Submissions

Author Guidelines

Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care Author Guidelines

The mission of the Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care (OJRNHC) is to be a leading source of information on rural nursing, health care practice, education, and research supporting the health of rural populations. The OJRNHC is the official journal of the Rural Nurse Organization (RNO). The journal is peer-reviewed and addresses rural nursing and health care in the US and globally. There are no author fees or author processing charges for publication; however, at least one author of each manuscript must be a member of the RNO at the time of review and publication. RNO members can be nurses or those who support rural nursing and health care. Details on RNO membership can be found at http://www.rno.org/ .

This journal uses an online submission process. All manuscripts need to be submitted electronically. To submit a manuscript for review, you must first be registered as a user. This is a separate process from joining the RNO. To access the journal, please visit the following website https://rnojournal.binghamton.edu/index.php/RNO If you are already registered, click on Login (upper right corner of the page). If you need to become a registered user, contact the Editor-in-Chief at psfahs@binghamton.edu or Gabrielle Bonilla at gbonill3@binghamton.edu. Part of registering the journal's Privacy Statement, which assures readers that their name and email address will not be used for other purposes. Being registered on the website does not confirm your RNO membership status.

 Content of Interest and Special Points

Please ensure you clearly define what you mean by 'rural' in your study or work. To be of interest to this journal, your work needs to address the rural aspect of the work throughout the paper; having the word rural in the title or briefly mentioned is not sufficient. Please ensure that you have addressed the relevance of this work to rural nursing, other rural health care providers, rural health care, or policy. Lack of information, as specified in these special notes, is a reason for declining submissions of manuscripts. 

Authorship 
All individuals listed as authors must have made a substantial contribution to the work in accordance with the criteria outlined in the ICMJE and COPE guidelines. Additionally, all authors must approve the final version of the manuscript before submission.  Individuals not meeting authorship criteria may be recognized in the acknowledgement section of the manuscript.
Each contributing author must provide their full name, affiliation, credentials, and email address.  Authors are strongly encouraged to include their ORCID ID when submitting a manuscript.  

Authors may include an acknowledgements section at the end of the manuscript before the references. Anyone who contributed to the research or manuscript, but who is not a listed author, should be acknowledged (with their permission). Please note:  this information needs to be blinded for review.  Add a placeholder section following the conclusion.  This information can be added before publication. 

Conflict of Interest

The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care requires authors, editorial board members, and reviewers to disclose any conflicts of interest related to their submission and involvement with the journal. The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care endorses and subscribes to the definition of Conflict of Interest by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (2006). Please note:  this information needs to be blinded for review.  Add a placeholder section following the conclusion.  This information can be added before publication. 

Informed Consent

The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care requires authors to assure patients’ and subjects’ privacy, if applicable, related to their research and manuscript. The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care endorses and subscribes to the definition of Human and Animal Rights by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (2006), “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.”

If human subjects are involved in the research, you will need to note in the manuscript how you protected the rights of subjects.  At a minimum, you should note whether you received permission to conduct research or an exemption from an Institutional Review Board (IRB). This information is not pertinent to non-research papers.

Funding 
Authors must state how the research and publication of their article was funded (if relevant)  by naming the financially supporting body(s) (written out in full), followed by associated grant number(s) in brackets (if applicable). At the time of submission, the information must be blinded.  Add a placeholder section following the conclusion.  This information can be added before publication. If the funder was involved in the manuscript writing, editing, approval, or decision to publish, please declare this. Please do not reference the funder's name in the paper.

Accessibility 
The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care is committed to promoting and providing an inclusive and welcoming digital environment. WCAG 2.0 standards guide The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care's commitment to universal web accessibility. Authors must provide alternative text (alt text) for all figures and images.

Format and Style Requirements
Research and literature review manuscripts should be approximately 20 pages in length, double-spaced, excluding the title page, abstract, tables, and references. Manuscripts that are not research or literature reviews should be limited to 12 pages double-spaced. We seldom accept qualitative studies with fewer than 10 participants, quantitative studies with fewer than 25 subjects, or literature reviews with fewer than 10 articles. Abstracts should be structured and limited to 300 words. The abstract and keywords are entered into the system platform separately from the main manuscript. 

Please prepare your manuscript in a Word document with Times New Roman 12 font for the majority of the manuscript. 

Titles should be short, typically no more than 12 words, and be on the first page of text (Centered and Bold Level 1 heading). 
Tables should be single-spaced, have alt text, and included within the document. Use Times New Roman 11 for tables.
References should be submitted with a 5-space hanging indent. Only use a hard return (enter) at the end of a reference. Use the ruler feature in Word to set your margins and create hanging indents in the reference page.

In the manuscript header, page numbers of the article should start on page 1 of the text, in the upper right corner, and with a short running title in the left upper corner. 
Do not submit a title page, abstract, or keywords as part of the manuscript file. There is a space on the website where you are instructed to add the Title, Abstract, and Keywords. The Abstract and Keywords do not go in the manuscript for double-blind purposes.
 Authors are responsible for obtaining permissions to reproduce the work of others, particularly figures, and for citing such work appropriately. Quotes from other sources must be referenced with page numbers, as specified in APA style. All material in this journal is publicly available since it is an open-source journal.

The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care adheres to the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th edition style. Manuscripts not in APA 7th ed. style will not be accepted for review. An example of references in APA style would be as follows.  Where available, doi for references should be provided.

References

Bennett, K. J., Lin, Y-H., Yuen, M., Leonhirth, D., & Probst, J. C. (2016). Vulnerable rural counties: The changing rural landscape, 2000-2010. South Carolina Rural Health Research Center. http://rhr.sph.sc.edu/report/(13-4)Vulnerable_Rural_Counties_The_Changing_Rural_Landscape_2000-2010.pdf 

Bennett, K. J., Yuen, M. W., & Merrell, A. (2018). Community paramedicine applied in a rural community. Journal of Rural Health, 34(S1) s39-s47. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12233 

 n.b. APA 7th edition has a new way to cite works with more than two authors. The first and each time cited use the surname of the first author followed by et al. and the year. The format to cite this reference in text, the first and each time used is as follows: ... In the protocol authors (Bennett, et al., 2019) noted… or The authors Bennett and colleagues, (2019) noted …. The caveat to this manner of citation is if there is more than one article with the same author in the first position regardless of the year that may be cited. In this case, you go to the author position needed to distinguish between the articles. Thus, an article (Bennett, Lin, Yuen, Leonhirth, & Probst, 2016) and another (Bennett, Yuen, & Merrell, 2018) would be cited as Bennett, Lin, et al. (2016) and Bennett, Yuen, et al., (2018). or if cited in the same parenthesis (Bennett, Lin, et al., 2016; Bennett, Yuen, et al., 2018).

Preparing for Submission
Log in and start the submission process. The system will already have your author information from your user profile. If items are missing, you can update your profile. Next, click the + to add each additional author. Please designate the corresponding author. Once you save and continue, you will see a screen that asks for the title, any subtitle, abstract, and keywords. Please do not submit a title page, abstract, or any author identification in the manuscript itself (see below). 

 File with Article Text

You should have a separate Word document containing the body of your paper, tables, figures, and references. There should be no author-identifying information in this file, to facilitate blind review. You should have a short running head in the header along with the page number. You will see three tabs labeled 1. Upload File, 2. Review Details and 3 Confirm

In tab 1, in the box Article Component, use the pull-down arrow and select Article Text. You may drag and drop your Article Text File into the dotted-lined box or click on Upload File and follow those directions. Once the file is in the box, click on the grey box Continue at the bottom of the page. This will take you to Tab 2 Review Details again, click on Continue, and you will come to Tab 3 Confirm. This offers you the opportunity to add another file (not required), but this is available if you wish to upload another file, such as a letter to the editor or some other document. Click on continue and you will be moved to Tab 3 Confirm. Although you again have the opportunity to upload another file, most will click on Complete at the bottom left corner. Once the text file is confirmed, you will be asked to enter the title, abstract and keywords.  Once the information on this page is complete, you will be asked whether you wish to submit. You must click on Submit before the submission is completed. If you have any questions, please email the editor-in-chief, Dr. Pamela Stewart Fahs at psfahs@binghamton.edu

Post acceptance 
After the manuscript is accepted, a PDF proof of the article will be sent to all authors.  Authors are responsible for ensuring that all information is correct, including the names, credentials, and affiliations.  Authors are also responsible for ensuring that the manuscript includes a conflict of interest statement and, when relevant, funding information and acknowledgements. 

● 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.