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Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal

Author Guidelines

This document provides details on the typesetting and layout requirements for submitting your final manuscript to the Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal.

Formatting Requirements

  • Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file. Word, RTF, and PDF files are acceptable.
  • Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
  • All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1 inch (2.54 cm), including your tables and figures.
  • Double space your text.
  • Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.
  • Use Century Gothic Regular font throughout all aspects of the manuscript including, title page, body, tables, figures, and reference list.
  • Font Size:
    1. Main Body—11 pt. font.
    2. Footnotes—10 pt. font.
  • Font color: The entirety of the manuscript should be written using black text.
  • If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
  • Copyedit your manuscript.
  • When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.

Additional Recommendations

Indenting, Line Spacing, and Justification

Indent the first line of every paragraph 0.5 inches.

Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below. The entirety of block quotations should be indented 0.5 inches from the left margin.

Don't "widow" or "orphan" text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph).

All text should be left-justified and the right margin should be left uneven or “ragged”  (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented). Do not use full justification. 

 

Language & Grammar

All submissions must be in English. Except for common foreign words and phrases, the use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided.

Authors should use proper, standard English grammar. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (now in its fourth edition) is the "standard" guide, but other excellent guides (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press) exist as well.

Article Length

Manuscripts that report quality improvement projects or evidence-based practice initiatives should be no more than 12 pages in length. Manuscripts that report findings from research studies should be no more than 15 pages. Page length restrictions do not include the reference lists. 

Colored text

Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc., however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when they print the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to "accept all changes" in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final markup.)

Emphasized text

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

Foreign terms

Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Headings

Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text. 

Example Headings

Level 1: Centered, Bold, and Title Case

Level 2: Flush left, Bold, and Title Case

Level 3: Flush left, Bold, Italic, Title Case

Level 4: Indented, Bold Title Case, Ending with a Period.

Level 5: Indented, Bold, Italic, Title Case, Ending with a Period. 

Titles

Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Footnotes

Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper. Footnotes should be in 10-pt .font, single spaced, separated from the main text by a rule (line). Footnotes should be numbered consecutively in the order of appearance. Footnote numbers should be in superscript and must follow, rather than precede, punctuation. Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix. All footnotes should be left-aligned.

Tables and Figures

To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within 1" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

Mathematics

Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.

Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions should appear as display math, separate from the text body. Also, expressions using many different levels (e.g., such as the fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.

Equations should be numbered sequentially. Number all equations consecutively and display the equation number in parentheses that are aligned with the right margin.

Symbols and notation in unusual fonts should be avoided. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but it will also help insure that it displays correctly on the reader's screen and prints correctly on her printer. When proofing your document under PDF pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notation drawn from other than standard fonts

 

References

It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information. Begin the reference list on a new page following the main text. References should have margins that are fully justified. You may choose not to right-justify the margin of one or more references if the spacing looks too awkward. References should be double spaced with a hanging indent of 0.5 inches, meaning that the first line of each reference is flush with the left margin and subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches. Each reference should give the last names of all the authors, their first names or first initials, and, optionally, their middle initials. The hierarchy for ordering the references is:

  1. Last name of first author
  2. First name of first author
  3. Last name of second author (if any). Co-authored work is listed after solo-authored work by the same first author (e.g., Edlin, Aaron S. would precede Edlin, Aaron S. and Stefan Reichelstein).
  4. First name of second author
  5. Publication date
  6. Order cited in text

The information to be given with each citation in the references is as follows:

Articles in traditional journals:

Required: Author's (authors') name(s), title of article, name of journal, year of publication (or "n.d." if no date), volume number, page numbers. 

For forthcoming (in press) articles, substitute “in press” for the publication date. 

Optional (but desirable): issue number and month/season of publication. 

Optional(but desirable): A hyperlink of the DOI to the article.

Ex. McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1-51. http://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126

Books:

Required: Author's (authors') name(s), title of book, year of publication (or "n.d." if no date), publisher, edition (if not first). 

For forthcoming (in press) books, substitute “in press” for publication year.

Ex. Brown, L. S. (2018) Feminist Theory (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org

Chapters in collections or anthologies:

Required: Name(s) of author(s) of chapter, name(s) of editor(s) of book, title of chapter, title of book, year of publication (or "n.d." if no date), publisher, and edition (if not first).

For forthcoming (in press) books, substitute “in press” for publication year.

Ex. Balsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones, K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavioral therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287-314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012 

Reports by a government agency or other organization:

Required: Author's (authors') name(s), title, year (or "n.d." if no date), Publisher (e.g., "Department of Economics”,  “University of California, Berkeley" or "Author's web site: http://www.someurl.edu/author.") If the report is part of series, then the series name and the number of the working paper within the series must also be given.

Ex. National Cancer Institute. (2018). Facing forward: Life after cancer treatment (NIH Publication No. 18-2424). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/life-after-treatment.pd

Multiple works by same author

Multiple works by the same author should be listed in order of publication date, starting with the earliest publication.

Example:

Smith, J. (n.d.).

Smith, J. (2019).

Smith, J. (2022).

Smith, J. (in press).

In-text citations

Within the text of your manuscript, use the author-date method of citation. For instance,

"As noted by Smith (1776)."

When there are two authors, use both last names. For instance,

"Edlin and Reichelstein (1996) claim . . . "

If there are three or more authors give the last name of the first author and append et al. For instance, a 1987 work by Abel, Baker, and Charley, would be cited as

"Abel et al. (1987)."

If two or more cited works share the same authors and dates, use "a," "b," and so on to distinguish among them. For instance,

"Jones (1994b) provides a more general analysis of the model introduced
in Example 3 of Jones (1994a)."

When citations appear within parentheses, use commas—rather than parentheses or brackets—to separate the date from the surrounding text. For instance,

" ...(see Smith, 1776, for an early discussion of this)."