Preparation of the Article and Writing Rules

Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (December 2021) prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (www.icmje.org) has been adopted in the preparation of the Akdeniz Journal of Nursing article writing rules.

General Principles

1. Articles sent for publication in the journal should be uploaded to the system as Word documents.
2. The text content should be prepared in 12-point Times New Roman font with double spacing and 1.5 cm margins from the edges.
3. The main and subheadings in the text should be written without numbering.
4. The abbreviations used in the article should be written clearly when first used, and the abbreviated form should be shown in parentheses.
5. Numerical data between 1 and 9 in the text should be indicated in writing, with numbers 10 and above, the sentence should not start with a number.
6. All pages should be numbered sequentially.
Manuscripts sent to the journal should be arranged in the following order.

Title Page

The title page should indicate the type, importance, original value, findings and importance of the article for the researchers/target audience. In addition, it should be stated on this page that the article has not been sent to another journal or published elsewhere, and if the abstract has been presented or published, the information should also be included. The contact information (affiliation, postal address, e-mail address, and telephone number) of the corresponding author should be specified.

Cover Letter

The Turkish and English title of the manuscript, the names, duties (academic titles), and contact information (e-mail, phone number) of all authors, the institution they work in, and their ORCID information should be written. The relationship status with the sponsor or a commercial company, the institution supporting the study, if any, whether there is a conflict of interest in the study, the institution from which the ethics committee approval was obtained, the date and number of approval should be stated. In articles that do not require ethics committee approval, the statement "Ethics committee approval is not required for this study" should be written.

Abstract

Each one should be prepared on a separate page in Turkish and English, and each of them should not exceed 250 words, including the titles. The abstract should be structured with the subtitles "Aim/Method(s)/Results;/Conclusion(s)" for original research, and should be prepared without any sections for reviews and case reports. The abstract should reflect the article, important conclusions should be given and its contribution to the practice should be stated. Abbreviations and references should not be used in the abstract.

Key words

Turkish and English keywords should be listed in alphabetical order, between 3-6, under the abstracts in accordance with “Index Medicus Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/authors.html) standards.

Contribution to field

Authors have to prepare and add the contribution section to the field, after the abstract, before the main text for all article submissions. This section consists of two sub-headings: "What is known about the field" and "Contribution of the article to the field".
Under both headings, information consisting of 2 or 3 sentences containing short bullet points should be included.

What is known about the field:
The article has to define a specific research question/subject rather than common knowledge.

Contribution of the article to the field:
It should summarize new information rather than provide process statements about what the article does.

Sections
1. Original research articles should include "Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, Conclusion and Suggestions, Conflict of Interest, Author contributions, Acknowledgments and References" sections. The identity of the authors and institution information should be blinded in the manuscript.
2. The introduction should include the general features of the article and its contribution to the literature. A sentence containing the purpose of the article should be added at the end of this section.
3. The method section should contain details of the method of the study. It should be structured with sub-headings as "Type of Research, Research Population and Sample, Data Collection Tools and Application, Data Analysis, Ethical Dimension of Research, Limitations of the Study".
4. In studies with a human element, compliance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, ethics committee approval and “İnformed Consent” from the participants should be included in the “Method” section. In case reports, the informed consent/assent form and the institution's permission letter must be uploaded to the system.
5. In studies using animal elements, compliance with the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" principles should be stated in the "Method" section.
6. In the Results section, the findings should be presented clearly, briefly and without comment.
7. In the discussion section, the findings should be explained, related to the literature, and their importance for clinical practice should be stated.
8. Review articles should be structured with headings of "relevant topics, conflict of interest, author contributions and references ".
9. Case reports should be structured with headings of "introduction, case(s) presentation, discussion, conflict of interest, author contributions and references ". 
10. Original research (including Turkish and English abstracts, excluding references and tables) and review articles (including Turkish and English abstracts, excluding references) should be 5000 words, and case reports should be limited to 2000 words.

References

1. References should be numbered at the end of the article, under the heading "References", according to the order of occurrence in the text.
2. Vancouver style should be used in the writing of references.
3. There should be no inconsistency between the list of references and the order in which they are included in the text, all references should be indicated in parentheses in the text.
4. If more than one reference is used, a comma should be placed between the references, and in case of using more than two references in a row, the first and last reference numbers should be specified ( e.g. 1-4).
5. All the names must be given for six or less than six authors resources, yet, “ve ark” in Turkish language resources and “et al” in English language resources must be added after first six authors’ names for the resources more than six authors.
6. English translations of Turkish references should be included in parentheses in the article reference whose language of writing is English.
7. Whenever possible, publications within the last 5 years should be prioritized in the sources.
8. The author(s) are responsible for the accuracy of the references.
References should be cited as in the examples below. The names of the journals should be given in abbreviated form in accordance with the Index Medicus, and the names of the journals that are not included in the Index should not be abbreviated. The spelling and punctuation of the references should be in accordance with the examples below.

9. The number of resources used should be a maximum of 50.

Examples for Writing References

For Journals

Albus C, Waller C, Fritzsche K, Gunold H, Haass M, Hamann B, et al. Significance of psychosocial factors in cardiology: update 2018. Clinical Research in Cardiology. 2019;108(11):1175-96

For Books
Potter P, Perry A, Stockert P, Hall AM, Astle B, Duggleby W (eds). Canadian fundamentals of nursing. 6th ed. Toronto: Elsevier Canada; 2019.

For chapters taken from boks
Partridge H, Hallam G. Evidence-based practice and information literacy. In: Lipu S, Williamson K, Lloyd A. (eds.) Exploring methods in information literacy research. Wagga Wagga, Australia: Centre for Information Studies; 2017. p.149–170.

Web address
World Health Organization. Statistical reports from WHO programmes. Available from:
https://www.who.int/data/gho/publications/world-health-statistics [Accessed 15th June 2015].

Tables

1. Tables should not be placed in the text, each table should be on a separate page after the references.
2. Single line spacing should be used in table title writing. Table titles should be short and concise, and this title should be above the table.
3. Table explanations and abbreviations should be placed below the table.
4. If abbreviations are used in the table, the explanation of these abbreviations should be given below the table and in alphabetical order.
5. Each table in the main text should be mentioned and the places where the tables should be placed in the text should be specified.
6. The data presented in the tables should support the main text and should not be a repetition of the main text data.
7. When using previously published tables, copyright permission should be obtained and should be stated in the table description. Writers have full legal, financial and penal responsibilities on these issues.

Figures, Images and Graphics

1. Figures should follow the tables, be placed on a separate page, and numbered according to the order they appear in the text.
2. The places of the figures in the main text should be specified and every figure should be mentioned in the text.
3. Images/photos must be colorful, with enough contrast and clarity to see details (pixel size 500x400 and 300 dpi resolution), and be uploaded to the system as a separate .jpg or .gif file.
4. If abbreviations are included in figures, graphics, and images, the explanation of these abbreviations should be placed below the figure and in alphabetical order.
5. In case of using previously printed figures, images, tables, graphics, or photographs of participants, the written permission of the copyright owner must be obtained and it must be stated as an explanation.
6. Writers have full legal, financial, and penal responsibilities on these issues.

Copyright Form

The authors transfer all their copyrights to Akdeniz Nursing Journal, starting from the evaluation of the articles. For this, the Copyright Form signed by all authors must be uploaded to the system during the entry of the articles into the system. In multi-author articles, ideas generation, study design, experimental applications, statistics, article writing, etc. contributions of the authors to the research should be presented within the scope of the Copyright Form. Authorship contribution information must be reported in the article before the references section.

Conflict of Interest Statement

People and organizations from which all kinds of aid and other support for research are received should be declared to the editorial board and the Conflict of Interest Statement should be filled in and uploaded to the system in order to explain the situations related to conflicts of interest (http://icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/). If there is no conflict of interest, the phrase “conflict of interest: none” should be written in the conflict of interest section of the text.
You can access the Author Forms at this link: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/3798/file/5568/download

Article Reporting Guidelines

Accurate and complete reporting enables readers to fully evaluate and benefit from the research. For all manuscript submissions, authors must comply with the relevant EQUATOR (www.equator-network.org/home/) research reporting checklist, and the checklist used in the manuscript summary and method section must be specified. For each item on the checklist, the page number of the article that deals with that aspect of the guideline should be indicated. While drafting the manuscript, the checklist should be attached as an "additional file".

• CONSORT checklist for randomized controlled trials (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials)
• TREND checklist for non-randomized controlled studies (Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Non-randomised Designs)
• PRISMA checklist for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis)
• STROBE checklist for observational studies
• COREQ checklist for qualitative studies
• SQUIRE checklist for quality improvement studies
• TRIPOD checklist for model development and/or validation
• COSMIN guide to Methodological Studies (Scale Development) (Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments-Study Design for Patient-reported outcome measurement instruments)
• SPIRIT checklist for study protocols
• AGREE checklist for clinical practice guidelines
• mERA checklist for mobile health evidence reporting and assessments

Revision
When submitting the revised version of a manuscript, the author(s) should highlight the revisions made in the text using colour. Additionally, a "Response to the Reviewers" file should be uploaded, detailing how the suggestions made by the reviewers were addressed, including any revisions made and the page numbers where these revisions can be found. Revised manuscript should be submitted within 15 days from the date of the decision letter. If the author(s) need additional time, they may request an extension for the revision before the initial 15-day period ends. 

Open Access Statement
Akdeniz Nursing Journal is an open access scientific journal. In the Akdeniz Nursing Journal, it is not necessary to subscribe to the articles and the archive of the journal and can be accessed free of charge at www.akdenizhemsirelikdergisi.org

Price Policy
No fee is charged to the author(s) at any stage of the evaluation and publication process of the article. In addition, authors are not paid royalties for their articles. The published issue and the full texts of the articles in its content can be accessed free of charge.

Publication Limits for Editors and Editorial Board Members
To avoid conflicts of interest, maintain academic impartiality, and preserve the integrity of the publication process, journal editors, field editors, and editorial board members may author or co-author a maximum of one article per issue of the journal. This limit is intended to strengthen the journal's editorial independence and ensure that its publication policy adheres to ethical principles. The review process for articles authored by an editor or editorial board member is conducted by an editorial or peer review committee that is completely independent of the editorial duties of the individual(s).

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

The Akdeniz Journal of Nursing expects authors to adhere to research and publication ethics principles. The scientific responsibility of all articles sent to the journal belongs to the authors. The order of names in the submitted articles should be a joint decision. All authors must meet the criteria for authorship listed below in the guideline for "Executing, Reporting, Editing and Publishing Scientific Studies in Medical Journals" by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors- (ICMJE).
All authors;
• The content/design of the study; or have made a significant contribution to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data for the study and to take all responsibility for study,
• They must have completed the preparation of the article and critically reviewed its content.
• Viewing and approving the final version of the articles,
• They must accept and approve of being responsible for all aspects of the work.
People who do not meet these criteria but contributed to the study can be listed in the "Acknowledgements" section.
The corresponding author is deemed to have accepted the order of the authors on behalf of all authors by completing and signing the "Author Responsibility and Copyright Transfer Form". In addition, authors must make a signed statement that the publication is an original article, has not been published anywhere before, and will not attempt to publish it anywhere else during the review process.

Ethical principles in research on humans and animals
Compliance with national and international ethical guidelines and approval from the relevant ethical committees are essential for research in humans or animals.
The journal accepts the principle of compliance with the principles stated in the WMA “Helsinki Declaration”, “Good Clinical Practice Guide” and “Good Laboratory Practice Guide” and the related regulations of the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health for all studies where a “Human” factor is included. In studies conducted on humans, it is obligatory to obtain permission from the "Clinical Research Ethics Committee" and send the relevant document to the journal. The authors must state that they have obtained the signed "Informed Consent" document from the relevant ethics committee and the participants of the study in the Method section of the article. Regardless of whether the patient's identity is revealed in case reports, and "Informed consent" document should be obtained from the patients or, if necessary, from their legal representative, and should be expressed in writing under the title of the case report of the article. 
It is obligatory to obtain permission from the "Experimental Animals Ethics Committee" and to send a copy of the relevant document to the journal in research conducted on animals. In the Method section of the research, it is stated that all animals were subjected to humane treatment in experimental studies in accordance with the "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" (Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html) and the Experimental Animals it should be stated that the Ethics Committee approval report has been received. In animal studies, it should be clearly stated what is done to avoid pain, suffering, and discomfort. If a copy of the Ethics Committee approval is not sent to the journal, the article will not be published.

Permissions
Akdeniz Nursing Journal is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Non-Derivative 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) International License. This license permits re-users to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format only in an unadapted form, for non-commercial purposes only, and only as long as attribution is made to the owner.

Conflicts of Interest
Authors should declare any conflict of interest (if any) regarding their article. If the article has an indirect or direct commercial connection (such as employment, direct payments, stock ownership, firm consultancy, patent license adjustments, or service fee) or an institution that provides financial support for the study, the authors; used commercial product, drug, company, etc. and, if any, what kind of a relationship he has with the editor, on the submission page and also before the references section of the article, under the heading "Conflict of Interest" http://icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/.

Authoring contribution
In multi-author articles, authors' contributions to research (idea creation, study design, experimental applications, statistics, writing of the article, etc.) should be explained and signed, and presented to the editor (within the scope of the copyright transfer form). Authorship contribution information must be reported in the article before the references section. In case of author name corrections, all forms (copyright, conflict of interest declaration and authorship contribution) must be renewed.

Financial Support
Financial support, donations, and all other activities (statistical analysis, English/Turkish evaluation) and/or technical help should be clearly stated if present before the references part of the article. The authors should also declare the roles of the sponsors of the study, if any, in the following areas: (1) Design of the study, (2) Data collection, analysis, and the interpretation of the results, (3) Writing of the report, (4) Deciding to send the article for publication.

Plagiarism

All articles sent to the Journal go through the iThenticate or Turnitin software and a similarity report is obtained before being accepted to the evaluation process. Articles with a similarity rate of more than 20% are considered to represent plagiarism and are rejected. The editorial board of the Akdeniz Nursing Journal acts in accordance with COPE's rules in case of allegations and suspicions of theft, citation manipulation, and data forgery related to the studies submitted to the Journal.

Guidelines for the Declaration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Use 

Akdeniz Nursing Journal follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Recommendations on Chatbots and Generative Artificial Intelligence in Relation to Scholarly Publications, and the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) Ethical Guidelines on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Research and Publication Activities regarding the use of artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence-assisted technologies in the manuscript preparation process.
Authors must clearly and transparently declare the use of generative artificial intelligence or artificial intelligence-assisted technologies in the writing process of manuscripts submitted to Akdeniz Nursing Journal. This declaration applies solely to the writing process; the use of artificial intelligence for data analysis or scientific interpretation falls outside the scope of this statement.

1. Purpose of Use and Responsibility
Generative artificial intelligence technologies should be used solely to enhance the linguistic quality of the text (e.g. grammar correction and improving fluency) and must be employed under human supervision. Considering the potential of these technologies to produce inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading information, authors must carefully review and edit the entire content. The authors bear full responsibility for the scientific content of the manuscript.

2. Authorship Principle
Artificial Intelligence tools are software programs that cannot assume human scientific responsibility. Therefore, under no circumstances should artificial intelligence systems be listed as authors or co-authors, nor should they be cited as such.

3. Declaration Requirement
If generative artificial intelligence or artificial intelligence-assisted technologies are used during the writing process, this must be clearly declared under a separate heading within the manuscript file, placed before the reference list.

Sample Declaration (To Be Included in the Manuscript)

Declaration of the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process
In the writing process of this manuscript, [name of tool or service] was used for [purpose of use]. The author(s) reviewed and edited the content after using this tool/service and accepted full responsibility for the content of the manuscript.

Note: Basic software tools that perform only grammar, spelling, or reference checks (e.g. word spelling and grammar checks) are not included in this declaration. If no generative artificial intelligence tool is used in the writing process, no declaration is required.

4. Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Evaluation Process
To protect the authors' rights and ensure the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, the use of generative artificial intelligence tools by editors and reviewers during the manuscript evaluation process is not permitted under our current guidelines.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

The aim is to have all stakeholders (authors, editors, and reviewers) who put forward a scientific study to contribute to the appropriate advancement of science. Compliance with the scientific ethical principles is important in scientific studies prepared in accordance with this goal. These principles have been adopted by us and their adoption has also been proposed by various stakeholders, some of which are presented below.
The editorial and publication processes of the Journal have been developed according to the directives of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Council of Science Editors (CSE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The Journal has adopted the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org./bestpractice).

Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors

Authors who submit articles to Akdeniz Nursing Journal accept the ethical responsibilities listed below.
• To ensure the accuracy of data related to the study, to keep regular records of the research, and to be able to provide access to this data upon a possible request.
• Make sure that the article submitted is not published or accepted elsewhere.
• If the content presented matches any other content published or submitted elsewhere, to acknowledge this match and provide a reference.
If necessary, to provide to the editor a copy of any other study that may have similar content related to the work.
• To obtain permission to reproduce or use any content from other sources, and to provide references.
• Refer to it in a complete and accurate way and/or quoting
• To accept the changes and corrections to be made by the editor in advance, provided that no changes are made to the scientific content.
• If there are previously published quotations, tables, pictures, etc. in the article, obtain written permission from the responsible author and authors of the article, as well as from the relevant copyright holder, to indicate this in the article.
• In the case of using a scale in research articles, obtaining permissions from the authors who adapted the scale into Turkish (validity and reliability) and stating it in the article
• For all studies involving human or animal subjects, to ensure compliance with national and international laws and guidelines and indicate that the necessary approvals have been obtained, and respect the subject's privacy.
• To specify the relevant ethics committee approvals and research details in the “Methods” section of the study.
• Not being able to contact the section editor and referees directly during the evaluation and after the evaluation is completed, not to request information.
• In case of any conflict of interest, or when an ethical violation related to the article or in case you notice an error or error related to the article is detected, to share this with the editor and publisher and to publish a statement of error, addendum, or notice of compensation, or to withdraw the work if deemed necessary.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Editors

The editors of Akdeniz Nursing Journal accept the following ethical responsibilities.
• To apply the policies of blind refereeing and evaluation process in the journal publication policies
• To act in a balanced, objective, and fair manner when performing the duties without discrimination regarding the gender, religious or political beliefs, or the ethnic or geographical origin of the authors.
• To evaluate the work submitted to the Journal according to its content and not act favorably towards any author.
• To take the necessary measures to prevent possible conflicts of interest and evaluate any existing relevant declarations.
• To treat sponsored work or any work on special subjects in the same way as other work.
• To apply the necessary procedures while adhering to the policies and rules of the Journal in case of a complaint related to an ethical violation.
• To provide the authors an opportunity to respond to a received complaint, and not to refrain from enforcing the necessary sanctions no matter who owns the work.
• Strive to meet the information needs of readers and writers
• To refuse received work if it does not meet the purpose and scope of the Journal.

Ethical Responsibilities of Section Editors

Sections editors of Akdeniz Nursing Journal accept the following ethical responsibilities.
• Articles sent to the journal in accordance with the blind peer review system, subtracting the names of the authors (institutions) from the text of the article and sending it to the appropriate referees for the subject area of the article
• Ensuring the confidentiality of referee information in the blind refereeing process and not informing the authors about which referees the manuscript was sent to.
• To provide the necessary information and support for the evaluation process to be carried out in an impartial, scientific and objective manner.
• Appointing another referee instead of the referee who does not evaluate the submitted article within the given time.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Referees

Akdeniz Nursing Journal referees accept the following ethical responsibilities.
• To objectively review the article in a timely manner to contribute to the editor's decision-making process and to agree to evaluate only the work related to the field of specialization.
• To make the assessment objectively and only in relation to the content of the study.
• To evaluate the work without regard to religious, political, and economic interests.
• To make recommendations that will help improve the quality of the article to be published and to carefully evaluate the work.
• To communicate any comments to the author with a constructive and polite style.
• To protect the confidentiality of the information provided by the editor and the author, to destroy in accordance with the privacy principle after the evaluation process the work that has been evaluated, to notify the editor and not evaluate the work if there is anything preventing blind arbitration.
• To be aware of possible conflicts of interest (financial, corporate, collaborative, or other relationships between the authors) and warn the editor to withdraw assistance for this article if necessary.

Disclaimer
The information, ideas and opinions in the articles published in the journal reflect the views of the author(s), not the views of Akdeniz University Faculty of Nursing, editors, editorial board and/or publisher; The editors, editorial board and publisher do not accept any responsibility or liability for such materials.