Newsletter

Jocep
Journal Of Chi Eta Phi Sorority
Chi Eta Phi, Sorority Inc.

Instructions for Authors
"What JOCEPS Authors Should Know"

The main mission of the Journal Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority, Inc. Health (the Journal) is to communicate  nurses’ contributions, commitments, and relevance to the health and health care of minority and disadvantaged populations across the globe. The Journal aims to embrace all minority health care issues from the global to the local perspective and to publish articles related to minority health research, policy, practice, and education The journal also focuses on key issues related to nursing, health education, ethics, and the influence of the built environment on health. Contributions of original unpublished research, social science analyses, scholarly essays, critical commentaries, and letters to the editor are welcome. The Journal adheres to the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Deciding What to Submit

Informal Inquiries. The Editor cannot respond to individual queries regarding the appropriateness of planned contributions. Therefore, if a planned contribution is close to completion, please consult the detailed guidelines in order to better judge a paper's appropriateness. It is also helpful to consult the most recent issue of the Journal regarding our scope of coverage of minority health, nursing and other relevant issues.

Authors wishing to discuss the possible publication of groundbreaking information with the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Jamesetta A Halley-Boyce, may e-mail her at halleyja@shu.edu. Organizations wishing to discuss publication of special supplements should  also contact Dr. Jamesetta A Halley-Boyce.

Manuscript Types. A variety of Journal formats are accepted in  order to reach diverse audiences and fill varied needs within the health care community. Scholarly essays, critical analyses, and policy papers may be submitted as follows:

Commentaries  provide thoughtful discussions of current topics (up to 2500 words in main text, 2 tables/figures, and an unstructured abstract of 120 words).  Analytic Essays  provide critical analyses of a broad range of minority health and nursing issues from disciplines other than the biomedical sciences, including (but not limited to) the social sciences, human rights, civil rights, government, politics, health policy education, law, and ethics. (up to 3500 words in main text, 4 tables/figures, and an unstructured abstract of 120 words). 

Research and Practice articles  report the results of original quantitative or qualitative public health research (up to 3500 words in main text, 4 tables/figures, and a structured abstract of 180 words). 

Briefs report preliminary or novel findings (up to 800 words in main text, 2 tables/figures, and an abstract of up to 80 words).

Nursing and Minority Health Then and Now is devoted to history that bears on contemporary  nursing and minority health (up to 5500 words in main text, 4 images, and an unstructured abstract of 150 words). 

Voices From the Past presents brief historical extracts of Chi Eta Phi Sorority  and other minority pioneers that are republished with an accompanying biographical sketch (up to 2500 words in main text, no abstract).

Field Action Reports feature practice-based programs and initiatives that have the potential to advance the public's health and eliminate health disparities, both locally and more broadly (up to 1000 words in main text, 3 tables/figures/images, and a summary).

Letters provide  brief comments on the findings of Journal articles or other noteworthy health advances (up to 400 words in main text, no abstract, limited to 10 references). Please note that word counts refer exclusively to the main text and do not include abstract, references, or acknowledgments.

Other formats may include  short stories,poems on philosophical issues related to science, health and health care. These may include topics of human conditions or how people perceive and cope  with illness or maintain good health. These articles will evoke compassion and understanding for  human suffering, global health disparities and the impact of racism  and  social exclusion. If you wish to submit  an article in one of these categories, please contact halleyja@shu.edu.

Electronic Submission
The Journal is switching to an electronic submission process  in anticipation of moving to a web-based submission system. All authors wishing to submit their mansucripts must do so  either on disk or as attachments to e-mail.  The Journal can no longer accept hardcopy versions of papers.  The advantages of  this process include ease in record keeping; faster peer review and publication; savings on postage; and enhanced archival capability.

Providing Manuscript, Keyword, and Author Information
Information that you will need to submit by e-mail attachment includes:

Authorship and Contributorship. Individual contributions of each author must be specified in a single brief statement. Listing more than 6 authors requires justification.
Example: E.C. Frampton conceived of the study and supervised all aspects of its implementation. S. Hampton assisted with the study and completed the analyses. R.E. Lewison synthesized analyses and led the writing. N.C. Smithson assisted with the study and analyses. All authors helped to conceptualize ideas, interpret findings, and review drafts of the manuscript.

Authors must confirm that the content has not been published elsewhere and does not overlap or duplicate their published work. Exceptions are made for abstracts and reports from scientific meetings. Upon acceptance, all authors must certify that they will take public responsibility for the content and provide any relevant data upon request. All authors must also certify that they have contributed substantially to conception and design or analysis and interpretation of the data, drafting or revision of content, and approval of the final version. Copyright is transferred to Chi Eta Phi  Sorority, Inc. upon acceptance.

Cover Letter.  Include a cover letter indicating the proposed category of the article. Also disclose all possible conflicts of interest (e.g., funding sources for consultancies or studies of products). Provide a brief indication of the importance of the paper to the field of minority health and nursing  Finally verify that the final manuscript has been reviewed and approved by all authors.

Abstract. Good abstracts are  important. Use complete sentences, and spell out acronyms at first mention. Abstracts for most articles should be 120 words or less (not including headings); Please note the requirements for each type of article  as previously stated Commentaries (an unstructured abstract of 120 words). Analytic Essays (an unstructured abstract of 120 words), Research and Practice articles  (a structured abstract of 180 words), Briefs (an abstract of up to 80 words), Nursing and Minority Health Then and Now( an unstructured abstract of 150 words), Voices From the Past (no abstract), Field Action Reports (a summary, no abstract), Letters (no abstract).
We use this version of your abstract to solicit referees to review your manuscript. Those documents not requiring an abstract should include a few summary sentences. Potential reviewers may view these abstracts/summaries before they accept or decline the assignment.

Acknowledgments. Disclosure of all financial and material support is required. Upon acceptance, the first author will be asked to certify that all persons who have contributed substantially to the work but who do not fulfill authorship criteria have been listed, and that written permission for listing them has been obtained.

Human Participant Protection. If human participants are involved, a statement of approval by an institutional review board (IRB) and the participants' informed consent is required. The Journal adheres to the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association (http://www.wma.net). If IRB approval was not obtained, an explanation is required.

Manuscript Preparation. For word processing use MS Word. Please submit only a Word .DOC manuscript file. (If you prefer, you may submit in PDF format, but for review purposes only; a Word .DOC file will later be required as a final version for production if the article is accepted.) Style: JOCEPS follows the guidelines of the International Committee and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed).

Title Page (page 1 of the Manuscript File). All that is necessary on the title page is the title itself. Authorship information must not appear on the title page (nor anywhere else in the Manuscript File). The Journal’s review process is double-blind--to ensure an impartial evaluation, reviewers' identities will not be divulged to authors, and author's identities will not be available to reviewers until after an editorial decision is made. If you would like to include information such as the word counts for your abstract, main text, and references, as well as the number of tables/figures on the title page, please do so. This easily accessible information can be very useful to editors and reviewers.

Abstract (page 2 of the Manuscript File). Include the abstract as described previously.
Text (begins on page 3 of the Manuscript File). Add subheads for clearer presentation and informed reading (at least 1 subhead for every 2 pages). Text heads should be brief.  The Editor reserves the right to shorten heads to fit. Use acronyms sparingly, if at all.
The Editor recommends that you use only certain fonts: Times, Times Roman, Arial, and the Symbol font for special characters. Using other fonts could make  a PDF more difficult to read.

References (within the Manuscript File). Format your references according to the AMA Manual of Style (or see JAMA. 1998;279:68). The Journal lists up to 6 authors; for more, list the first 3 and add "et al." Number references in the order cited in text, tables, and figures (assume tables and figures fall at first call-out). If you have used an automatic footnote or endnote system, please remove all automatic links between citation numbers and the references. (Note that some bibliographic software offer one-step removal of linking codes specifically for submitting manuscripts to publishers.) Verify all references using MEDLINE. For secondary sources, direct quotations, and citations from books or reports, give specific page numbers. Cite personal (written or oral) communications in the text only, giving source, degrees, type, and date [Example: (H.R. Smith, PhD, MPH, oral communication, May 1996.).] For Nursing and Minority Health Then and Now, Voices From the Past, Field Action Reports and Letters only, authors may follow endnote style (Documentation 1) in the Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed. 1993:487-635).
References should appear after the main text (and before tables and figures) in the manuscript file.

Tables and Figures (within the Manuscript File). Please note the following guidelines for the number of tables, figures, and images: Commentaries (2 tables/figures), Analytic Essays (4 tables/figures), Research and Practice articles  (4 tables/figures), Briefs (2 tables/figures, Nursing and Minority Health Then and Now (4 images), Voices From the Past presents brief historical extracts of Chi Eta Phi Sorority  and other minority pioneers that are republished with an accompanying biographical sketch (2 images), Field Action Reports (3 tables/figures/images)
Each table and figure should have a self-contained title that is fully comprehensible without reference to the text. Lettering in figures should be large enough to read once reduced to print. Figures should include legends and should be professionally drawn or created using a computer program. All figures and tables must be in black and white..
Tables should each be placed on a separate page at the end of the manuscript file you will upload. Figures in Excel format should appear directly after tables, each on a separate page. Figures in other than Excel format can either (1) be pasted onto the end of the Manuscript File, each on a separate page, or (2) be uploaded as figure files (see Other Figure Files below).
Note: Excel tables are preferred. Only simple or text-heavy tables should be created in Word. Do not upload Excel files as figure files. Instead, you must submit Excel-based figures by cutting and pasting them into the end of your manuscript file.

Other Figure Files. Upload non-Excel black-and-white (no color) charts and graphs as Figure Files. Formats not supported include the following: Bitmap (.bmp), Canvas (.cnv), CorelDRAW (.cdr), Excel (.xls), PhotoShop (.psd), PICT (.pict), and locked or encrypted PDFs. Multi-page PowerPoint files (.ppt) are not supported; however, one slide per file is acceptable..

Images. The Journal uses photography and graphics to illustrate the issues raised in our published articles. High-quality digital photos and other images should be uploaded as "Supplementary/Image Files." The image formats accepted are TIFF, PSD, EPS, WMF, PDF, and JPEG files of minimum 300 dpi resolution at 4 by 6 inches. TIFF files are preferred. Do not submit low-resolution images such as GIFs saved from your Web browser as image files.

File Format
Common file types are grouped below according to level of acceptability. File extensions (suffixes) are given with each file type, and should be used in file names. Please do not use spaces or special characters in file names, and limit file names to 32 characters, including any file extension.

These formats are IDEAL:

These formats are ACCEPTABLE:

These formats are UNACCEPTABLE:

Resolution
Resolution is commonly expressed as pixels per inch (ppi), dots per inch (dpi), or dots or pixels per centimeter. The higher the resolution, the better the image at the same image size and the better it will look when printed at larger sizes. Some graphics applications can save files at high resolutions. We cannot use images of low resolution (less than 300 dpi) unless the image size is large (around 14 by 21 inches at 72 dpi). Images made from line art should be of very high resolution: at least 1200 dpi regardless of size. Most Web images have a resolution of only 72 dpi, but the original image may be available in higher resolution, so check with the source.
Image Size
Digital image quality also depends on the dimensions of the image, commonly expressed in inches or centimeters of width and height. These dimensions can be set manually in some graphics applications. Doubling the size of an existing image cuts its resolution in half; reducing an existing image will increase its resolution.

File Size
Do not confuse image size with file size. File size is measured in megabytes (M), and is larger for bigger or higher-resolution images. Image file sizes can often range from 10M to 100M, but you should keep your file size below 20M if possible. If you are sending a large or high-resolution image to us as an e-mail attachment, please consider first compressing it to below 5M with a compression or stuffing utility such as WinZip or StuffIt. While we can receive a file of any size, some internet service providers limit the size of attached files to as little as 2M to 5M.

Submission Checklist

Review, Editing, and Production
We acknowledge new, revised, and resubmitted manuscripts upon receipt. Peer review of articles takes 2.3 months from submission to initial decision. The review process is double blind, with authors unaware of the identities of reviewers and reviewers unaware of the identities of authors until acceptance. The time from submission to final acceptance of reviewed/revised papers averages 5 months. Upon acceptance, authors will be asked to submit final version source files for editing and production.
 

Questions? Send an e-mail to halleyja@shu.edu