Editorial Policies and Publication Ethics

The Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal (NEPJ) is currently in the process of obtaining membership with the relevant editorial organization. In the meantime, to ensure that all published articles meet internationally standards for high-quality research, NEPJ adheres to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and endorses the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. The journal also follows the Good Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines to promote ethical authorship and responsible reporting.

Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s editorial policies and publication ethics. The Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal takes compliance with publication ethics from all participants in the publishing process seriously. Only manuscripts that are original works, free of plagiarism including plagiarism of the author’s own works and not under consideration for any other publication should be submitted for consideration. Once a manuscript has been submitted to this journal, it cannot be submitted to other publication outlets, except when peer review results in the inability of this journal to accept the work for publication. The editors reserve the right to accept or reject any material submitted for consideration.

The journal does not charge authors for manuscript submission or initial editorial screening. A one-time manuscript processing fee is collected after the completion of peer review and prior to the release of the final review decision. This fee supports administrative and technical processes associated with manuscript handling. Once the processing stage has commenced, the fee is non-refundable, including in cases where an author chooses to withdraw a manuscript that is already undergoing copyediting or final preparation for publication.

Works that appear in the Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal do not represent the views and opinions of the editors or of the Nurse Educators and Practitioners Guild, Inc. (NEPraGuild, Inc.). The journal will retract works that, after publication, are revealed as breaching norms of research and publication ethics.

Submission and Originality
Authors must ensure that their submissions are wholly original works. Any use of the ideas, text, or data of others must be properly acknowledged through appropriate citations or quotations. Plagiarism or any form of uncredited use of others' work is strictly prohibited.

Desk Rejection Policy
A submission may receive a desk rejection if it:
Falls outside the scope of the journal;
Violates research ethics;
Is heavily plagiarized (similarity index exceeding 30%);
Has been previously published or submitted elsewhere;
Does not sufficiently contribute new knowledge to the field.

 Duplicate Submission/Publication
Authors must declare upon submission that their manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere. This applies to manuscripts previously published in another language unless submitted as a translation, in which case this must be clearly declared.

Publication Process
Publication decisions are based on originality, scholarly contribution, clarity of writing, and significance of the work. Decisions are not influenced by personal characteristics or institutional affiliation of authors. Once accepted, authors must consent to copyediting. Manuscripts undergoing copyediting may not be withdrawn except by mutual agreement and subject to a fee. Authors must respond promptly to editorial queries and approve major editorial changes. Authors have the right to review page proofs before publication.

Review Process
All manuscripts undergo double-blind peer review.
Editors and reviewers focus solely on scholarly merit.
Editors recuse themselves in cases of conflict of interest.
Reviewers provide objective, respectful, confidential evaluations and receive no compensation.

Article Types
The Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal (NEPJ) welcomes a diverse array of scholarly and reflective contributions that advance the fields of nursing education and practice. Submissions may include, but are not limited to:
Original Research Articles
Feature Articles
Literature Review
Policy Papers
Commentaries
Concept Papers