Author guidelines
The text should be in a plain font, with as
few changes to font style as possible and
without the use of bold or underlined fonts.
It should appear double-spaced with single
returns to denote the ends of paragraphs,
and sections should not start on new pages.
Authors should include their full names,
job titles, contact telephone numbers, fax
numbers, and email and postal addresses.
Articles should be submitted by email to
administration manager, Helen Hyland,
at helen.hyland@rcnpublishing.co.uk
For more information, contact her directly on
020 8872 3138.
Writing style
To make articles interesting and readable,
the writing style must be straightforward
and the use of jargon and abbreviations
must be avoided. Where acronyms are used,
they should be written first in full and then
appear in brackets, for example Nursing and
Midwifery Council (NMC).
Referencing
All articles must include references where
appropriate and correct referencing
is the responsibility of the authors.
The Harvard referencing system is used
in Nursing Management. Information
about this is contained in the extended
author guidelines, which are available
from the editor.
Diversity and preferred terms
Readers live and work across the UK as
well as overseas, so articles must be explicit
about whether they refer for example to
policy or legislation in only one of the
four UK countries and, where relevant,
should cover material from all of them.
Similarly, authors writing from an acute care
perspective, for example, should consider
whether their topics can be generalised to
cover community-based services. Those
who write about experiences in the NHS
should try to make these relevant to the
independent and voluntary sectors too.
What happens next
All articles are acknowledged on receipt.
Most are reviewed by subject experts,
whose comments are usually summarised
and sent to the lead authors. Reviewers
often recommend that acceptance is
subject to authors having made the
amendments requested of them. Each lead
or corresponding author of an accepted
article is asked to complete a standard
form and sign a publisher's agreement for
the purposes of copyright, without which
articles cannot be published. Rejected
articles are returned. Once accepted,
articles are edited and prepared for
publication. Shortly before publication,
lead authors receive copies of their articles
as they are intended to appear in the journal.
Only minor amendments are accepted
at this stage.
Submitting your work
Material for publication should be submitted
exclusively to Nursing Management, which
holds the copyright to any articles published.
Article lengths can vary. Opinion articles
should have up to 500 words while features
should have between 1,800 and 3,600.
For suggested word lengths of other articles,
contact the editor. Summaries or abstracts of
between 75 and 150 words should be supplied
with features and continuing professional
development articles. In each case, this should
summarise the article's purpose and the
conclusions reached in it. Illustrative material
is welcomed but each chart, diagram, table or
illustration must be numbered, and labelled or
captioned. Authors must obtain permission,
if necessary, for use of submitted photographs,
which are returned after publication on request.
Format
Articles should be submitted as single text
files, for example in Microsoft Word format.
Writing for publication is not as difficult as it may seem
as long as contributors follow some simple ground rules
Contributing to the journal
Introduction
The aim of Nursing Management is to inform and encourage
critical reflection among current and aspiring nurse leaders by
the publication of articles with clear implications for practice
and management. We welcome contributions to the different
sections of the journal, including opinion, resources, features,
continuing professional development and careers. Articles
should be informative, have something new to say or offer a
fresh approach to an old subject, challenge current thought or
practice, predict future trends or review current thinking.
We encourage new authors for Nursing Management
and one of the best ways to understand how to write articles is to read a selection of
those already published in the journal. These can be literature reviews, original pieces,
descriptions of practice or case studies. We also welcome letters for publication.
You may have several reasons for wanting to publish: to share knowledge and advance
a field of practice, to disseminate important findings or opinions, or even to contribute to
topical policy debates. In all cases, it is advisable to contact the editor, Nick Lipley, to
discuss your ideas and to obtain extended author guidelines. For more advice, email him
at nick.lipley@rcnpublishing.co.uk or telephone him directly on 020 8872 3166.
40 April 2009 | Volume 16 | Number 1 NURSING MANAGEMENT

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