The Editors of Nurse Education Today welcome the submission of papers for publication in the form of research findings, systematic and methodological reviews, literature reviews and Contemporary Issue pieces that contribute to, and advance, the knowledge of, and debate within, international nursing, midwifery and healthcare education.

Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article via page of this journal http://ees.elsevier.com/net you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, takes place by e-mail and via the Author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.

The above represents a very brief outline of this form of submission. It can be advantageous to print this "Guide for Authors" section from the site for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation. If you do not have internet access, please contact the editorial office (jtyldsley@jtyldsley.karoo.co.uk) for alternative submission instructions.

GENERAL

Submitted papers should be written in a way that is relevant to an international audience and authors should not assume knowledge of national and local practices, organisations and professional bodies. Authors should therefore avoid the use of acronyms when referring to such and should use terminology that is internationally acceptable. Authors should consult a recent issue of the journal for style and structure if possible.

Review process
All manuscripts are initially assessed by an editorial team who will decide whether to send a paper for peer review and to allow a rapid response to authors for those that are not. The decision to publish a paper is based on assessment via a double-blind peer review process by an international panel of experts and the Editors reserves the right to the final decision regarding acceptance. Papers which do not meet the journal's standards or do not provide a novel contribution to the literature already published in the field, may be rejected at this point in order to avoid delays to authors who may wish to seek publication elsewhere. Occasionally a paper will be returned to the author with requests for revisions prior to additional peer review.

Queries
For questions about the editorial process (including the status of manuscripts under review) please contact the editorial office jtyldsley@jtyldsley.karoo.co.uk. For technical support on submissions please contact http://epsupport.elsevier.com.

PRE-SUBMISSION - GENERAL POINTS

Submission declaration
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all Authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Ethics
For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.

The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html; EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm; Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals http://www.icmje.org. This must be stated at an appropriate point in the article.

Informed consent
Where applicable authors should confirm that informed consent was obtained from human subjects and that ethical clearance was obtained from the appropriate authority.

Language Editing
Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageediting or our customer support site at http://support.elsevier.com for more information.

Contributors and Acknowledgements
All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

All those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proofreading the article, etc.) that do not meet criteria for authorship should be acknowledged in the paper.

Role of the funding source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/funding

Conflict of interest
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. See also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.

Permissions
Permission to reproduce previously published material must be obtained in writing from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) and acknowledged in the manuscript.

Presentation of Manuscripts
Abbreviations - Avoid the use of abbreviations unless they are likely to be widely recognised. In particular you should avoid abbreviating key concepts in your paper where readers might not already be familiar with the abbreviation. Any abbreviations which the authors intend to use should be written out in full and followed by the letters in brackets the first time they appear, thereafter only the letters without brackets should be used.

Statistics - Standard methods of presenting statistical material should be used. Where methods used are not widely recognised explanation and full reference to widely accessible sources must be given.

Exact p values should be given to no more than three decimal places.

Wherever possible give both point estimates and confidence intervals for all population parameters estimated by the study (e.g. group differences, frequency of characteristics).

Identify the statistical package used.

Word lengths

Contemporary Issues - 2,000-2,500 words.
Papers that discuss contemporary issues within nursing, midwifery and health profession education, and stimulate scholarly debate, are welcomed. Authors who have ideas which address issues of substantive concern to the disciplines, particularly those of a controversial nature, should consider submitting a Contemporary Issue piece. The issues must be current and, although they can be of national agenda, they must have international implications or be of relevance to an international audience.

Contemporary Issues should consist of editorial-style. No abstract is required, but Keywords and up to 8 references should be included (following the style as outlined in this Guide). Contemporary Issues should be submitted online in the usual way for the journal.

Research Papers - 3,500-5,000 words.
Papers reporting original research are welcomed between 3,500-5,000 words, including abstract/summary and references. Please check your text carefully before you send it off, both for correct content and typographic errors. You will increase the chances of acceptance if you draw on the experience of previously published colleagues where possible. It is not possible to change the content of accepted papers during production. Research papers should adhere to recognised standards for reporting (see Guidance below - Considerations to specific types of research design).

Reviews - 3,500-4,500 words
Reviews are welcomed by the journal editors including:

• systematic reviews;
• literature reviews, which provide a thorough analysis of the literature on a topic;

Do not use 'he', 'his' etc where the sex of the person is unknown, say 'the nurse' etc. Avoid inelegant alternatives such as 'he/she'. Nurses and doctors should not be automatically designated as 'he/she'. In terms of style, try to avoid artificially objective language such as 'the author thought that' or 'the researcher' where this person is yourself. 'I' or 'we' are acceptable when related to matters concerning the author(s) themselves or their opinions.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

A Covering letter to the editor in which you detail authorship contributions and other matters you wish the editors to consider.

Manuscript layout
Title page
• The title page should be provided as a separate file .
• Your title page should give the title in capital letters, below which should be the authors' names (as they appear) in lower-case letters.
• For each author you should give one first name as well as the family name and any initials
• Authors' addresses should be limited to the minimum information needed to ensure accurate postal delivery; these details should be on the title page below the authors' names and appointments
• Authors should also provide a daytime contact telephone number, fax number and e-mail address.
• The title should explicitly describe the topic and type of paper.

Keywords
Include 4-8 keywords. The purpose of these is to increase the likely accessibility of your paper to potential readers searching the literature. Therefore, ensure keywords are descriptive of the study. Refer to a recognised thesaurus of keywords wherever possible, for example refer to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) thesaurus or Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) headings (see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

Abstract/Summary
An abstract of your paper, a maximum of 300 words summarising the content, should follow the title page. The abstract should not include references or abbreviations.

Abstracts of Research Papers must be structured. As guidance they should include Background; Objectives; Design; Settings ; Participants; Methods; Results; and Conclusions.

Abstracts for Reviews should provide a summary under the following headings, where possible: Objectives, Design, Data sources, Review methods, Results, Conclusions.

Abstracts are not required for Editorials and Contemporary Issues.

Headings
The content of your paper should determine the headings you use. If yours is a quantitative research paper the headings should follow the usual layout, such as: Introduction, Background/Literature, Methods, Data/Results, Discussion, Conclusions. If your paper takes another form, theoretical or qualitative for example, you should use the appropriate headings, but do bear in mind that headings should facilitate reading and understanding. You should use only two kinds of headings, major headings should be indicated by underlined capital letters in the centre of the page whereas minor headings should be underlined, have lower-case letters (beginning with a capital) and begin at the left hand margin.

Figure captions, tables, figures, schemes
Present these, in this order, at the end of the article. They are described in more detail below. High-resolution graphics files must always be provided separate from the main text file (see Preparation of illustrations).

Tables Each table needs a short descriptive title above it, and a clear legend or key and, if necessary, suitably identified footnotes below. When drawing up the tables take care to include all the units of measurement. Make sure that each table is cited in the text. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

Illustrations A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/authors and below.

Preparation of supplementary data NET encourages electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your paper. Supplementary files offer the Author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at the Author Gateway at http://www.elsevier.com/authors.

References
The accuracy of the references you provide is your responsibility.
• In the text references should state the author's surname and the year of publication (Garrett, 2006). If there are two authors you should give both surnames (Warne and McAndrew, 2008). When a source has more than two authors, give the name of the first author followed by 'et al.'.
• Where a quotation is used within your paper the author, date and page number should be given, e.g. 'has a beginning and an end; that it is best separated from the rest of our activities and that it is as a result of teaching.' (Wenger, 1998, p.3)
• A list of all references in your manuscript should be typed in alphabetical order. Each reference to a paper needs to include the authors' surnames and initials, year of publication, full title of the paper, full name of the journal, volume number, issue number and first and last page numbers. Do not add unnecessary punctuation.

For example:
Henderson, A., Creedy, D., Boorman, R., Cooke, M., Walker, R., 2010. Development and psychometric testing of the Clinical Learning Organisational Culture Survey (CLOCS). Nurse Education Today 30 (7), 598-602.

References to Books should be given in a slightly different form, as in these examples:
Billings, D., Halstead, J., 2005. Teaching in Nursing: A Guide for Faculty, 2nd ed. Elsevier Saunders, St Louis, MO.

Heron, J., Reason, P., 2006. The practice of co-operative inquiry: research "with" rather than "on" people. In: Reason, P., Bradbury, H. (Eds), Handbook of Action Research. Sage Publications, London, pp. 145-154.

Use of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
The digital object identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in Press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information.

The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B): doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071

When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Citing and listing of Web references
As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (Author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Preparation of Electronic Illustrations

Submitting your artwork in an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.

General points • Always supply high-quality printouts of your artwork, in case conversion of the electronic artwork is problematic.
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files, and supply a separate listing of the files and the software used.
• Provide all illustrations as separate files and as hardcopy printouts on separate sheets.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version Files can be stored on diskette, ZIP-disk or CD (either MS-DOS or Macintosh). This journal offers electronic submission services and graphic files can be uploaded via http://ees.elsevier.com/net/.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/authors
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.

Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats (Note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below.):
EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply "as is".

Please do not:
• Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Line Drawings
The lettering and symbols, as well as other details, should have proportionate dimensions, so as not to become illegible or unclear after possible reduction; in general, the figures should be designed for a reduction factor of two to three. The degree of reduction will be determined by the Publisher. Illustrations will not be enlarged. Consider the page format of the journal when designing the illustrations. Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations.

Photographs (halftones)
Remove non-essential areas of a photograph. Do not mount photographs unless they form part of a composite figure. Where necessary, insert a scale bar in the illustration (not below it), as opposed to giving a magnification factor in the legend.

Colour Illustrations
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/authors.

Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to "grey scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations.

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Considerations specific to types of research designs
The journal editors recommend that authors adhere to recognized reporting guidelines relevant to the research design used in their manuscripts. These are not quality assessment frameworks and your study need not meet all the criteria implied in the reporting guideline to be worthy of publication in the journal.

Reporting guidelines endorsed by the journal are listed below:
Observational cohort, case control and cross sectional studies - STROBE - Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Quasi-experimental/non-randomised evaluations - TREND - Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Non-randomized Designs http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Randomised (and quasi-randomised) controlled trial - CONSORT - Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Study of Diagnostic accuracy/assessment scale - STARD - Standards for the Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Systematic Review of Controlled Trials - PRISMA - Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Systematic Review of Observational Studies - MOOSE - Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Qualitative researchers might wish to consult the guideline listed below:
Qualitative studies - COREQ - Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research. Tong, A., Sainsbury, P., Craig, J., 2007. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ): a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. International Journal for Quality in Health Care 19 (6), 349-357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/intghc/mzm042

CHECKLIST
Before submitting your paper, please check that:
• All files are uploaded.
• The reference list is complete and in correct style
• Written permission from original publishers and authors to reproduce any borrowed material has been obtained.

POST ACCEPTANCE
Changes to authorship
This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:

Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.

After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.

Funding Body Agreements and Policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.

Sponsored Articles
Nurse Education Today now offers authors the option to sponsor non-subscriber access to individual articles. The access sponsorship contribution fee per article is $3,000. This contribution is necessary to offset publishing costs - from managing article submission and peer review, to typesetting, tagging and indexing of articles, hosting articles on dedicated servers, supporting sales and marketing costs to ensure global dissemination via ScienceDirect, and permanently preserving the published journal article. The sponsorship fee excludes taxes and other potential author fees such as colour charges which are additional.

Authors can specify that they would like to select this option after receiving notification that their article has been accepted for publication, but not before. This eliminates a potential conflict of interest by ensuring that the journal does not have a financial incentive to accept an article for publication.

Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has pre-printed forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

Authors' rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.

Proofs
When your manuscript is received by the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as "drafts".

One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech-specs.html.

If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately – please let us have all your corrections within 48 hours. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

Enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also check our Author FAQs ( http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ) and/or contact Customer Support via http://support.elsevier.com.