For Authors

Journal of Nursing & Allied Health is a double-blind double peer-reviewed quarterly published journal ‎that serves as a medium for the latest advancement of scientific knowledge in all the branches of ‎Nursing, Allied Health Sciences and publication of scientific investigation in these fields.‎

Journal of Nursing & Allied Health follows the ICMJE guidelines and Recommendations for the ‎Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly work" in medical journals; available at:
http://icmje.org/recommendations

Read the Aims & Scope to gain an overview and assess if your manuscript is suitable for this journal. Use the Microsoft Word template to prepare your manuscript according to the ICMJE Guidelines Read the Research and Publication Ethics guidelines and ensure that they are reflected in your manuscript Make sure that issues about publication ethics, copyright, authorship, plagiarism, conflict of interest etc. have been appropriately considered. Read the policy documents under "JNAH Policies" on the main page. Ensure that all authors have approved the content of the submitted manuscript. Download the Author Declaration Form, get it signed from all authors (Without this document your manuscript will not be processed). An Ethical Review board approval letter is required for every original study. If an ethical review board is not present in your institute, download the Ethical Declaration Form (Without this document your manuscript will not be processed). Click Register and log in to the OJS system as an author. Attach the Manuscript in Word format along with the authorship form and ethical approval letter.

Submission Checklist

Before submitting a manuscript, authors are requested to ensure that all submission requirements have been fulfilled. Incomplete submissions may be returned for revision before entering the peer review process.

Please confirm that the following requirements have been met:

The manuscript is original, has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another journal.
The manuscript has been prepared in accordance with the journal's formatting and submission guidelines.
The title page includes the full names, affiliations, ORCID iDs (where available), and contact details of all authors, with one corresponding author clearly identified.
The manuscript file has been anonymized for double-blind peer review, with no author-identifying information included in the main document.
An abstract and appropriate keywords have been provided, where applicable.
References have been formatted according to the journal's required citation style and verified for accuracy.
Tables and figures are appropriately numbered, titled, cited in the text and submitted in accordance with the journal's formatting requirements.
Ethical approval details, including the name of the approving ethics committee and approval/reference number, have been included where required.
A statement confirming informed consent has been provided for studies involving human participants, where applicable.
Clinical trials have been prospectively registered in a recognized public trial registry, and the registration number has been included in the manuscript, where applicable.
The appropriate reporting guideline (e.g., CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, CARE, SRQR, or COREQ) has been followed, and the relevant checklist has been uploaded, where applicable.
A Conflict of Interest Statement has been included.
All sources of funding have been disclosed in a Funding Statement.
A Data Availability Statement has been included, where applicable.
All authors meet the ICMJE authorship criteria, have approved the final version of the manuscript, and consent to its submission.
All required supplementary files (e.g., cover letter, reporting guideline checklist, ethics approval, figures, supplementary material, or other supporting documents) have been uploaded, where applicable.

Submission of a manuscript confirms that the authors have reviewed this checklist and that the manuscript complies with the journal's editorial, ethical and submission requirements.

Required Submission Files

Cover letter addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, stating the manuscript's significance and confirming it is original and not under review elsewhere;
Title page;
Main Manuscript file;
Figures (individual high-resolution files);
Supplementary materials, if applicable;
Signed authorship and conflict of interest disclosure forms;
Ethical approval and/or patient consent documentation, where applicable;

Completed reporting-guideline checklist (e.g., CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE, CARE) as appropriate to the study design.

Manuscript Types

Following are the manuscript categories accepted by the journal. Word limits exclude the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.

Articles or Original research manuscripts: The journal considers all original research manuscripts provided that the work reports scientifically sound experiments and provides a substantial amount of new information. Authors should not unnecessarily divide their work into several related manuscripts, although Short Communications of preliminary, but significant, results will be considered. Quality and impact of the study will be considered during peer review.

Reviews: These provide concise and precise updates on the latest progress made in a given area of research. Systematic reviews should follow the HEC or PMDC guidelines.

Preprints and Conference papers: JNAH previously did not accept/publish preprint and conference proceedings. However, expanded and high-quality conference papers can be considered as articles if they fulfill the following requirements:

The paper should be expanded to the size of a research article;
The conference paper should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper;
If the authors do not hold the copyright of the published conference paper, authors should seek the appropriate permission from the copyright holder;
Authors are asked to disclose that it is conference paper in their cover letter and include a statement on what has been changed compared to the original conference paper.

Pilot studies: The Journal of Nursing and Allied Health (JNAH) generally does not publish pilot studies or studies with inadequate statistical power that are unlikely to provide meaningful or reliable conclusions.

However, the journal may consider high-quality pilot or feasibility studies for publication when they:

Address an important and novel research question.
Employ a scientifically rigorous and well-described methodology.
Clearly state that the study is a pilot or feasibility study.
Focus on evaluating the feasibility, acceptability, safety, recruitment, retention, or implementation of an intervention or research protocol, rather than testing definitive effectiveness.
Include appropriate statistical analyses and acknowledge the limitations associated with pilot studies.
Demonstrate clear potential to inform the design of future adequately powered studies or randomized controlled trials.

Acceptance of pilot or feasibility studies is at the discretion of the Editorial Board and will depend on the scientific merit, methodological quality, originality, and potential contribution of the study to the advancement of nursing, allied health sciences, and clinical practice.

Case Reports: We publish case reports and case series for conditions that are novel.

Editorial Policies & Publication Ethics

‎2.1 Ethical Requirements

The journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of research and publication ethics. All submitted manuscripts must comply with internationally accepted ethical principles and relevant national regulations.

2.1.1 Ethics Committee Approval

Research involving human participants, human tissues, identifiable personal data, or animals must have received prior approval from a recognized Institutional Review Board (IRB), Ethics Review Committee (ERC), or equivalent ethics committee. Authors must state the name of the approving committee, approval/reference number, and date of approval in the Methods section of the manuscript.

2.1.2 Informed Consent

Authors must confirm that written informed consent was obtained from all participants before their inclusion in the study. For participants who are minors or lack the capacity to provide consent, permission must be obtained from a parent, legal guardian, or authorized representative in accordance with applicable regulations.

2.1.3 Patient Privacy and Confidentiality

Authors are responsible for protecting the privacy and confidentiality of research participants. Identifying information, including names, initials, hospital numbers, photographs, or other personal identifiers, must not be included unless essential for scientific purposes and written informed consent for publication has been obtained.

2.1.4 Research Ethics Standards

All research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and any applicable national or institutional ethical guidelines. Animal studies should comply with internationally accepted standards for the ethical care and use of laboratory animals and relevant institutional regulations.

2.1.5 Conflict of Interest

Each author must disclose any financial, professional, personal, institutional, or other relationships that could influence or appear to influence the conduct, interpretation, or reporting of the research. If no competing interests exist, authors should explicitly state: "The authors declare no conflict of interest."

2.1.6 Funding Statement

Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research, including grant numbers, funding agencies, institutional support, or commercial sponsorship. If the study did not receive any external funding, authors should state: "This research received no external funding."

Ethical Responsibility

Submission of a manuscript confirms that the study was conducted ethically, that all necessary ethical approvals and participant consents were obtained where applicable and that the manuscript complies with the journal's ethical policies. Failure to meet these ethical requirements may result in rejection of the manuscript or withdrawal of a published article if ethical concerns are identified after publication.

2.2 Authorship Criteria‎

The journal follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for ‎authorship. All listed authors must have: ‎

‎1.‎ Made substantial contributions to conception, design, data acquisition, or analysis and ‎interpretation; ‎‎2.‎ Drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content; ‎

‎3.‎ Approved the final version to be published; and

‎4.‎ Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work. ‎

Individuals who contributed to the study but do not meet all four criteria should be recognized in ‎the Acknowledgements section rather than listed as authors. A change in authorship after ‎submission requires written agreement from all authors, including any authors being added or ‎removed. ‎ Authorship Criteria

Having a list of all the authors makes it easy for the journal, as it tells readers who did the work and it ensures that the right people get the credit, and also take responsibility, for the research.

To ensure that the principles laid down by editors are not breached and by-lines reflect who really did the work, both editors and investigators feel that in order to avoid this misrepresentation which is a form of research misconduct, authorship in written form is necessary.

JNAH adopts the following policies regarding authorship:-

Corresponding author

The person who receives the reviewers’ comments, the proofs, etc. and whose contact details are printed on the article so that readers can request reprints or contact the research group.

Acknowledgements

We permit acknowledgement of contributions to a research project that do not merit authorship. The ICMJE guidelines state: ‘All others who contributed to the work who are not authors should be named in the Acknowledgments and what they did should be described’. All those who are listed in this way should be aware of it.

Order of authors

The ICMJE guidelines state that the order of authorship, should be ‘a joint decision of the coauthors’. Authors should ideally make these decisions before starting to write up the project.

Number of authors

There is no limit to this but since we use the Vancouver style of referencing names of only the first six authors will be available whenever anyone cites their article.

Fill the authorship declaration form according to this policy.

2.3 Data Availability Statement

To promote transparency, reproducibility, and responsible research practices, authors are encouraged to include a Data Availability Statement in all submitted manuscripts. This statement should clearly describe whether the data supporting the findings of the study are publicly available, available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, or subject to restrictions due to ethical, legal, or privacy considerations.

Where applicable, authors should provide the name of the data repository, accession number, persistent identifier (e.g., DOI), or direct link to the dataset.

Examples of Data Availability Statements include:

Openly Available Data: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are publicly available in [Repository Name] at [DOI or URL].
Available on Request: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Restricted Data: The data are not publicly available due to ethical, legal, or participant confidentiality restrictions but may be made available by the corresponding author upon reasonable request and with appropriate approvals.
No New Data Generated: No new datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Authors should ensure that any shared data are appropriately de-identified and comply with applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and privacy requirements.

‎‎2.4 Plagiarism and Research Integrity

All submissions are screened using similarity detection software. Manuscripts found to contain ‎plagiarized content, fabricated or falsified data, duplicate publication, or undisclosed use of ‎artificial intelligence tools in generating substantive content will be rejected. Suspected misconduct ‎identified after publication will be investigated in accordance with Committee on Publication Ethics ‎‎(COPE) guidelines and may result in correction, retraction, or notification to the authors' institution. ‎

‎2.5 Clinical Trial Registration

Manuscripts reporting the results of a clinical trial must be registered in a public trials registry (e.g., ‎ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO ICTRP) at or before the time of first patient enrollment. The registry name ‎and trial identification number must be provided in the abstract and Methods section and ‎randomized trials must follow CONSORT reporting guidelines.‎

2.6 Reporting Guidelines

To promote transparency, completeness, and reproducibility of research, authors must prepare and report their manuscripts in accordance with the appropriate international reporting guidelines based on the study design. Compliance with the relevant guideline is mandatory at the time of submission.

Authors should follow the applicable reporting guideline, including but not limited to:

CONSORT – Randomized Controlled Trials
STROBE – Observational Studies
PRISMA – Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
CARE – Case Reports
SRQR or COREQ – Qualitative Research
Other internationally recognized reporting guidelines, where applicable

Authors are encouraged to submit the completed reporting guideline checklist and any required flow diagrams or supplementary documents along with their manuscript. Submissions that do not adhere to the appropriate reporting standards may be returned for revision before being considered for peer review.

2.7 Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Generative AI tools may be used to improve the readability and language of a manuscript, but ‎authors must disclose such use in the Methods or Acknowledgements section, specifying the tool ‎and its purpose. AI tools may not be listed as authors, and authors remain fully responsible for the ‎accuracy, originality, and integrity of the content, including any text, data or citations produced ‎with AI assistance. ‎

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscript Formatting – General Overview

All manuscripts should be uploaded on the OJS as a Word document. JPMA follows the ICMJE’s Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

The article should be formatted accordingly on MS Word:

Font Type: Times New Roman
Font Size: 18 for article title, 14 for article text
Line spacing should be set at 1.5 throughout the text
Alignment: Justified throughout
Page numbers should be added
Begin the abstract, introduction, methods, results, conclusion, references.
Tables and figures should be included in the text as per manuscript requirement.

3.1 Title Page

The title page must be submitted as a separate file (or clearly separated section) from the blinded manuscript, and must include:

Full manuscript title (concise, specific, and free of abbreviations, maximum 20 words);
Full names, highest academic degrees, and institutional affiliations of all authors;
Corresponding author's name, mailing address, email, and ORCID iD;
A short running title (maximum 50 characters);
Word count, number of tables, and number of figures;
Conflict of interest and funding statements.

3.2 Abstract and Keywords

Original research articles require a structured abstract with the headings Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion and key words, not exceeding 250 words. Review articles and case reports may use an unstructured abstract. Provide 4–6 keywords below the abstract, preferably drawn from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).

3.3 Main Text Structure (Original Research) ‎

Introduction: Provide the study's background, incorporating global, regional and local data or reports as relevant. Reference only sources that are directly relevant to the topic. Clearly state the aim of the study in prose, without using subheadings. Describe the hypothesis and justify the need for conducting the research. The background should not include any results or conclusions drawn from the present study.

Methodology: The following heading should be used for the methods section, as appropriate:

Subjects and methods
Patients and methods
Materials and methods

Components of the methodology which need to be mentioned as applicable are:

Ethical review statement
Study design
Description of the selection of the observational or experimental subjects
Study setting
Study duration
Sampling method
Sample size & calculations with references
Follow-up period
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Study procedures and apparatus (provide the manufacturer's name and address in parenthesis)
Identification of all drugs and chemicals

Detail the methodology in an organized manner with paragraphs.

* The Methods section should include the approval of the Institutional Review Board.

Statistics

The statistical methods should be described in a simple manner to enable a reader to judge the correctness of the analysis and results. State the statistical software package used along with the version. References should be included where appropriate.

Authors submitting systematic reviews should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesizing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

Results This section should include results explained in a logical manner through text, graphs and tables. Avoid repetitions of data shown through tables and figures in the text. Extra or supplementary materials and technical details can be placed in an appendix where it will be accessible.
Discussion: This section should present findings of the study. Significant findings should be discussed comparing with results of other published studies. Repetition of results should be avoided. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. It must be mentioned whether the hypothesis mentioned in the article is true, false or no conclusions can be derived. Strengths and limitations should be mentioned at the end of this section.
Conclusion: Briefly summarize the net findings of your study without over emphasizing them. It should not include any findings / benefits not mentioned in the results.
Conflict of Interest: Disclose if the current manuscript has been presented or published in a conference or abstract book or if it is a part of thesis/project. Any conflict of interest should be declared. It may include honorarium, funding, credits and promotion which are not unethical but should be declared. Authors must disclose all sources of funding received along with their expenditure. If there are no funding sources, the authors should state no funding has been provided by agency in the public, commercial or non-profit sectors.
Table & Figures: These should be included in the text as per manuscript requirement. These should be easy to interpret and not be repetitive of results/data already discussed in the text. Tables should be numbered in Roman numerals. Title should be short and explanatory and written on the top. Foot note should explain abbreviations if used. Statistical results should include standard deviation and standard error of mean. Source should be given of any data/table from published articles. Maximum Number of tables and figures for original articles should be 4, for review article should be 5, for case report should be 4 and for short communication should be 2. Refer to table number in relevant section of your manuscript.
References: All references should be cited in Vancouver style and give citations in text as superscript. While citing articles use references of published articles and avoid personal communications and unpublished observations. These references should also be marked in the text. To minimize errors author should verify references against the original documents. The References should be written in Vancouver style.

Example

Reference from original article: Memon ZA, Shaikh AA, Qureshi SS, Mughal F, Singha SP, Qureshi MA. Histomorphometric Effects of Oral use of Tobacco in Testes of Offsprings of Swiss Albino Mice. Ann Pak inst Med Sci. 2018;14(4):256-262.
Reference from books: Kodkany BS, Derman RA. Pitfalls in assessing blood loss and decision to transfer.In:B-Lynch CB, Keith LG, Lalonde AB, Karaoshi M, editors. A text book of postpartum haemorrhage.*Chapter 4.Dumfrieshire, UK: Sapiens Publishing ; 2006.p.35-45.
Reference from website: Memon ZA, Shaikh AA, Qureshi SS, Mughal F, Singha SP, Qureshi MA. Histomorphometric Effcets of Oral use of Tobacco in Testes of Offsprings of Swiss Albino Mice.[internet]. Islamabad.SZABMU/PIMS.[2018-12-28].Available from:

References should generally be current, with the majority published within the last 10 years. Older references may be included only when citing seminal or foundational work that remains directly relevant to the topic.

Word limits and number of references: Word limit for submission of each manuscript is as under excluding Abstract & References

Article Processing and Publication Timeline

The journal aims to maintain an efficient review process.

The typical timeline is:

Initial editorial screening: 1–2 weeks
Reviewer invitation and acceptance: Within 5 days
Peer review: 2–3 weeks
Author revision: 2–4 weeks (depending on the extent of revisions)
Final editorial decision: Within 1–2 weeks after receipt of the revised manuscript

These timelines are approximate and may vary depending on reviewer availability and the complexity of the manuscript