1. Manuscript preparation

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors who do not adhere to these guidelines. Submission is only acceptable via the Jour­nal website: http://npt.tums.ac.ir.

Authors should kindly 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.

Parts of the Manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: Title Page; Cover Letter; and Main Text file including Tables & Figures.

Title page

The title page should contain:

1. A short informative title (max. 20 words) containing the major keywords. The title should not contain abbreviations;
2. A short-running title of fewer than 40 characters;
3. All authors' full names (please put the last names in bold);
4. All authors' institutional affiliations;
5. Acknowledgments.
6. Conflict of Interest Statement
7. Funding Statement

2. Main text based on types of manuscripts 

Original articles:

These include randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, observational studies (including cross-sectional, case-control and cohort), qualitative studies, and mixed methods.

A structured abstract (with the subheadings title, Background and aim, methods and materials, results, and conclusion) should appear on the first page of the manuscript and should not exceed 250 words. An abstract should be followed by 3 - 5 appropriate keywords. Use terms from the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) list of Index Medicus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). Authors need to be careful that the abstract reflects the content of the article accurately. The abstract should not include references or abbreviations.

The text of original articles amounting to a maximum of 4000 words (excluding Abstract, References, and Tables), four figures and/or tables, and 30 references, and should include Title; Introduction; Methods; Results; Discussion; Conclusion; Acknowledgment; Conflict of Interest, References, Tables and Figures.

Important notice

Original research papers that report a randomized controlled trial, should comply with the guidelines provided by the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) group. Also, supplying the manuscript with a CONSORT flowchart diagram is highly encouraged. Researchers who would like to publish their clinical trial reports in NPT should register their studies in a registry of clinical trials proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) As an option, the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT) is recommended.

Review Articles:

Review articles on any area of research relevant to nursing and midwifery practice are welcomed. Narrative reviews should be written by authors considered experts on the subject; they should be balanced accounts of all aspects of a particular subject including the pros and cons of any contentious or uncertain aspect. Review articles must include an abstract of no more than 250 words, the main text between 5000 words (excluding abstract, tables, figures, and reference list), and up to 6 tables and/or figures. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are more welcomed and they should respectively follow the PRISMA and MOOSE guidelines. The main text should be structured as follows: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and Relevance to Clinical Practice.

Short Communications:

Short communications are brief reports of research works containing new findings, which do not exceed 2500 words from introduction through references. Short Communication consists of an Abstract, the main body including an Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement, References, Tables, and Figures.

Case Reports:

Case reports are only considered if they are of extraordinary interest to readers. The case report consists of an Abstract (unstructured), Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Acknowledgement, and References. Case reports must not exceed 1,000 words, 15 references, and a reasonable amount of tables and/or figures.

Letters to the Editor:

Letters to the Editor have a flexible format and may be published on occasion, where comments on a paper published in NPT or an important issue in the field are of broad interest to the readership.

Perspective Pieces:

Perspectives Pieces present a new and unique viewpoint on existing problems, fundamental concepts, or prevalent notions on a specific topic, propose and support a new hypothesis, or discuss the implications of a newly implemented innovation. Perspective pieces may focus on current advances and future directions on a topic and may include original data and personal opinions.
Perspectives should be prepared in a maximum of 3000 words (including abstract, main text, references, and figure legends). They should have a short title, an abstract of 250 words or less, no more than 30 references, and 1 or 2 figures (with figure legends) or tables.

Commentaries:

Commentaries are short (~2500 words) articles covering a contemporary issue that is relevant to the journal's scope. They are usually commissioned by the journal, but we do on occasion consider and peer review unsolicited submissions.

Commentaries are not mini-reviews and generally take one of two forms:

The first form is editorial in nature, grounded in the relevant literature, and covers an important aspect of implementation research practice and or seeks to move the field forward in some way.
The second form is a commentary on a study or review that was recently published or that is soon to be published, and that is interesting enough to warrant further comment or explanation. This type of commentary discusses specific issues within a subject area rather than the whole field, explains the implications of the article, and puts it in context. Opinions are welcome as long as they are factually based.

They are allowed to include a maximum of 20 references and one or two tables and figures. NPT doesn’t require abstracts for commentaries. 

Other:

Guest Editorial is solicited by the Editorial Board. National Reports or similar cases are accepted based on confirmation by the Editorial Board. Editorials are shorter, up to 1500 words and 16 references, and give the judgment of the author based on published data.

 Authors are encouraged to use the Standard Reporting Guidelines in preparing manuscripts. According to the type of study, you can use the following links.

Type of Study	Guideline
Clinical Trials	CONSORT
Observational	STROBE
Systematic reviews and meta-analysis on clinical trials	PRISMA
Meta-analysis of observational studies	MOOSE
Diagnostic accuracy	STARD
Qualitative research	COREQ
Others	See here…

 

3. In preparation for the main text please consider these basic criteria:

Introduction: This should summarize the literature review or background in the area of the study and articulate the purpose and rationale for the study.

Methods: Describe the study design, setting and samples, ethical considerations, measurements/instruments, data collection/procedure, and data analysis used. If the method is established, give reference but if the method is new, give enough information so that another author is able to perform it. If a drug is used, its generic name, dose, and route of administration must be given. If an apparatus is used, its manufacturer's name and address should be given in parentheses.

To mention Ethical considerations Please state that informed consent was obtained from all human adult participants and from the parents or legal guardians of minors, and Include the name of the appropriate institutional review board that approved the project.

Results: It must be presented in the form of text, tables, and illustrations. The contents of the tables should not be repeated in the text. Instead, a reference to the table number may be given. Long articles may need sub-headings within some sections (especially the Results and Discussion parts) to clarify their contents.

Discussion: This should emphasize the present findings and the variations or similarities with other work done in the field by other authors. The detailed data should not be repeated in the discussion. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Discussion for advances in nursing practice, nursing knowledge development, and nursing implication is strongly recommended.

Acknowledgment: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgment section. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance, and departmental heads who only provided general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

Tables: In limited numbers should be submitted with the captions placed above. Do not submit tables as pho­tograph. Place explanatory matters in footnotes, not in the heading.

Figures: Should be in limited numbers, with high-quality artwork, and mounted on separate pages. The captions should be placed below. The same data should not be presented in tables, figures, and text, simultaneously.

Tables and figures should be included in the main manuscript file (in the latest pages)

4. References: All manuscripts should be accompanied by relevant references. 50% of the total of references, must have been for the last five years of conducting the study. The author should ensure the preciseness of references. It may not be possible for the editor and reviewers to check the accuracy of all reference citations. To minimize such errors author should verify references against the original documents. We recommend the use of a tool such as a Reference Manager/Endnote for reference management and formatting. When formatting your references, please ensure you use the Vancouver reference style. The Reference should provide the following information as stated in the presented models as follows:

Article: Hemberg JA, Vilander S. Cultural and communicative competence in the caring relationship with patients from another culture. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences. 2017 Dec;31(4):822-9.

Chapter: Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. New York: Raven Press; 1995. P. 465-78.

Book: McKenzie JF, Pinger R, Kotecki JE. An introduction to community health. Boston: Jones & Bartlett; 2005. P. 207.

Web Pages: Key and critical objectives of JAMA. Available at: http://jama. amaassn.org/ about_current.dtl. Accessed July 4, 2004.

Thesis: Mohammadi MM. Infant sleep and feeding [Ph.D. thesis]. School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran; 2002.

5. Abbreviations and symbols use only standard abbreviations. Avoid using them in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.
6. Cover Let­ter

The manuscript must be accompanied by a cover­ing let­ter to the Editor-in-Chief, in­cluding title and au­thor(s) name and under­taking that it has not been published or sub­mitted elsewhere.

       7. Conflicts of interest:

Authors must acknowledge and declare any sources of funding and potential conflicting interest, such as receiving funds or fees by or holding stocks and shares in, an organization that may profit or lose through publication of your paper. Declaring a competing interest will not lead to automatic rejection of the paper, but we would like to be made aware of it. Please include the conflict of interest in a cover letter.

       8. Proof Reading:

A computer printout is sent to the corresponding author for proofreading before publication in order to avoid any mistakes. Corrections should be marked clearly and sent immediately to the Journal office.

       9. Copyright Notice

Accepted manuscripts become the permanent property of the Journal and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the Editor. 

       10. Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.