Aims and focus

The Norwegian Journal of Clinical Nursing (Sykepleien Forskning) is a level 1 journal and is indexed in Cinahl and Sherpa Romeo.

The Norwegian Journal of Clinical Nursing seeks to publish articles of a high standard and adhere to criteria for scientific standards and international conventions. We accept original articles, systematic review articles and discussion articles that contribute to new knowledge and discourse within the field of nursing. The Journal’s aim is to publish knowledge that can help raise the standard of nursing practice, nursing education and method development in nursing science.

Original articles, review articles and discussion articles are peer-reviewed and regarded as scientific articles. The journal practises open peer review.

Articles are not subject to a publication fee and are published in Norwegian and English, making them accessible to an international readership.

The Journal also publishes Cochrane reviews and summaries as well as doctoral theses. None of these are peer-reviewed.

Licenses and copyright

All academic articles are published in open digital format. Those accepted after 1 January 2023 are published under a Creative Commons licence, CC BY 4.0. Articles subject to this licence will be marked accordingly. CC BY 4.0 means that authors retain the copyright, but others can copy, distribute, adapt and disseminate the article in any medium or format for any purpose, including commercial.

The conditions for such use are that the authors and source are credited, and a link is provided to the Creative Commons licence. Illustrations are not part of the article and are therefore not covered by the CC licence. If elements are copyrighted, permission to reuse must be obtained from the copyright holder. The published article can be freely deposited in an open research archive without time delay. The Journal retains copyright on all content that is not marked CC BY 4.0.

Before submitting a manuscript for review

Research ethics

The study described in the article must be carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. If the study has been assessed by the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics (REK), a data protection officer/Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research or other relevant body, this must be described and the reference number provided. If the study has not been assessed by any of the aforementioned bodies, this must also be indicated and justification given. Ethical considerations beyond research ethics must, where appropriate, be discussed when, for example, research subjects are in a vulnerable situation or may be exposed to stigmatisation.

Authorship

The following criteria for authorship must be met:

• The author(s) must have contributed significantly to the concept and design, or data collection, or analysis and interpretation of the data.
• The author(s) must have contributed to the drafting of the manuscript or a critical revision of the manuscript’s intellectual content.
• All authors must have approved the version of the article to be published.
• All authors must agree that they are responsible for all aspects of the work to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are investigated and addressed as appropriate.
• Chatbots cannot be co-authors because they cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, integrity and originality of the work. These areas of responsibility are crucial for authorship. Persons who have contributed to the study but do not meet the requirements for authorship can be thanked in a separate ‘Acknowledgements’ section at the end of the article. The individual contributions of each person should be specified. Acknowledgements of this nature require the consent of the person concerned. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the writing process must be described briefly before the list of references.

Conflicts of interest

In accordance with international practice, we ask all authors to complete a conflict of interest declaration. The declaration must be completed and signed by all authors and attached to the manuscript upon submission in the manuscript management system under File Upload. Note that manuscripts must not be sent by email. The manuscript will not be processed until a correctly completed form is received from all authors.

Funding

Please indicate the source of funding at the end of the manuscript if relevant.

Language

The manuscript must be written in Norwegian (Bokmål or Nynorsk). Published articles are translated into English by a professional translation agency.

Exclusivity

The manuscript must not have been published in or submitted for consideration in other journals. This must be declared in the cover letter. Research in which all or some of the findings are presented in a report to the commissioning party/funding provider may be considered upon further agreement with the editor.

If the manuscript is based on findings that have also been presented in a master’s thesis, the authors must disclose this, as well as how long any online version of the master’s thesis is embargoed, in order to avoid plagiarism/duplicate publication. Refer to the advice for master’s students.

If you are unsure whether the manuscript is a duplicate or secondary publication, you must contact the editor for clarification.

Preparing the manuscript

General requirements for structure and format

• The title must be clear and concise, provide a good understanding of the article’s content and ideally reflect the main finding. The main purpose of the title is to capture the readers’ interest.
• Original articles and review articles must have a structured summary with the following headings: Background, Objective, Method, Results, and Conclusion (300 words). The manuscript must be structured as follows: Introduction Method including ethical considerations, Results, Discussion including discussion of the study’s strengths and limitations, and Conclusion.
• Provide three to five keywords that you can either add yourself or choose from a list in ScholarOne. The words in the title should not be used as keywords. One of the keywords must indicate the research method used.
• Provide a brief glimpse into the new knowledge or insights that the article adds. This should be structured into three bullet points with a maximum of 100 words including the bullet points and spaces. Clinical benefits should be highlighted if relevant. The bullet points must be placed in the main document on a separate page after the references, under the heading ‘The study’s contribution of new knowledge’.
• For original articles and review articles, authors must adhere to one of the EQUATOR guidelines for reporting research and specify in the cover letter which guidelines have been followed.
• The article can have a maximum of five figures/tables in total. These must be included as part of the main document (on separate pages after the references), have their own concise titles and be self-explanatory. The tables and figures must be presented in a way that highlights key information in the article. If authors have other important tables and figures beyond this limit, these can be included as appendices to the article.
• References must be cited according to the Vancouver style.
  • In-text citations must be given sequential numbers in parentheses and listed in the reference list in the order they appear in the text.
  • DOI numbers must be provided for journal articles.
  • Follow these examples for correctly formatting the reference list:

Journal articles:
1.    Lindhardt T, Hallberg IR, Poulsen I. Nurses’ experience of collaboration with relatives of frail elderly patients in acute hospital wards: a qualitative study. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. 2008;45(5):668–81. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2007.01.010

News articles:
2.    Eian Ø. Her blir sykepleierutdanningen fleksibel [Internet]. Oslo: Sykepleien; 19 January 2024 [cited 7 February 2024]. Available from: https://sykepleien.no/2024/01/her-blir-sykepleierutdanningen-fleksibel

Books:
3.    Polit DF, Beck CT. Nursing research: generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. 9^th edition. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health; 2012.

Book chapters:
4.    Brenne AT, Estenstad B. Hjemmedød. I: Kaasa S, Loge H, eds. Palliasjon: nordisk lærebok. 2^nd edition. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk; 2016. pp. 161–71.

Printed reports:
5.    Melbye L, Ådnanes M, Kasteng F. Sykepleiere i psykisk helsevern for voksne og tverrfaglig spesialisert rusbehandling. Trondheim: Sintef; 2017. Sintef-rapport A28053. 

Online reports:
6.    Helsedirektoratet. Nasjonal faglig retningslinje for utredning, behandling og oppfølging av personer med samtidig ruslidelse og psykisk lidelse – ROP-lidelser [Internet]. Oslo: Helsedirektoratet; 2012 [cited 5 February 2024]. IS-1948. Available from: https://helsedirektoratet.no/Lists/Publikasjoner/Attachments/188/Nasjonal-faglig-retningslinje-personer-med-rop-lidelser-IS-1948.pdf

Legislation and regulations:
7.     Lov om opphavsrett til åndsverk mv. (åndsverkloven). LOV-2018-06-15-40 [cited 10 May 2019]. Available from: https://lovdata.no/lov/2018-06-15-40 

Printed Official Norwegian Reports (NOU):
8.    NOU 2010: 13. Arbeid for helse: sykefravær og utstøting i helse- og omsorgssektoren. Oslo: Departementenes servicesenter, Informasjonsforvaltning; 2010.

Online Official Norwegian Reports (NOU):
9.    NOU 2011: 11. Innovasjon i omsorg [Internet]. Oslo: Departementenes servicesenter, Informasjonsforvaltning; 2011 [cited 5 January 2024]. Available from: https://omsorgsforskning.brage.unit.no/omsorgsforskning-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2594936/Innovasjon%20i%20omsorg.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Reports to the Storting (white papers):
10.    Meld. St. 29 (2012–2013). Morgendagens omsorg [Internet]. Oslo: Helse- og omsorgsdepartementet; 2013 [cited 5 April 2024]. Available from: https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/34c8183cc5cd43e2bd341e34e326dbd8/no/pdfs/stm201220130029000dddpdfs.pdf

Use the term ‘St.meld.’ for white papers dated prior to October 2009, for example St.meld. nr. 30 (2008–2009).

Websites (organisation or institution): 
11.    Folkehelseinstituttet. Pneumokokkvaksine til risikogrupper [Internet]. Oslo: Folkehelseinstituttet; 24 February 2020 [updated 29 August 2023; cited 7 February 2024]. Available from: https://www.fhi.no/va/voksenvaksinasjon/pneumokokkvaksinasjon-for-voksne/

Bachelor, master and doctoral theses:
12.    Humerfelt K. Brukermedvirkning i arbeid med individuell plan [doctoral thesis]. Trondheim: Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet; 2012.

Original articles – 3000 words

An original article describes research studies with various research designs. Relevant subheadings can be used to enhance readability and understanding. Original articles must adhere to internationally recognised standards for reporting research, cf. the EQUATOR guidelines.

The maximum permitted references is 35. Summaries, tables, figures and references are not included in the word count. The number of words may deviate slightly for qualitative studies, and this must be explained in the cover letter when submitting the manuscript.

Review articles – 3000 words

A review article provides a systematic literature review of previous research conducted in a particular field. The aim is to summarise, evaluate and synthesise research. A literature review may aim to identify what has been researched and uncover knowledge gaps where there is a lack of up-to-date research. Literature reviews can take many different forms, and the Journal seeks to publish a variety. Review articles must adhere to internationally recognised standards for reporting literature reviews, cf. the EQUATOR guidelines.

The maximum permitted references that are not included in the results of the literature review is 35. Summaries, tables, figures and references are not included in the world count.

Discussion articles – 2000 words

Academic discussion of relevant challenges and topics within nursing, health, health policy, education and research is elevated, and a critical approach is taken based on relevant scientific knowledge and experiences. The aim of discussion articles is to stimulate academic discussion and discourse within the field.

Start with a brief introduction in which you outline what you want to achieve with the article. This is followed by a ‘Background’ section in which you present the article’s research problem, supported with scientific references. Various aspects of the research problem can then be discussed, also supported by scientific references. The article should end with a conclusion or rounding up where you tie everything together without introducing new information.

The summary must be brief and describe the essence of the discussion article. The maximum permitted keywords is four (4) and the maximum permitted references is 20.

Checklist for manuscript submission

The following separate documents must be included in the manuscript submission:

1. Cover letter to the editor
2. Title page including the following:
   1. Title of the manuscript
   1. Name, highest degree, academic title/position and place of work of the author(s)
   1. Contact details of the corresponding author
   1. Word count
   1. Number of figures and tables
   1. Five keywords
3. The article manuscript
   1. Check that the word count does not exceed the stipulated limit for the relevant article type.
   1. Check that the maximum of five tables and figures has not been exceeded.
   1. Check that tables and figures have a short, concise and informative title.
   1. Check that references comply with the Vancouver style and are in line with the examples provided in these author guidelines.
   1. Check that all journal articles in the reference list have a DOI number.
4. Signed conflict of interest declaration from all authors

All documents are uploaded to the Norwegian Journal of Clinical Nursing’smanuscript management system, ScholarOne, via the following address: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sykepleien-forskning

The review process

In the first instance, the editor and/or assistant editor determines whether the manuscript should be subjected to a peer review or rejected. Editorial decisions are based on the manuscript’s relevance for the Journal and its originality, quality and contribution to knowledge. The editor makes a publishing decision based on the peer reviews, the assistant editor’s assessment and their own assessment. There are three possible outcomes after a peer review: a) the manuscript is accepted, b) major or minor revisions are recommended, c) the manuscript is rejected.

Peer review

All manuscripts are reviewed by at least two peer reviewers. When submitting the manuscript, authors are required to recommend at least two peer reviewers who have methodological and/or substantive expertise within the field. Proposed peer reviewers must have research competence, and at least one must have a PhD.

We aim for a prompt review process, from submission to decision, and from acceptance to publication. Peer reviewers should adhere to COPE – Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

When the manuscript has been accepted

The authors receive an email from the editor when the manuscript has been accepted for publication.

After approval, the manuscript is sent for technical and language editing, also known as copyediting, and checked by the manuscript editor.

The Norwegian Journal of Clinical Nursingorganises the professional translation of the entire article into British English, including the summary, tables and figures. The translated version is then sent to the corresponding author for a read-through before publication.

Last updated:  December 2024