Journal Policies

This page outlines the journal-specific policies that govern manuscript evaluation, peer review, publication ethics, research integrity, reporting standards, data transparency and post-publication responsibilities.

These policies should be read together with ZENTIME's publisher-level Editorial Policies, Publishing Policies, and Open Access, Fees and Licensing policy. Where journal-specific requirements supplement publisher-level policies, authors should follow both sets of requirements unless otherwise specified.

As a journal focusing on research in nursing science, clinical nursing, community and public health nursing, nursing education, care quality, patient safety, nursing management, implementation research, digital nursing and related interdisciplinary fields, the journal requires authors to provide clear reporting of study design, care setting, participant protection, nursing intervention components, professional roles, data governance, conflicts of interest and patient or public involvement where applicable.

The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers and editorial board members to follow internationally recognized guidelines and recommendations of responsible scholarly publishing, including relevant guidance issued by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE),  World Association of Medical Editors (WAME),  International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and EQUATOR Network, where applicable.

The journal operates a rigorous and consistent peer review process to ensure the quality, integrity, clinical relevance and scholarly value of published content.

All submitted manuscripts are first assessed by the editorial office or a handling editor for completeness, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, ethical compliance, reporting quality and suitability for further evaluation. Manuscripts that are outside the journal's scope, do not meet basic reporting standards, lack sufficient originality or raise significant ethical, privacy or safety concerns may be rejected before external peer review.

The journal uses a single-blind peer review model, in which reviewers remain anonymous to authors. Research articles, systematic reviews, clinical studies, qualitative studies, mixed-methods studies, nursing education studies, quality improvement reports and other scholarly manuscripts requiring external review are normally assessed by two or more independent reviewers with relevant expertise.

For manuscripts involving qualitative methods, complex nursing interventions, implementation research, nursing education, workforce studies, digital health tools or patient safety outcomes, editors may invite reviewers with methodological or subject-specific expertise as appropriate.

Reviewer comments are advisory. Final editorial decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief or designated handling editor based on editorial assessment, reviewer comments, methodological rigor, originality, ethical compliance, relevance to nursing practice or science, and suitability for the journal.

Editorials, commentaries, letters, corrections and invited content may be reviewed internally or externally at the discretion of the editors, according to the nature of the content.

The journal maintains editorial independence in all editorial decisions. Decisions on individual manuscripts are made by the Editor-in-Chief, handling editors or other authorized editorial personnel in accordance with the journal's policies.

Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, ethical integrity, clinical or educational relevance, and contribution to nursing science, practice, education, leadership or policy. Decisions are not influenced by commercial interests, advertising, sponsorship, institutional affiliation, political considerations or the financial interests of ZENTIME, journal owners, editors, editorial board members, healthcare organizations, educational institutions or any third party.

Editors and editorial board members must maintain confidentiality, declare conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts when their impartiality may be compromised. Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members or journal staff will be handled independently by an editor without conflict of interest and will undergo the same editorial assessment and peer review processes as other submissions.

The journal is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and research integrity. Authors, editors and reviewers are expected to act with honesty, transparency and accountability throughout the submission, review and publication process.

The journal considers plagiarism, redundant publication, duplicate submission, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, citation manipulation, authorship manipulation, peer review manipulation, paper mill involvement and other forms of research or publication misconduct unacceptable.

For nursing research, authors must not misrepresent care processes, intervention fidelity, qualitative findings, participant quotations, survey responses, patient-reported outcomes, education outcomes, workforce data, institutional data, implementation results or sponsor involvement.

Suspected misconduct will be investigated according to the journal's procedures and ZENTIME's publisher-level policies. Depending on the circumstances, outcomes may include a request for clarification, manuscript rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, article removal or notification of relevant institutions or authorities.

All listed authors must have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work, approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that authorship, author order, corresponding author details and required declarations have been agreed by all authors before submission.

The journal requires an author contribution statement and encourages the use of the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework where appropriate. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged with their permission.

Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial competing interests that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the work. Relevant disclosures may include employment, consultancy, advisory roles, honoraria, grants, institutional affiliations, leadership roles, policy advocacy positions, patents, licensing agreements, software or training platform interests, sponsored education programs, data access arrangements, writing assistance, statistical support or other relationships with healthcare organizations, universities, nursing homes, community agencies, technology providers, insurers, funders or sponsors.

All funding sources, grant numbers and institutional support should be disclosed. Authors should state the role of funders or sponsors, where applicable, in study design, intervention development, participant recruitment, data collection, data access, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation and the decision to submit for publication.

Authors should state whether they had full access to the study data and whether the sponsor, funder, institution or service provider had any role in approving or restricting publication.

Changes to authorship after submission require a clear explanation, written agreement from all authors and editorial approval.

Research involving patients, nurses, nursing students, healthcare professionals, caregivers, families, community members, human data or human tissue must obtain appropriate ethics approval or exemption where required. Authors should state the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board, approval number or reference number, and any relevant exemption information in the manuscript.

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national and international ethical standards. Authors should provide details of ethical approval and animal welfare measures where applicable.

Studies involving nursing care, clinical interventions, community-based programs, education interventions, workplace studies, quality improvement initiatives, digital health tools or vulnerable populations should also meet applicable ethical and regulatory standards.

Authors should identify and mitigate potential power differentials and risks of coercion when research involves patients receiving care, nurses employed by participating institutions, students whose performance is assessed by investigators, caregivers, older adults, children, people with cognitive impairment, people with mental health conditions, patients with serious illness, people in long-term care or other vulnerable groups.

Informed consent should be obtained where required. Written consent for publication is required for identifiable patient or participant information, including clinical images, videos, audio recordings, interview quotations, case details, field notes, workplace observations, educational assessment data, monitoring data or other personal information.

Patient, participant and staff privacy must be protected. Identifying information should not be published unless essential and properly consented. Authors should take particular care when reporting qualitative quotations, small samples, rare conditions, identifiable care settings, workplace incidents or institutional data.

Manuscripts reporting nursing interventions, care models, education programs, implementation strategies, quality improvement activities or service innovations should provide sufficient detail to support evaluation, interpretation and replication.

Where applicable, authors should describe:

· the care setting and clinical or community context;

· target population and eligibility criteria;

· intervention components and theoretical basis;

· who delivered the intervention and their qualifications or training;

· dose, frequency, duration, intensity and mode of delivery;

· tailoring, adaptation and implementation processes;

· intervention fidelity, adherence and quality assurance procedures;

· comparator, usual care or control condition;

· patient safety, acceptability, feasibility and burden;

· nursing-sensitive outcomes, patient-reported outcomes and process measures;

· adverse events, unintended consequences or implementation barriers.

For nursing education studies, authors should describe the learner group, educational setting, curriculum or teaching intervention, assessment methods, validity evidence, evaluator blinding where applicable and limitations in transferability to practice.

For implementation or service improvement studies, authors should describe the organizational context, stakeholder involvement, implementation strategy, adoption, fidelity, sustainability and factors affecting generalizability.

Clinical trials and interventional studies must be registered in a publicly accessible registry before participant recruitment begins, where applicable. The registry name and registration number should be included in the manuscript.

Manuscripts reporting clinical trials should include a data sharing statement where required by applicable guidelines, standards or journal policy. The statement should indicate whether de-identified individual participant data will be shared, what data will be shared, whether related documents such as the study protocol or statistical analysis plan will be available, the timing and duration of data access, and the conditions for access.

Authors should follow appropriate reporting guidelines according to study design. Relevant guidelines may include CONSORT for randomized trials, CONSORT extensions for cluster or pragmatic trials where applicable, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, STROBE for observational studies, SPIRIT for trial protocols, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, CARE for case reports, COREQ or SRQR for qualitative research, SQUIRE for quality improvement, TIDieR for intervention description, GRIPP2 for patient and public involvement, ARRIVE for animal studies and other EQUATOR Network resources.

For surveys, authors should describe sampling, recruitment, instrument development or validation, response rate, missing data and potential non-response bias. For mixed-methods studies, authors should describe the design, integration of qualitative and quantitative components, rationale for mixing methods and limitations.

Reporting checklists and flow diagrams should be submitted where required by the journal or relevant reporting guideline.

Authors should include a Data Availability Statement where applicable, describing where the data supporting the findings can be accessed or explaining why data cannot be shared.

Data, protocols, survey instruments, interview guides, codebooks, intervention manuals, education materials, implementation tools, software, analytic code and supplementary materials should be shared where ethically, legally and practically possible.

Restrictions due to privacy, ethics, legal, commercial, intellectual property, employment, institutional confidentiality or participant re-identification risks should be clearly explained.

For clinical, qualitative, workplace or education studies, authors should ensure that shared data are appropriately de-identified and consistent with ethics approval, informed consent and applicable data protection requirements. Special caution is required for interview transcripts, audio recordings, field notes, small samples, workplace data, student assessment data, staff performance data and sensitive care-related information.

Supplementary materials should support the main article and should not replace essential methods, results, intervention details, safety information, qualitative context or data needed to evaluate the work.

AI tools and large language models cannot be listed as authors. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality and integrity of all submitted content, including any content generated or assisted by AI tools.

Use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies beyond basic spelling/grammar/language editing should be disclosed in the manuscript according to the journal’s requirements. AI tools must not be used to fabricate, falsify or manipulate data, images, references, qualitative quotations, patient narratives, survey responses, clinical outputs, education outcomes, performance results or conclusions.

For manuscripts involving AI-enabled nursing tools, digital health interventions, telehealth, remote monitoring, electronic health record data, decision support systems, prediction models, education platforms or automated feedback systems, authors should describe the intended use, system version, development and validation methods, datasets, performance metrics, clinical workflow, human oversight, limitations, potential risks and safeguards where applicable.

Authors should clearly distinguish between human-generated content, AI-generated content, simulated content and real patient, participant, student or staff data. Use of synthetic data, simulated cases or generated images should be disclosed and justified.

Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, peer review reports, decision letters or related materials to public AI tools unless explicitly permitted by the journal and consistent with confidentiality and data protection requirements.

The journal considers manuscripts that have been posted as preprints, provided that the work has not been published as a peer-reviewed article and is not under consideration by another journal at the same time.

Authors must disclose any preprint, conference abstract, thesis, report, trial registry record, quality improvement report, institutional report, education resource, policy document or related prior dissemination at submission. Where applicable, authors should provide the preprint server name, DOI or link.

If the manuscript is accepted, authors are encouraged to update the preprint record with a citation and link to the final published article where permitted by the preprint server. Duplicate submission and redundant publication are not permitted.

Open Access

The journal is a Gold Open Access journal. All published articles are freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication.

Authors should review the journal's Open Access and Fees page before submission for information on article processing charges, waiver or discount options, copyright, licensing, article sharing and self-archiving.

Copyright

Authors are required to transfer copyright in their accepted manuscript to the journal upon acceptance for publication.

In exceptional circumstances, including where specific institutional or funder requirements apply, authors may contact the editorial office to discuss alternative copyright arrangements.

Licensing

All published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

The CC BY 4.0 license permits others to share, copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon the work for any purpose, including commercially, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original authors and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated.

Article Sharing and Self-Archiving

Authors may share, host and self-archive the published Version of Record in accordance with the CC BY 4.0 license.

Articles may be shared through institutional repositories, personal websites, academic networks and other appropriate platforms, provided that appropriate attribution to the original publication is retained and the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license are respected.

Use of Third-Party and Previously Published Material

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce or adapt material owned by third parties where permission is required. This includes material previously published by the authors themselves if the copyright is held by another publisher or third party.

Permission may be required for, including but not limited to:

• previously published figures, tables, graphs, charts, schemes, artworks or other content that is reproduced or only slightly modified;

• substantial extracts of text or other material from previously published works;

• photographs, images or other visual materials for which the authors do not hold the necessary rights; and

• the authors' own previously published material where the authors have not retained the relevant copyright or reuse rights.

Authors should obtain all necessary permissions before submitting the manuscript and provide appropriate attribution and permission statements where required.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the use of third-party material complies with applicable copyright, license and permission requirements. Third-party material may not necessarily be covered by the CC BY 4.0 license applied to the article as a whole.

The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity and transparency of the scholarly record. Post-publication updates may include corrections, expressions of concern, retractions or, in exceptional circumstances, article removal where appropriate.

Corrections may be issued for substantive errors that do not invalidate the article. Retractions may be issued when findings are unreliable, affected by serious ethical violations or substantially compromised. Expressions of concern may be issued when serious concerns remain unresolved.

For nursing research, post-publication concerns may include unreliable patient safety data, unreported harms, undisclosed conflicts of interest, misrepresented intervention fidelity, fabricated or altered qualitative data, privacy breaches, inappropriate use of identifiable participant data, inaccurate education or workforce data, or other issues that may affect clinical, educational, organizational or scientific interpretation.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision or submit a complaint by contacting the Editorial Office. Appeals should identify specific concerns, such as a possible error in the editorial process, a misunderstanding of the manuscript or evidence that relevant information was not adequately considered.

Submission of an appeal does not guarantee reconsideration, further review or reversal of the original decision. Repeated appeals without new evidence may not be considered. Complaints regarding editorial conduct, peer review, conflicts of interest, confidentiality or publication ethics will be handled fairly, independently and in a timely manner.

Related ZENTIME publisher policies:

· Editorial Policies

· Publishing Policies

· Open Access, Fees and Licensing

Related external standards and resources may include:

· Committee on Publication Ethics

· World Association of Medical Editors

· International Committee of Medical Journal Editors

· EQUATOR Network

· CONSORT

· PRISMA

· STROBE

· SPIRIT

· STARD

· CARE

· COREQ

· SRQR

· SQUIRE

· TIDieR

· GRIPP2

· ARRIVE