Objectives and Scope  
The Iran Journal of Nursing (IJN) is an open-access bimonthly scientific journal, which has been published under the auspice of Nursing Care Research Center of Iran University of Medical Sciences since 1987. This journal, in collaboration with the Iranian Nursing Scientific Association (INA), publishes high-quality scholarly papers and articles, contributing to the development of nursing, midwifery, and healthcare. The Iran Journal of Nursing (IJN) publishes high-quality articles, including scientific research papers, review articles, case reports, and letter to the editor on a wide range of topics dealing with nursing, midwifery, and healthcare. We also publish articles, addressing issues on nursing education, nursing ethics, nursing practices, and nursing management. All the manuscripts submitted to the Iran Journal of Nursing (IJN) are initially evaluated by the editor in chief and the deputy editor. They are, subsequently, assigned for double-blind review. This journal's acceptance rate is approximately 30 percent.
Publishing Ethical Statement
The Iran Journal of Nursing (IJN) recognizes the significance of developing the highest ethical standards and adheres to promoting ethical codes of conduct. We believe that publishing ethics evaluation is one of the most important aspects of editing and peer review; and thus, it falls under the stewardship of the editor in chief and the scientific editor. As a part of our commitment to improve peer review, some tools are provided to help and guide the editors to establish an ethical publishing.  This journal is a member of the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and follows the COPE's Code of Conduct and principles.  
MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES
Original Articles
Original Articles must include title, abstract, introduction, methodology, results, conclusion, conflict of interests, acknowledgement, and references.
Review articles
We accept review articles by top authors of a particular topic and also by authors who have at least three original research papers in authentic journals.
Systematic review
 Provided that the standards set forth for this type of research are met, the aforementioned restriction does not apply to narrative review articles.
Brief Research Reports
Brief reports should be organized similar to original scientific papers, but they must be very concise and to the point (2000-3000 words)
Letter to the Editor
 We also accept letter to the editor submissions on current issues of the field as well as the critique of articles from previously published issues of this journal.
How to Submit the Manuscript

All manuscripts must be submitted in a Word format; and the figures should be in JPEG or GIF format.

Preparing the Submission
Title Page
The title page should include: the full title of the article; the full names of the authors and their highest academic degree earned; their institutional affiliations or organizations; the corresponding author’s academic contact email address and telephone number (in English and Persian) to be provided in the journal.
Abstract:
The extended abstract must not exceed 1500-2000 words and must be structured in the following order: Background and Aim; Materials & Methods (research design, research sample, sample size, sampling method, research environment, instruments, tests, statistical software); Results (significant results related to the objectives, stating the results of the statistical tests and the significance value); Conclusion (related to the main aim along with the implications and further research suggestions). At the end of the abstract, 3-5 keywords must be provided. Thence, it is recommended to use the keywords selected from the US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list. For further information on the keywords, the authors can consult MeSH  at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html.
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The abstract must be submitted in duplicate, both in Farsi and English. The Farsi and English abstract should have similar or parallel contents and they must reflect and stand for the content of the article concisely.
Introduction:
The introduction should state the significance and importance of the study; relevant research background; clear statement of the purpose of the study; and, research hypotheses or questions. The introduction should be as brief as possible, avoiding a detailed literature review.
Methodology:
This part must include a detailed description on methodology, i.e. research type, study design, sample, sampling method and sample size, inclusion/exclusion criteria, instruments and data collection procedure, reliability and validity of the instruments, description of the application of the methodology or interventions, and data analysis. If an instrument is used in the study, the name of its developer must be provided and its concerning article must be cited. If established methods are employed, it is enough to make a simple reference; but, new methods shall be described in adequate details in a way that audiences can understand and follow the description. If proprietary drugs have been used, the generic names, dosage, and route of administration must be specified. For patients, age, gender and mean age ± standard deviation must be given. If statistical software programs are used, the name of the software program and its version must be explicitly addressed. It goes without saying that the Clinical Trial Code must be included under the methodology section for all the clinical trial studies.
Ethical Considerations must be alluded to in Methods and Materials. 1) Please note that the written informed consent was collected from all the human subjects, namely the adult subjects, and the legal guardians of the minors or their parent. It is required to provide the name of the ethics committee that has approved the study and to mention the assigned code of ethics.  2) Declare that the maintenance and care of laboratory animals comply with the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of laboratory animals or with the guides set by your affiliated institute.
Results:
The results should be presented in the form of text, table, and figures or illustrations. The full content of the tables should not be repeated in the text; however, a reference to the table number may be provided.
Conclusion and Discussion:
In the first paragraph, discussion on the results must be explained briefly. The current results and their difference and similarities with other studies in the relevant field must be discussed and analyzed. Simple report of other studies without analysis must be avoided. The details on the data should not be repeated in this section. Accordingly, the discussion must briefly cover an overview of results pertaining to the objectives of the study; interpretation of results in respect to the objectives; comparison of the obtained results with other studies conducted in Iran and worldwide; presenting clear and decisive answers to research questions; rejecting or supporting the research hypotheses (if they were mentioned in the Introduction); providing suggestions for the applicability of the implications and suggestions for further studies.
Conflict of Interests:
The authors must conspicuously disclose any potential conflict of interests, such as receiving funds for research, and loosing or earning income or share in an organization through publication of the article. Disclosing the conflict of interests will not result in rejection of paper but we are willing to be informed about any conflict of interests. The authors must declare any conflict of interests of contributed authors and if there are no conflicts of interest then please state this at the end of the paper and before the Acknowledgements:
“Conflicts of interest: none declared”
Acknowledgments:
All the individuals who have contributed to the study but do not fulfil the authorship criteria can be acknowledged in this section. This includes acknowledgement of those who have contributed technically and in authoring. Moreover, the organization that provides financial and material support must also be acknowledged. If the paper is based on an unpublished thesis or research project, in this section, please clarify the thesis or the research project code, the field of study, and the level of attainment of degree.
Tables:
There should be limited number of tables (no more than 5). Table legends go above the table. Tables should not be submitted as images. Place any table notes below the table body.
Figures: 
All figures, in a limited number, should be supplied as a separate file in high quality format. The figure legend must be given below the respective figure. The same data must not be simultaneously presented in tables, figures, and through the text.
References:
The Iran Journal of Nursing (IJN) currently uses Vancouver citation style and this style should be adopted throughout all the submitted manuscripts. The authors must compare to check if the reference list corresponds with the in-text citation. The references must be numbered consecutively, in the same order of appearance in the text and their metadata must be completed according to the examples given at the end of this section. All references should be written in English and the authors are required to translate the Persian references to English. To this end, the word “Persian”, inserted inside square brackets [ ], must be added to the end of the reference (including papers, books, or unpublished thesis) to indicate the source language of the reference. Journal names should be abbreviated and italicized. The list of journal title abbreviation is available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov Below are examples of how to format the references:
Journal Articles
Smithline HA, Mader TJ، Ali FM، Cocchi MN. Determining pretest probability of DVT: clinical intuition vs. validated scoring systems. N Engl J Med. 2003 Apr 4; 21(2): 161-2
Book
Carlson BM. Human embryology and developmental biology. 3^rd ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2004.
Chapter in a Book
Blaxter PS, Farnsworth TP. Social health and class inequalities. In: Carter C, Peel JR, editors. Equalities and inequalities in health. 2^nd ed. London: Academic Press; 1976. P.165-78.
Thesis/Dissertation
Nahas-Lopez V. Australian and Jordanian nursing students’ clinical encounters: a transcultural study. Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Sydney, Australia. 1997.
Conference Papers
Anderson JC. Current status of chorion villus biopsy. In: Tudenhope D, Chenoweth J,editors. Proceedings of the 4th Congress of the Australian Perinatal Society; 1986: Brisbane, Queensland: Australian Perinatal Society; 1986: Brisbane, Queensland: Australian Perinatal Society; 1987. P.190-6.
Conference Proceedings
Harris AH, editor. Economics and health: 1997: Proceedings of the 19th Australian Conference of Health Economists; 1997 Sep 13-14; Sydney, Australia; Kensington, N.S.W.: School of Health Services Management, University of New South Wales; 1998.
Citations of Electronic Sources
Book on CD-ROM
Title of book on CD-ROM. Place of production، producer; year. Based on، Author/s or editors of book-title of book. Place of publication، publisher; year. Title of CD-ROM series or database. e.g.: Martindale: The complete drug reference (book on CD-ROM). Englewood، Co: Micromedex; 1999. Based on، Parfitt K، editor.
Martindale: the complete drug reference. London، pharmaceutical press; 1999. International Healthcare Series.
Journal on CD-ROM
Gershon ES. Antisocial behavior. Arch Gen Psychiatry (Serial on CD-ROM) 1995; 52: 900-901.
Online Journal
Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: The ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs (serial on the Internet). 2002 Jun (cited 2002 Aug 12); 102(6): (about 3 p.). Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/jun/Wawatch.htm. Accessed December 25، 2002.
Monograph on the Internet
Foley KM، Gelband H، editors. Improving palliative care for cancer (monograph on the Internet). Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 (cited2002Jul9). Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/ 030974029/html/. Accessed August 21، 2001.
Homepages and Websites
Author/Editor/Organizations name. Title of the page (homepage on the Internet). Place of Publication: Publisher's name. (updated y m d cited y m d). Available from: (URL)
Parts of Homepages and Websites
American Medical Association (homepage on the Internet). Chicago: The Association; c1995-2002(updated 2001 Aug 23; cited 2002 Aug 12). AMA Office of Group Practice Liaison; (about 2 screens). Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1736.html. Accessed June 12، 2002.
Open Database
Who's Certified (database on the Internet). Evanston (IL): The American Board of Medical Specialists. C2000-(cited 2001 Mar 8). Available from: http://www.abms.org/newsearch.asp. Accessed October 5، 2001.
Closed Database
Jablonski S. Online Multiple Congenital Anomaly/Mental Retardation (MCA/MR) Syndromes (database on the Internet). Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US). C1999 (updated 2001 Nov 20; cited 2002 Aug 12). Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/jablonski/syndrome/title.html. Accessed April 10، 2002.
Database on the Internet
MeSH Browser (database on the Internet). Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2002-(cited 2003 Jun 10). Meta-analysis; unique ID: D015201; (about 3 p.). Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html files updated weekly. Accessed August 23، 2003.
Further Important Notes:

Submission Preparation Checklist
Prior to submission, the author(s) must make sure they have considered everything in the following submission preparation checklist:
1- Title Page including: title; name of the author(s); their highest academic degree earned; institutional affiliation; the corresponding author’s contact email address and telephone number (all in English and Persian). 
2- The structured abstract up to 2000 words in English and Persian according to the standards outlined in the Guide for Authors
3- Cite the references according to the Guide for Authors and match the in-text references with the reference list
4- Place the tables at the end of the manuscript file
5- Do not repeat the data in both the tables and the texts and ensure that the table legends, table numbers, and the figure legends are inserted correctly
6- Identify the financial support and conflict of interests
7- Specify the information on the approval of the study by the Research Ethics Committee of the affiliated institute and mention the code of ethics under the Methodology section
Article's Peer-Review Process
All the articles are treated as confidential and assessed by at least two reviewers as nominated by the editorial board. Once determined, the author(s) will be notified of the editor in chief’s final decision regarding either the acceptance, rejection, or the need for further revision. If the manuscript meets the criteria outlined in the guide for authors, it will be scheduled to appear in the earliest available issue. Please note that the council of the authors reserve the right to accept, reject, edit the content (with the permission of the author), and revise the manuscripts.
All the submissions to the Iran Journal of Nursing (IJN) will be initially screened by the editor in chief. Articles shall be prepared in accordance with the guideline for authors. The manuscript may be rejected if it does not comply with the aims and scopes of the journal. In cases that a manuscript is rejected in the initial review, it will be sent for peer review to two or three reviewers. In special cases (e.g. in the field of statistics or a particular technique), the editor may seek the opinion of other reviewers. All the articles will be assessed according to the double-blind principle, i.e. both the reviewer and the author’s name(s) remain anonymous. At least two reviewers must assess the manuscript in terms of scientific quality. The reviewers are generally the faculty members of the medical universities in Iran.  In case of receiving conflicting feedbacks, the journal editor will send the manuscript to another reviewer. The reviewers will be invited via Email from the article submission system.  The reviewers must log into the article submission system and use the links to accept or reject the invitations. The reviewers are usually asked to send their further comments to the editor in chief.
The authors must respond to the reviewers’ comments in a table and the revised manuscript must be highlighted, colored, or they must apply the revision marks using Track Changes function in Word. Ultimately, the editor in chief and editorial assistant review the feedbacks received; and accordingly, decision upon the potential for publication, acceptance or rejection is determined. The decision categories may include: acceptance without revision, acceptance with minor revisions, acceptance after major revisions, revisal and re-submission, and rejection.
Once all the reviewers submit a detailed report on their views about the manuscript, the review process is concluded. Typically, the journal requests the reviewers to complete their reviews within 4 weeks. If the manuscript is acceptable, meeting the instructions outlined in the guide for authors, it will be scheduled to appear in the earliest available issue.
Post-Review Process