Submissions

Author Guidelines

See the For Authors section in the INFORMATION panel on the right side of the Home Page. If you have problems during submission please contact the journal and we will do our best to help. 

Please adhere closely to the Author Guidelines (below). Failure to do so may result in manuscripts being returned to authors for reformatting.

Before submission please include email addresses noreply@fend.org, journal@fend.org as well as Sarah.Hills@fend.org are included in your contact list of safe email addresses (white listed). You may also need to check your spam mail box. Note you may need to check your spam folder if you are waiting for an acknowledgement or reply.

Submissions must contain at least two files: 1) Cover letter,  2) Manuscript main file.

1. COVER LETTER

Manuscript title.

Brief description of research being reported, why it is important, the power of the results, key messages, why you think it is of interest to International Diabetes Nursing.

Article type e.g., Research Article, Case Study.

Signature statement signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors that the paper has not been previously published and is not under consideration by another journal.  Confirmation that none of the authors have competing interests to disclose.

Statement that all the authors have met the following authorship criteria:  i) substantially contributed to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; ii) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; iii) AND final approval of the version to be published; iv) 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.

For further information on definitions of the role of authors and contributors see: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html.

Contact details for corresponding author and all co-authors.

2. MANUSCRIPT MAIN FILE

Title page

Manuscript title (two typeset lines / max 20 words): understandable to an international readership. No abbreviations. State study design in the title and keywords for research articles.

Authors’ names (family/last name in CAPS), and affiliation: highest academic title, professional qualifications, role, department, institute, city, post code, country.

Corresponding author: name, department, institute, postal address, telephone number and email.

Twitter: if you wish (and within your institution rules) supply a tweet about your article, which may or may not be used/edited at the discretion of the editors, (250 character limit). Please include Twitter handle(s) of all authors.

Total word count: for body of the manuscript.

Manuscript

a) Abstract (max 300 words): structured format: introduction/background, methods, results, and conclusion).

b) Keywords (max 6): as MeSH (Medical Subject Headings https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/) terms.

c) Manuscript (max 3000 words, excluding abstract, references and tables): Editors will approve exceptions on a case-by-case basis depending on article type. Typed in Times New Roman, size 12 font, double spaced, UK English, Oxford English Dictionary, -ise ending.

Main text divided according to (IMRaD) Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion. Discussion should contain main findings, strengths and limitations of the study, interpretation of findings in relation to previously published work, implications for future research, policy and practice, followed by conclusions.

Ethical standards and guidelines 

International Diabetes Nursing strives for the highest ethical standards in editorial and publishing conduct. Further guidance can be found on https://www.internationaldiabetesnursing.org/index.php/idn/author_guidelines_ethical_standards.

Studies in humans (patients or volunteers) must be carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (World Medical Association, https://www.wma.net).

Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee (or institutional review board) approval and informed consent (if applicable), which must be documented in the paper. The approving body and (if applicable) approval number should be identified. The process of collecting consent from the patient or volunteer must be documented and written consent must be retained. Copies of the consent or evidence that consent has been obtained must be provided on request.

Personal details of patients or volunteers included in the article and any supplementary materials (including illustrations) must be removed before submission. Where authors wish to publish case details, of personal information, images of patients and of any other individuals, appropriate written consent (permissions and releases) must be obtained. Written consents must be retained by the author and provided if requested by the journal (for example if a legal issue arises).

Reporting scientific results: If applicable, please ensure that the appropriate reporting checklist has been completed in accordance with the EQUATOR Network for the best reporting of scientific results http://www.equator-network.org and submitted as a supplementary file. 

d) Tables, graphs, figures (max 5): submit tables as editable text, not as images. Include in main document file and place close to the relevant text. Number tables consecutively with Arabic numerals as they appear in the text. Tables must have descriptive title and if numerical measurements are given the units should be included in column heading. Tables should contain only essential data, please ensure that the data presented do not duplicate results described in the text. Abbreviations used in tables must be fully defined in the footnote. No supplementary tables or graphs are allowed.

Do not use vertical rules/lines in tables. 

e) Copyright: Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission if all, or part, of previously published material is used. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures (or tables) that have previously been published elsewhere. Authors must have permission from the rights holder if they wish to include images that have been published elsewhere in non open access journals. Permission must be indicated in the figure/table legend, and the original source included in the reference list. A copy of the authorisation/permission letter must be sent as a  supplementary file.

f) Acknowledgements: As brief as possible. Contributions from anyone who does not meet criteria for authorship should be listed, along with editorial assistance, with permission from the contributor.

g) Funding declaration: All financial and material support must be stated here. Absence or presence of conflict of interest must be explicitly stated. A conflict-of-interest statement must also be included in the cover letter.

h) References (max 50): Vancouver style, i.e., numbered sequentially in superscript as they occur in the text and ordered numerically in the reference list. All citations mentioned in the text, tables or figures must be listed in the reference list. If cited in tables or figure legends, number in list according to first mention of table or figure in the text.  Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Reference to ‘unpublished data, personal communication, in preparation, submitted for publication’, should not appear in reference list but in parentheses in the text (e.g., Brown B, 2014, unpublished data). Written consent for publication must be provided as a supplementary file.

Authors must provide an electronic version of manuscripts cited as ‘in press’ when they submit their manuscript. If an accepted paper contains references to a manuscript ‘in press’ written evidence that it has been accepted must be provided as a supplementary file.

DOI citation information must be included as a full DOI URL by prepending http://dx.doi.org/ to any DOI reference.

Examples of reference style for International Diabetes Nursing can be found at: https://www.internationaldiabetesnursing.org/index.php/idn/author_guidelines_reference_examples

i) Language style guide

The term 'diabetic' should not be used as a noun. Preferred style is ‘people (or person or individual) with diabetes’ or ‘in the group without diabetes’, rather than ‘diabetic people (or person)’, 'diabetic patient' or ‘non-diabetic group’.

The terms 'Type 1' and 'Type 2 diabetes mellitus' should be used rather than IDDM and NIDDM. Diabetes should not be abbreviated to DM but it is acceptable to omit mellitus.

'Men' and 'women' should be used in preference to 'males' and 'females'. ‘Participant(s)’ or ‘person’/’people’ is preferred to ‘patient(s)’ or ‘subject(s)’ to reflect the collaborative nature of modern clinical research.

j) Abbreviations and Units

Abbreviations are strongly discouraged except for units of measurement. Non-standard abbreviations should not be used. Avoid abbreviations in the title and in the abstract. At first mention the abbreviation should be spelled-out in full followed by the abbreviation in parentheses unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

SI units must be used throughout except for blood pressure (mmHg) and haemoglobin (g/l). Gas or pressure values should be given as mmHg with kPa in parentheses or vice versa.

Where molecular weight is known, the amount of a substance should be expressed in mol or appropriate subunit (mmol). Energy should be expressed in kcal or joules (J).

The solidus (/) may be used in a unit only if it is not used more than once (e.g. mmol/l is acceptable), but ml/min/kg is not acceptable and should be replaced with ml min-1 kg-1.

Last update 22 August 2022