About the Journal
Aim and Scope
The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care is the official peer-reviewed, open-access publication of the Rural Nursing Organization. The journal is dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of rural populations worldwide by disseminating timely research and relevant manuscripts related to rural health, nursing, education, practice, and policy. The journal covers a broad spectrum of rural nursing topics, including clinical practice, education and training, policy and advocacy, program assessments and services, quantitative and qualitative research on rural health issues, and expert perspectives on rural health challenges.
The journal welcomes original contributions from researchers worldwide. At least one author must be a current member of the Rural Nurse Organization (RNO) at the time of submission and throughout the review process. The journal accepts original research, quality assurance or quality improvement projects, evidence-based reviews, theoretical discussions, opinion pieces, and program evaluation.
The journal averages 3500 user sessions per month. Readership includes nurses and other health care providers interested in rural health.
The OJRHNC is committed to upholding integrity in scholarly publishing and adheres to the principles of publication ethics outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in their Core Practices.
The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care is indexed in DOAJ, CINAHL, Gale Nursing Resource Centre, and British Nursing Index (Online).
Peer Review Process
The OJRNHC operates on a double-blind peer-review policy. Authors should blind their manuscripts prior to submission. Two reviewers are initially assigned to each manuscript. Reviewers score each article and make recommendations about publication, including acceptance, minor revisions, substantial revisions, or declination. Articles that receive conflicting reviewer opinions may be sent to a third reviewer who then provides a score and recommendation. All reviewer scores and comments are provided to the authors.
Reviewers consider the following criteria when reviewing manuscripts. Manuscripts not meeting this criterion may be declined.
The author defines "rural" in the context of the study or work.
The author discusses how the work relates to rural nursing, other rural healthcare providers, rural healthcare, or policy.
The author addresses rural areas throughout the work.
The author indicates how the rights of subjects were protected (if relevant).
Qualitative studies typically involve at least 10 participants, while quantitative studies involve at least 25 subjects.
The literature review includes more than 10 articles.
The manuscript is in APA 7th style.
If an author has concerns regarding comments or recommendations made by the reviewers, they may send a response to the editor.
Publication Frequency
The Journal is published twice yearly in winter and late spring.
Policies
In-House Submission Policy
In-house submissions (manuscripts authored by editors or members of the editorial board) may be submitted for consideration, but are not given priority over other manuscripts. To preserve impartiality, editors and editorial board members must exclude themselves as editor for any manuscript authored by themselves or members of their own institution. Otherwise, they follow the same editorial process as all other manuscripts. The editorial decision is based on the reviewers' recommendations and on alignment with the journal's scope and standards.
Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Articles are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted distribution and reproduction in any medium, as long as the work is properly credited/attributed.
Access: Immediate, permanent, free to access after publication (Diamond Open Access)
Reader subscription fees: None
Article Processing Charge: None
Embargo period: None
License for reuse: CC BY-NC 4.0
Publishing services: Full
Indexing: Full
Digital Archiving Policy
This journal preserves its articles in Binghamton University Libraries’ digital preservation system, Rosetta, to ensure long-term preservation.
Policy on Human Subjects
Researchers who use human subjects or volunteers in their studies must adhere to strict ethical and regulatory guidelines. Authors need to note in the manuscript how they protected the rights of subjects. At a minimum, authors should note whether they received permission to conduct research or an exemption from an Institutional Review Board (IRB). Quality Improvement and Quality Assurance projects do not require IRB approval; however, they need to be discussed as projects rather than research.
AI Tools Policy
Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript or the collection and analysis of data must be transparent in disclosing which tool was used and how. This does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references, and other similar purposes. If there is nothing to disclose, no statement is necessary.
Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care is committed to upholding the highest ethical practices in publication, adhering to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). We will correct or retract published work if necessary. Any form of plagiarism, unethical behavior, or malpractice is entirely unacceptable.
At OJRNHC, we firmly believe that our editors, authors, and reviewers are responsible for upholding the accepted ethical standards and guidelines. Our ethics and malpractice statement is firmly rooted in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) principles.
Author Responsibilities
● Authors of original research are expected to present an accurate account of the work performed and the results, followed by an objective discussion of the significance of the work.
● Authors should include sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work.
● Authors should not publish manuscripts describing the same research in multiple journals or primary publications.
● Authors should cite publications that have influenced the nature of the reported work.
● Authors should list as co-authors all those who have made significant contributions.
● Authors should disclose any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that
could influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of
financial support should be disclosed.
Editor Responsibilities
● Editors must evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to the author’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.
● Editors must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and the editor, as appropriate.
● Editors should use appropriate peer reviewers for papers by selecting people with sufficient expertise and avoiding those with conflicts of interest.
● Editors should take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers containing research misconduct, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication.
● Editors are expected to provide constructive feedback to the authors to enhance the quality of the articles.
Reviewer Responsibilities
● Reviewers assist in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial
communications with the author, may also assist the author in improving the paper.
● Reviewers who feel they need to be more qualified to review a manuscript or know that their prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themselves from the review process.
● Reviewers should conduct reviews objectively. Personal criticism of the author is
inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
● Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents.
● Reviewers should identify relevant published work that the authors have not
cited. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
● Reviewers should provide constructive and unbiased feedback.
