Policies

ADVERTISEMENT POLICY

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing can publish advertisement images in the journal’s website upon the approval of the Editor in Chief. Potential advertisers should contact the Editorial Office. Advertisers have no effect on the editorial decisions or advertising policies.

APPEALS AND COMPLAINT

The editorial board of the journal is responsible for handling appeals and complaints in accordance with the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Authors who wish to file an appeal or complaint should contact the editorial office directly to express their concerns. Each case will be reviewed by the editorial board, and a decision will be made in line with COPE principles.

The editor-in-chief holds the final authority in all decisions regarding appeals and complaints. In certain cases, an ombudsperson may be appointed to address issues that cannot be resolved internally.

The journal is committed to a fair and transparent process in managing appeals and complaints, with the primary objective of upholding the integrity of the scientific record.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)–ASSISTED TECHNOLOGY

At submission, the journal should require authors to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)– assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. Use of AI for writing assistance should be reported in the acknowledgment section. Authors who used AI technology to conduct the study should describe its use in the methods section in sufficient detail to enable replication to the approach, including the tool used, version, and prompts where applicable. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship. Therefore, humans are responsible for any submitted material that included the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AIassisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.

AUTHORSHIP

Each person listed as an author should fulfill the authorship criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE - www.icmje.org). The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on the following four criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he/she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. Also, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the title page of the manuscript.

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing requires corresponding authors to submit a signed and scanned version of the Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship form (available for download at https://jer-nursing.org/) during the initial submission process to act appropriately on authorship rights and to prevent ghost or honorary authorship. If the editorial board suspects a case of “gift authorship,” the submission will be rejected without further review. As part of the submission of the manuscript, the corresponding author should also send a short statement declaring that he/she accepts to undertake all the responsibility for authorship during the submission and review stages of the manuscript.

The corresponding author is held responsible for ensuring the accuracy and integrity of all information provided on behalf of the co-authors. This includes, but is not limited to, the authors’ order in the author list, their full names and affiliations, and their signatures on any required forms. By submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author confirms that all listed authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission to the journal.

CHANGE OF AUTHORSHIP

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing reviews the authorship according to the author’s declaration in the Title Page, thus it is the authors responsibility to send the final order of the complete author names. Requests in the change of authorship (e.g. removal/addition of the authors, change in the order etc) after submission are subject to editorial approval. Editorial Board will investigate this kind of cases and act following COPE flowcharts. 

Change of authorship requests should be submitted to the Editorial Office with an official letter stating the reasons of the change. The letter must be signed by all authors and include their approval on the change in authorship. If the request is approved by the Editorial Board, authors need to submit a new Copyright Agreement Form according to the final order list.

CITATIONS

Both research and non-research articles must include citations to relevant, timely, and verifiable literature—preferably peer-reviewed—to substantiate any claims made within the manuscript.

Authors should avoid excessive or inappropriate self-citation and must not engage in prearranged citation practices with other author groups. Such actions may constitute citation manipulation, a form of publication misconduct. Authors are encouraged to consult the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on citation manipulation for further clarification.

For non-research articles, such as reviews or opinion pieces, references must be carefully selected to provide a fair, balanced, and comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge on the topic. Citations should not disproportionately favor any specific research group, institution, or journal.

If there is any uncertainty regarding the appropriateness of a citation, authors are advised to consult the journal’s editorial office for guidance.

CONFIDENTIALITY

All submitted manuscripts are considered confidential material. Journal of Education and Research in Nursing will not disclose the content of any submission to individuals other than those directly involved in the editorial and publication process, including editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential and invited reviewers, and editors.

In cases where misconduct is suspected, the journal reserves the right to share the manuscript with members of relevant ethics committees or with institutions and organizations as necessary to facilitate the investigation and resolution of the alleged misconduct.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing requires each submission to be accompanied by a Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship form (available for download at https://jer-nursing.org/docs/copyright.pdf). By signing this form, authors retain the copyright of their work and agree that the article, if accepted for publication by the Journal of Education and Research in Nursing will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 International License which permits third parties to share and adapt the content for non-commercial purposes by giving the appropriate credit to the original work.   

When using previously published content, including figures, tables, or any other material in both print and electronic formats, authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder. Legal, financial and criminal liabilities in this regard belong to the author(s).

DESK REJECTION POLICY

1. The topic / scope of the study is not relevant to the field of the Journal.

2. There are publication ethics problems, non-adherence to international standard guidelines, and plagiarism (set at a similarity index of higher than 20 percent).

3. The topic does not have a sufficient impact, nor does it sufficiently contribute new knowledge to the field.

4. There are flaws in the study design.

5. The objective of the study is not clearly stated.

6. The study of the organization is problematic and/or certain components are missing.

7. There are problems in writing or series infelicities of in the style of grammar.

8. The manuscript does not follow the submission guideline of the Journal.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions expressed in the manuscripts published in this journal are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors, editorial board, or publisher. The editors, editorial board, and publisher accept no responsibility for the content of the manuscripts and do not endorse the views expressed therein.

It is the sole responsibility of the authors to ensure the accuracy, validity, and integrity of their work. The journal provides a platform for authors to disseminate their research to the scientific community; however, responsibility for the content remains with the authors.

DUPLICATE SUBMISSION/PUBLICATION

Authors must confirm at the time of submission that the manuscript has not been submitted to or is not under consideration by another journal. The identification of duplicate submission or publication is typically regarded as a deliberate breach of ethical standards. This includes manuscripts previously published in another language.

In accordance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), certain secondary publications (e.g., a translated version of an article) may be considered acceptable. In such cases, authors must obtain permission from the original publisher and copyright holder and inform the Editor of the receiving journal about the full publication history of the original work.

Furthermore, the translated article must clearly indicate that it is a version of a previously published work, and a full citation to the original article must be included to ensure transparency for readers.

EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATION PROCESS

The editorial and publication processes of the journal are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The journal conforms to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice).

Originality, high scientific quality, and citation potential are the most important criteria for a manuscript to be accepted for publication. Manuscripts submitted for evaluation should not have been previously presented or already published in an electronic or printed medium. The journal should be informed of manuscripts that have been submitted to another journal for evaluation and rejected for publication. The submission of previous reviewer reports will expedite the evaluation process. Manuscripts that have been presented in a meeting should be submitted with detailed information on the organization, including the name, date, and location of the organization.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES

Research protocols must be approved by the Ethics Committee in compliance with international guidelines, including the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (amended in October 2024, https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/). Ethics committee approval is mandatory for experimental, clinical, and drug studies, as well as for certain case reports. When applicable, authors will be required to provide ethics committee reports or an equivalent official document. Manuscripts lacking ethical approval will be evaluated in line with COPE’s Research, Audit, and Service Evaluations guideline. However, such submissions may be rejected during editorial review due to the absence of ethics committee approval.

For manuscripts concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that written informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo.

It is the authors’ responsibility to protect the patients’ anonymity carefully. For photographs that may reveal the identity of the patients, signed releases of the patient or their legal representative should be enclosed, and the publication approval must be provided in the Methods section.

For studies carried out on animals, an approval research protocols by the Ethics Committee in accordance with international agreements (Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals, 8th edition, 2011" and/or “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals, 2012”) is required. Also, the measures taken to prevent pain and suffering of the animals should be stated clearly in such studies.

Information on patient consent, the name of the ethics committee, and the ethics committee approval number and date should also be stated in the Methods section of the manuscript.

Research Ethics for Vulnerable Populations

At the Journal of Education and Research in Nursing, we are committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in all research involving human participants, especially vulnerable populations such as children. In line with our dedication to responsible and respectful research practices, we have established the following guidelines to ensure the protection and ethical treatment of these groups:

Consent Requirements for Children

Parental/Guardian Consent: For all research involving children under the age of 18, written informed consent must be obtained from a parent or legal guardian. This consent must be informed, voluntary, and documented.

Assent from Children: In addition to parental consent, researchers are required to obtain assent from children who are capable of forming an opinion and making a decision regarding their participation in the study. This process must be age-appropriate and must respect the child’s level of understanding and autonomy.

Privacy and Confidentiality: Extra precautions will be taken to protect the privacy and confidentiality of child participants. This includes using pseudonyms, removing identifiable details from published data, and securely storing data.

Ethical Review: All studies involving children must undergo a rigorous ethical review process to ensure that the research is justified, and the potential benefits outweigh any risks. The ethical review will also ensure that the study adheres to the principles of beneficence, non-öaleficence, and justice.

OPEN ACCESS STATEMENT

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing is an open access publication, and the journal’s publication model is based on  Budapest Access Initiative (BOAI) declaration. All published content is available online, free of charge at http://jer-nursing.org. The journal’s content is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 International License  which permits third parties to share and adapt the content for non-commercial purposes by giving the appropriate credit to the original work.  

Since Volume 18, Issue 1 (2021), the Journal of Education and Research in Nursing has been published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license.

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Manuscripts submitted to Journal of Education and Research in Nursing will go through a double-blind peer-review process. Each submission will be reviewed by at least two external, independent peer reviewers who are experts in their fields in order to ensure an unbiased evaluation process. The editorial board will invite an external and independent editor to manage the evaluation processes of manuscripts submitted by editors or by the editorial board members of the journal. The Editor in Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for all submissions. Reviewers who seek assistance from a trainee or colleague in the performance of a review should acknowledge these individuals' contributions in the written comments submitted to the editor. Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript, which may prohibit the uploading of the manuscript to software or other AI technologies where confidentiality cannot be assured. Reviewers must request permission from the journal prior to using AI technology to facilitate their review.

PLAGIARISM AND ETHICAL MISCONDUCT

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing is extremely sensitive about plagiarism. All submissions are screened by a similarity detection software (iThenticate by CrossCheck) at any point during the peer-review and/or production process.

When you are discussing others' (or your own) previous work, please make sure that you cite the material correctly in every instance. 

Authors are strongly recommended to avoid any form plagiarism and ethical misconduct that are exemplified below.
Self- plagiarism (text-recycling): Overlapping sections or sentences with the author’s previous publications without citing them. Even if you are the author of the phrases or sentences, the text should not have unacceptable similarity with the previously published data.
Salami slicing: Using the same data of a research into several different articles. Reporting the same hypotheses, population, and methods of a study is into different papers is not acceptable.
Data Fabrication: It is the addition of data that never occurred during the gathering of data or the experiments. Results and their interpretation must be based on the complete data sets and reported accordingly.
Data Manipulation/Falsification: It means manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression. This includes manipulating images (e.g. micrographs, gels, radiological images), removing outliers or ‘inconvenient’ results, changing data points, etc.

In the event of alleged or suspected research misconduct, e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, the Editorial Board will follow and act according to COPE flowcharts.

PRE- AND POST-PUBLICATION PROCESS

The journal has a clear and transparent policy on pre- and post-publication issues:

• Corrections and Errata: If errors are discovered post-publication that do not undermine the findings of the research, the journal will publish a correction or erratum.
• Retractions: In cases of major ethical breaches such as plagiarism, data fabrication, or serious methodological errors, the journal will issue a retraction in line with COPE guidelines.
• Article Withdrawal (Prior to Acceptance): Authors may request to withdraw their manuscript at any stage before formal acceptance. Withdrawal requests must be submitted in writing using a signed form that includes the signatures of all authors and the reason for withdrawal. The journal reserves the right to accept or deny the withdrawal request based on the stage of peer review and editorial consideration.
• Responsibilities of the Editorial Board: The editorial board of the Journal of Education and Research in Nursing has the obligation to initiate an investigation into any suspected copyright infringement, ethical statement violation, or plagiarism regarding studies that are published ahead of print, or under review. If the editorial board determines that there is a violation of copyright, ethical statement, or plagiarism in the work under evaluation, it withdraws the work from the evaluation and returns it to the authors by citing the detected situations in detail. In the event that copyright infringement or plagiarism is determined to have occurred in a published work or a work in early view, the Editorial Board may recommend to the publishers or editorial boards, of which study was previously published, to ensure the validity and reliability of the published studies or to withdraw them.

PREPRINT POLICY

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing does not consider the posting of manuscripts on non-commercial preprint servers as prior publication. Authors are permitted to share and discuss their findings via such platforms prior to formal submission to the journal.

However, authors must disclose the existence of the preprint during the initial submission process, including the name of the preprint server and the corresponding DOI or persistent link.

If the manuscript is accepted and published by the journal, it is the authors’ responsibility to update the preprint record by linking it to the final, published version of the article. This practice ensures transparency and allows readers to access the most reliable and up-to-date version of the work.

REVISIONS

When submitting a revised version of a paper, the author must submit a detailed “Response to the reviewers” that states point by point how each issue raised by the reviewers has been covered and where it can be found (each reviewer’s comment, followed by the author’s reply and line numbers where the changes have been made) as well as an annotated copy of the main document. Revised manuscripts must be submitted within 30 days from the date of the decision letter. If the revised version of the manuscript is not submitted within the allocated time, the revision option may be canceled. If the submitting author(s) believe that additional time is required, they should request this extension before the initial 30-day period is over.

Accepted manuscripts are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, and format by professional language editors. Once the publication process of a manuscript is completed, it is published online on the journal’s webpage as an ahead-of-print publication before it is included in its scheduled issue. A PDF proof of the accepted manuscript is sent to the corresponding author and their publication approval is requested within 2 days of their receipt of the proof.

SELF-ARCHIVING POLICY

Authors retain the right to self-archive their work on institutional or personal websites, as well as in open access repositories, following publication. Authors are expected to appropriately acknowledge the original publication and include the DOI when sharing their articles. Additionally, authors should provide a link from the deposited version to the publisher’s website URL. This practice ensures that the online version published by the publisher is recognized as the definitive version of record, thereby maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the scientific record.

STATEMENTS AND DECLARATIONS

Authors are required to provide the following statements to ensure transparency, accountability, and compliance with international publication standards.

Acknowledgment

Individuals who have contributed to the article—such as through general supervision, funding acquisition, study design, data collection or analysis, technical assistance, formatting or writing support, or scholarly discussions that significantly informed the development of the article—but who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed by name and affiliation in the Acknowledgments section. It is the responsibility of the authors to inform these individuals and obtain their permission prior to inclusion. This process should involve sharing the manuscript to allow individuals to verify the context in which their contributions are acknowledged.

Groups of individuals who have made material contributions that do not justify authorship may be listed under collective headings such as “clinical investigators” or “participating investigators,” with a description of their role—for example, “served as scientific advisors,” “critically reviewed the study proposal,” “collected data,” or “provided and cared for study patients.” Since readers may infer endorsement of the data and conclusions, written permission from these individuals is required for acknowledgment.

Any use of AI tools for content generation (e.g., large language models) or similar technologies must be explicitly acknowledged in the manuscript. Authors are responsible for ensuring the validity, originality, and integrity of the content produced, and must use such tools responsibly and in accordance with the journal’s editorial policies regarding authorship and publication ethics.

Declaration of Interests

Authors are required to disclose any relationships, affiliations, or financial interests that could potentially influence or bias the content of their work. This disclosure must be completed during the manuscript submission process via the journal’s online submission system.

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing also expects and encourages all individuals involved in the peer review process—including editors and reviewers—to declare any actual or potential conflicts of interest that may affect their objectivity.

Any cases involving potential conflicts of interest among authors, reviewers, or editorial staff will be managed by the Editorial Board in accordance with the relevant COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) flowcharts and best practice guidelines.

Financial Disclosure

Journal of Education and Research in Nursing requires authors to disclose all sources of financial support received in the course of conducting their research. This information must be included in a funding statement submitted with the manuscript.

The funding statement should clearly identify the names of all funding agencies, associated grant numbers, and specify the role of each funder in the design, execution, analysis, or reporting of the research. If a funder had no involvement in any aspect of the study, this should be explicitly stated.

Providing this information is essential to ensure transparency and to help readers assess any potential biases or conflicts of interest related to the research.

Funding

Authors are required to disclose all sources of funding, including any financial support received for the research. The role of the sponsor(s), if applicable, must be clearly described—whether in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the sponsor(s) had no involvement in any of these stages, this should also be explicitly stated.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the funding information is complete, accurate, and compliant with the requirements of the funding agency.

WITHDRAWAL REQUESTS

Withdrawal requests for an article are reviewed by the journal’s editorial board. To initiate a withdrawal, authors must submit a form signed by all co-authors detailing the request and the reasons for withdrawal to the journal editor. The editorial board will evaluate the request and make a decision based on the authors’ justification. The form may be downloaded here.

If approved, the article will be withdrawn from the journal, and the authors will be notified accordingly. Authors are advised not to submit their work to another journal until the withdrawal request has been officially approved, in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest or duplicate publication.

Editor in Chief: Sevilay Şenol Çelik

Address: Koç University School of Nursing, Sağlık Bilimleri Kampüsü, Davutpaşa Caddesi 34010 Topkapı, İstanbul, Türkiye

E-mail: sevilaycelik@ku.edu.tr

Publisher: Göztepe Mah. Fahrettin Kerim Gökay Caddesi No: 200/A D:2 Çemenzar - Kadıköy

Phone: +90 (216) 550 61 11

E-mail: kare@karepb.com