Submissions

Parts of the Manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: (1) Title page and (2) Main text file. Copyright form is not required as the author(s) retains unrestricted copyrights (Read copyright notice and open access policy).

(1) Title Page 

This must include the following information:

• Title of the manuscript
• Names (spelled out in full) of all the authors*, and the institutions with which they are affiliated)
• Corresponding author's details (name, email, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers)
• Declaration of Conflicting Interest
• Funding (with a grant number, if available)
• Acknowledgment
• Authors' Contributions (Clearly state the contribution of each author; ensure each author meets 4 authorship criteria based on ICMJE Recommendations)
• Author's Biographies (Academic or structural position of each author and ORCiD iD)
• Data Availability Statement (Check data sharing policy)
• Ethical Consideration (State the complete name of institutions or ethics committee and approval number)
• Statement that authors will pay APC if their article is editorially accepted (except for editorial or guest editorial)

(2) Main Text

Please click below on the type of manuscript you are planning to submit, and follow the guidance provided. Or, you can choose a reporting guideline from EQUATOR Network or NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives. 

• Original Research Article: Quantitative Studies; Qualitative studies; Mixed Methods
• Methodology Paper
• Study Protocol
• Review Article
• Theory and Concept Development
• Nursing Philosophy Paper
• Editorial
• Guest Editorial
• Letter to the Editor
• Perspective
• Case study

Abstract

It is noted that, since January 2022, an abstract is required to all article types. The guideline for writing an abstract can be seen in each type of the article.  The abstract should be included in the main text during the submission.

Keywords

For keywords of abstract,  Please use MeSH on Demand by US National Library of Medicine. Copy and paste your abstract, then see how keywords come up. Choose 3-10 keywords for your article.

Table

Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. 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. Put the tables in the main content in the appropriate position, instead of putting them under the references.

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.

Figures

Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted. 

References

There is a change of reference and citation format since Vol 3(6) based on the Editors' agreement due to the previous format is not available in the Mendeley software that the majority of authors use for submission in BNJ.

APA (American Psychological Association) format 6th or 7th Edition with DOI assigned is acceptable for citation and references. Examples of references can be seen here.

SUBMISSION OF REVISED MANUSCRIPT

To submit revised manuscript, the authors should combine "response to reviewers" file (including a point by point response listed or in a table) and main text (with highlights of changes) into one file.

To submit a revised paper please log in to your account. Please do not submit your revised manuscript as a new submission, as revised manuscripts are processed differently.

ON ACCEPTANCE AND PUBLICATION

The post-acceptance steps are as follows:

• Complete the title page if you do not submit at the first time of submission.
• Authors need to pay the Article Processing Charge, and send the proof of payment to the editor.
• The authors will receive copyediting request which should be checked thoroughly and returned promptly. In this stage, the accepted manuscripts are copy edited for punctuation, print style, and format. The authors are responsible for English grammar check of their manuscript. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three or seven days. 
• After copyediting stage, the authors will receive the final proof of article which should be checked thoroughly and returned promptly. In this stage, final page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online.
• The article will be published open access on the journal website as EARLY VIEW article.
• The article will then be included to the upcoming issue.

EARLY VIEW

Early View articles are peer-reviewed and accepted articles that have been officially published in BNJ (as Online Version of Record). When the article is assigned to a volume/issue, the Early View article version will be removed, and the Final version will appear in the associated published volume/issue of the journal. The date an article was first made available online will be carried over. The only difference between Early View and Final versions of the articles is that the Early View articles do not have page numbers yet. Please note that the DOI number in both versions is the same but not yet registered in the Crossref until it is published in a regular issue.