERATIONS

Aims and Scope
Nursing & Health Sciences (NHS) is a premier international journal focusing on the exchange of
knowledge in nursing and health sciences, particularly between the East and West. It has an
international authorship, readership and Editorial Board. The journal was the first nursing and
health sciences journal to be fully published in English in Japan. It began in 1999 and is
published with the Society for Nursing and Health Sciences at Yamaguchi University. By
encouraging Eastern and Western scholars to share their knowledge and experiences, NHS
provides readers with a deeper understanding of health care around the world, and the
opportunity to enrich their own practices to improve global health.
NHS provides an opportunity for the sharing of both formal, research based knowledge and more
informal clinical experience and practice. The journal publishes scholarly manuscripts, case
reports and opinion papers that enrich the understanding of nursing and health sciences around
the world.

Editorial Review and Acceptance Criteria

Criteria for acceptance of manuscripts by NHS include: the originality and timeliness of the
scholarly endeavor; International relevance; methodological soundness; the quality, clarity, and
readability of the manuscript; and potential importance of the work to nursing and health
sciences. The revision and recommendation process may need to occur several times before a
manuscript is accepted for publication.

Submissions will be peer reviewed by at least two anonymous members of the Editorial Board,
as well as the Editor-in-Chief, who reserves the right to refuse any material for publication.
Manuscripts will be published upon the recommendations of Editorial Board members and at the
discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

All manuscripts should be written so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is
not a specialist in the particular field. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for
publication, the Editor-in-Chief or the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to
eliminate ambiguity or repetition, and improve communication between author and reader.

Manuscripts are checked for their adherence to NHS author guidelines and for their similarity to
other sources (using Similarity Check).

3. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
NHS, together with other Wiley publications, holds membership with the Committee of
Publication Ethics (COPE) and adheres to the following guidelines for publication and research:

A. The Editor-in-Chief takes final responsibility for this journal to ensure the highest standards
of publication. The Editor is expected to uphold scientific standards of publication and
COPE's Standards of Conduct in Editing, and to identify publication misconduct in
submitted or published articles. See: http://publicationethics.org/
B. The protocol for any human research must have been approved by a suitably constituted
research ethics committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken, and must
conform to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki in 1995 (as revised in Edinburgh
2000). See: http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/
C. When considering what types of studies require ethical approval, the Editor-in-Chief will
conform to the Guidance for Editors: Research, Audit and Service Evaluations 2008,
outlined on COPE's
website: http://publicationethics.org/files/u2/Audit_research_guidelines.pdf
D. All manuscripts must state the proper title of the committee(s) which gave research ethics
approval for the research. Without this manuscripts will not be sent for peer review and will
be rejected.
E. All contributing authors must have significantly contributed to the research and writing of
the manuscript, and approved the content before submission, or resubmission. At NHS it is
our policy not to accept manuscripts with more than six authors, unless specific evidence is
provided to show that a large number of co-authors is warranted (for example in a large
scale national or international study).
F. All sources of funding or products must be included in the Acknowledgement section of the
manuscript.
G. Any financial or personal conflicts of interest in products, technology or methodology must
be declared in writing to the Editor-in-Chief at the time of submission. Such information
will be treated as confidential, but may be revealed to reviewers at the discretion of the
Editor-in-Chief.
H. Any clinical trials should be reported using the CONSORT guidelines and the submission
checklist available at: http://www.consort-statement.org/
I. The Editor-In-Chief reserves the right to reject any manuscript where it suspected there is
unethical conduct during a research project, or in the manuscript authoring or content.
 J. The corresponding author will be responsible for certifying that permission has been
received to use copyrighted instruments or software employed in the research and this
should be recorded in the manuscript.
4. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND LENGTH
Articles types published by NHS include:

o Original research of all designs and methods, related to clinical practice, education, health
policy, health management, health service delivery and evaluation, or public health. Pilot
studies are not usually a priority for publication.
NHS aim to publish timely and currently relevant research and data collection should have
taken place within five years of submitting your manuscript.
o Research methodology and protocols.
o Systematic reviews of research evidence (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods); meta-
analyses; meta-syntheses. (Please note that narrative or traditional literature reviews are no
longer published).
o Scholarly papers presenting in-depth analysis and discussion of philosophical, theoretical,
conceptual, professional practice or health policy issues or innovations. NHS publishes
concept analysis papers when it is clear that the analysis extends any other similar work
about the concept, and the concept is relevant to an international readership.
o Commentary on previous articles published in NHS (include all details of the article being
published) or Letters to the Editor.
NOTE: Authors wishing to write Guest Editorials should communicate directly with the Editor-
in-Chief.

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: 4,000 words

Review article: 6,000 words

Brief Communication: 2,000 words

Commentary on previous papers published in NHS: 1,500 words

Page charges:
A page charge of 25,000 Japanese Yen per excess page may be levied to the author(s) when
articles exceed 8 printed pages for a research article and 10 pages for a review article after proof
copying. Authors are therefore requested to ensure that tables, figures and other supplementary
material are kept to a minimum. NOTE: The title page and reference pages are not counted in the
total words.

Color figures:
The journals charges one to three figures the total cost is $A990/$US530/¥64,000US$500, each
additional colour figure will cost $A495/$US265/¥32,000, for each page containing color.
Authors of accepted papers with color figures will be invoiced for color charges once their paper
moves into production.

5. PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Author Services Prior to submission: we encourage you to browse the ‘Author Resources’
section of the Wiley ‘Author Services’
website: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/default.asp. This site includes useful
information covering such topics as copyright matters, ethics, electronic artwork guidelines, and
how to optimize articles for search engines.
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.
Visit site to learn about the options. All services are paid for and arranged by the author. Please
note using the Wiley English Language Editing Service does not guarantee that your paper will
be accepted by this journal.
Optimising Your Article for Search Engines: Many students and researchers looking for
information online will use search engines such as Google, Yahoo or similar. By optimising your
article for search engines, you will increase the chance of someone finding it. This in turn will
make it more likely to be viewed and/or cited in another work. We have compiled these
guidelines to enable you to maximize the web-friendliness of the most public part of your article.
Style
o The journal uses US spelling and authors should follow the latest edition of the Merriam-
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
o All measurements must be given in SI units.
o 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.
o 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:

o A short title of approximately 12 words. The title should be informative and contain the
major key words, including the country or countries where the project took place and the
study design. The title should not contain abbreviations
o The full names of the authors
o The addresses of the author’s affiliated institutions at which the work was carried
o 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.
o The full postal and email address, plus telephone numbers, of the author to whom
correspondence about the manuscript should be sent
o A short running title (less than 40 characters, including spaces)
o 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. Thanks to
anonymous reviewers are not allowed.
o Word count, excluding title page, abstract, references, figures and tables.
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 in the
‘Manuscript Categories and Length’ section. 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 key words, (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 a brief abstract that states in 180 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, Literature review (which must include analysis of
contemporary literature from the last five years in particular), 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

No more than 40 references are to be used. It is wise to download a recent sample copy of a
published article from the NHS website to guide your referencing techniques. 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/) A sample of the most common entries in reference lists appears
below.
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. Please note that for
journal articles, issue numbers are not included unless each issue in the volume begins with page
one.
Journal article: Beers, S. R. , & De Bellis, M. D. (2002). Neuropsychological function in
children with maltreatment-related posttraumatic stress disorder. The American Journal of
Psychiatry, 159, 483–486. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.159.3.483
Book edition: Bradley-Johnson, S. (1994). Psychoeducational assessment of students who are
visually impaired or blind: Infancy through high school (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-ed.
Online Resources: Citing electronic sources, please use these links: Click here.
(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.

(vi) Appendices
These should be placed at the end of the paper, numbered in Roman numerals and referred to in
the text. If written by a person other than the author of the main text, the writer’s name should be
included below the title.

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. Each figure should
be supplied as a separate file, with the figure number incorporated in the file name.

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
programmes. 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.

More advice on figures can be found at Wiley’s guidelines for preparation of

figures:http://media.wiley.com/assets/7323/92/electronic_artwork_guidelines.pdf
Please note that the provision of supporting information is not encouraged as a general rule. It
will be assessed critically by reviewers and editors and will only be accepted if it is essential.

6. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Manuscripts: should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nhs.
o A cover letter should be included in the ‘Cover Letter Field’ of the ScholarOne system. The
text can be entered directly into the field or uploaded as a file.
o The cover letter should include the following:
 A statement confirming that the manuscript, has not been published or submitted for
publication elsewhere, and any explanations about that
 All authors approve the content of the manuscript and have contributed significantly to
research involved/ the writing of the manuscript;
 The protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted
research ethics committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken. You
must give the proper title of the committee(s) in the cover letter as well as the
manuscript;
 The research conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in
Brazil 2013). All participants gave informed consent for the research, and that their
anonymity was preserved; and.
o 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.
o 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.
o Each figure should be supplied as a separate file, with the figure number incorporated in the
file name. For submission, low-resolution figures saved as .jpg or .bmp files should be
uploaded, for ease of transmission during the review process. Upon acceptance of the article,
high-resolution figures (at least 300 d.p.i.) saved as .eps or .tif files will be required.
7. 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/.
8. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE
Accepted papers will be passed to Wiley’s production team for publication. The author identified
as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login
into Wiley’s Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will
be asked to complete an electronic license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper. More
details on the copyright and licencing options for the journal appear below.

Wiley’s Author Services

Author Services enables authors to track their article through the production process to
publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to
receive automated e-mails at key stages of production. The corresponding author will receive a
unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system.
Please ensure that a complete e-mail address is provided when submitting the manuscript.
Visit https://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/default.asp for more details on online production
tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission
and more.
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.
Early View
The journal offers rapid speed to publication via Wiley’s Early View service. Early View articles
are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue.
Early View articles are complete and final. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for
publication, and the authors' final corrections have been incorporated. Because they are in final
form, no changes can be made after online publication. Early View articles are given a Digital
Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before allocation to an
issue. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and
access the article. More information about DOIs can be found at http://www.doi.org/faq.html.
Offprints
A PDF reprint of the article will be supplied free of charge to the corresponding author.
Additional printed offprints may be ordered online for a fee. Please click on the following link
and fill in the necessary details and ensure that you type information in all of the required fields:
http://offprint.cosprinters.com/cos. If you have queries about offprints please e-
mail: offprint@cosprinters.com
Author Marketing Toolkit
The Wiley Author Marketing Toolkit provides authors with support on how to use social media,
publicity, conferences, multimedia, email and the web to promote their article.

9. COPYRIGHT, LICENCING AND ONLINEOPEN

Accepted papers will be passed to Wiley’s production team for publication. The author identified
as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login
into Wiley’s Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will
be asked to complete an electronic license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper.

Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright transfer
agreement (CTA), or under open access terms made available via Wiley OnlineOpen.

Standard Copyright Transfer Agreement: FAQs about the terms and conditions of the
standard CTA in place for the journal, including standard terms regarding archiving of the
accepted version of the paper, are available at: Copyright Terms and Conditions FAQs.
Note that in signing the journal’s licence agreement authors agree that consent to reproduce
figures from another source has been obtained.

OnlineOpen – Wiley’s Open Access Option: OnlineOpen is available to authors of articles

who wish to make their article freely available to all on Wiley Online Library under a Creative
Commons license. With OnlineOpen, the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's
institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made open access. Authors of OnlineOpen
articles are permitted to post the final, published PDF of their article on their personal website,
and in an institutional repository or other free public server immediately after publication. All
OnlineOpen articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the
journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.
OnlineOpen licenses: Authors choosing OnlineOpen retain copyright in their article and have a
choice of publishing under the following Creative Commons License terms: Creative Commons
Attribution License (CC BY); Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC BY
NC); Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial-NoDerivs License (CC BY NC ND). To
preview the terms and conditions of these open access agreements please visit the Copyright
Terms and Conditions FAQs.
Funder Open Access and Self-Archiving Compliance: Please click here for more information
on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access and Self Archiving Policies, and click
here for more detailed information specifically about Self-Archiving definitions and policies.
Author Guidelines updated November, 2016
APPENDIX
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and subscribes to the
principles set out by COPE. The journal also refers to Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on
Publication Ethics: http://exchanges.wiley.com/ethicsguidelines.
The Editor-in-Chief takes final responsibility for this journal to ensure the highest standards of
publication. They are expected to uphold scientific standards of publication and COPE's
Standards of Conduct in Editing, and to identify publication misconduct in submitted or
published articles. See: http://publicationethics.org/ for more information.
When considering what types of studies require ethical approval, the Editor-in-Chief will
conform to the Guidance for Editors: Research, Audit and Service Evaluations 2008, outlined on
COPE's website: http://publicationethics.org/files/u2/Audit_research_guidelines.pdf.
Principles for Publication of Research Involving Human Subjects
Manuscripts must contain a statement to the effect that all human studies have been reviewed by
the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the
ethical standards laid down in an appropriate version of the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in
Brazil 2013), available at http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html. It
should also state clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their
inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under the study
should be omitted.
In general, submission of a case report should be accompanied by the written consent of the
subject (or parent/guardian) before publication; this is particularly important where photographs
are to be used or in cases where the unique nature of the incident reported makes it possible for
the patient to be identified. While the Editors recognize that it might not always be possible or
appropriate to seek such consent, the onus will be on the authors to demonstrate that this
exception applies in their case.

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 i) 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:

o Randomised controlled trials (RCTs): CONSORT guidelines
o Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA guidelines and MOOSE guidelines
o Observational studies in epidemiology: STROBE guidelines and MOOSE guidelines
o Diagnostic accuracy studies: STARD guidelines
o Quality improvement studies: SQUIRE guidelines
Plagiarism Detection
The journal employs a plagiarism detection system. By submitting your manuscript to this
journal you accept that your manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously
published works.

10. Editorial Office Nursing & Health Sciences

E-mail: nhs@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp Tel: +81 836 22 2132 Fax: +81 836 22 2130
Updated on April 2017