With the 2015 issues of Advances in Neonatal Care (ANC), we are celebrating our 15th year of scholarly dissemination about the care of neonates. In anticipation of this celebratory year, we worked with the ANC Editorial Board to evaluate how we could increase the readability and usability of our journal content for our readers. After thoughtful deliberation, we have made some changes in the journal layout and content focus. We want to take this opportunity to highlight some of these changes for you. In addition, as you interact with the journal throughout 2015, we welcome feedback regarding the changes in the journal as well as suggestions for additional improvements.
CHANGES IN 2015
One of the first changes you will notice is the anniversary logo on the cover of each journal issue for 2015. As the year progresses, we will have a variety of opportunities to celebrate our 15 years as the journal for the National Association of Neonatal Nurses. We also have restructured the sections of the journal. The sections will now include the following:
1. Case of the Month (Section Editor: Elizabeth Schierholz, MSN, RN, NNP-BC). "Case of the Month" manuscripts may include a presentation of a unique clinical case, an atypical presentation or outcome of a common disease, a case with a diagnostic challenge, an unusual disease process, or a challenging transport case.
2. Clinical Issues in Neonatal Care (Section Editors: Ksenia Zukowsky, PhD, APRN, NNP-BC, and Linda Ikuta, MN, RN, CCNS). Manuscripts submitted for this section contain information that is fundamental to neonatal nursing practice. The reader will gain knowledge from the article that enriches and expands clinical knowledge and practice.
3. Ethical Issues in Neonatal Care (Section Editor: Anita Catlin, DNSc, FNP, FAAN). The ethics section highlights dilemmas healthcare providers face in the care of the neonate. Submissions for this section could include management of difficult cases or family issues as well as end of life and defining life and decisions about whether to continue care discussions. Dr Catlin is very willing to mentor authors submitting their work for this section of the journal.
4. Evidence-Based Practice Briefs (Section Editor: Sheila M. Gephart, PhD, RN). This section of the journal provides brief overviews of the evidence to support common care practice for neonates or their families. Briefs often address "why we do it this way" or issues of care protocols or routine practices that are or could be more grounded in evidence. Just because there is little or no evidence for a neonatal care practice does not mean it would not be an interesting submission for this section.
5. Original Research (Section Editor: Donna Dowling, PhD, RN). Original completed research with neonatal populations and their families are welcomed for this section.
6. Outcomes of Neonatal Care (Section Editor: Paula L. Forsythe, MSN, RN, CNS). This section of the journal focuses on newborn outcomes following admission to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and preparation of infants and their families as they transition from the NICU or step-down unit to home. The family teaching toolkits will continue to be an aspect of this section of the journal.
7. Professional Growth and Development (Section Editor: Kathy Ahern, PhD, RN). The focus of this section is to provide information on topics that promote the growth and development of a wide range of neonatal healthcare professionals, including students, staff nurses, educators, managers, and practice specialists in neonatal care.
Regardless of the section in which a manuscript is published, you will find a Summary box that highlights recommendations for practice and research at the end of each manuscript. All of the changes in the content and format of manuscripts are included in our newly revised author guidelines. The new guidelines are posted on our Web site and include specific information regarding the content of the new summary boxes as well as differences in formatting manuscripts depending on the journal section targeted for the publication. Finally, the ANC Editorial Board is willing to mentor new authors in writing their first manuscript, so feel free to let us know if you need assistance.
HYBRID MODEL OF OPEN ACCESS
In addition to our other changes, ANC will also become a hybrid open access journal. Open-access journals provide free, immediate, permanent, full-text open access to any individual who has access to the Internet, worldwide. Open-access journals primarily disseminate research articles in peer-reviewed journals. Journals with a hybrid model of open access have a combination of open access and subscription articles. In the ANC hybrid mode, authors will have the opportunity to retain copyright of any research article and pay a processing charge for immediate online accessibility of research articles. For researchers, this open-access opportunity allows them to disseminate their research findings faster and to a broader audience.
Over the last decade, the move to open-access journals was met with both supporters and detractors. Supporters argue that open access to manuscripts creates a level playing field between those who "have" and "have not." Low-resource institutions and countries cannot afford the subscription fees for most print journals, but with open access, anyone can access the information free of charge. Detractors argue that the processing fee required to ensure immediate free online access can lead to a pay-to-publish mentality. However, open access need not lead to less scientific rigor or a "watered down" peer-review process. At ANC, we want to assure our readers that we will maintain a rigorous peer-review process for all articles, regardless of open-access status. Authors will not be offered the opportunity for open access-and therefore we will be unaware of their wishes during the peer-review process-until after an article is accepted for publication.
ANC will continue to provide high-quality manuscripts to our readers. However, we also want to make all of our readers aware of the presence of open access "predatory journals." Although many fully open access journals are reputable, others seek to lure authors to publish in their journals just to obtain the publishing fees. Predatory journals have titles that appear reputable as they mimic the names of well-known journals. The predatory journals often have editorial boards composed of individuals who are unaware of their board status and the reported peer review is typically absent or minimal. For more information about open access and predatory journals, we encourage you to visit Dr Jeffrey Beall's Web site at http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/.
During 2015, we will continue our editorial series on writing for publication. We hope you continue to find our editorials informative and we hope you feel open to share your views with both your journal editors and editorial board.
Thank you for your continued support!
Debra Brandon, PhD, RN, CCNS, FAAN
Co-Editor, Advances in Neonatal Care
[email protected]
Jacqueline M. McGrath, PhD, RN, FNAP, FAAN
Co-Editor, Advances in Neonatal Care
[email protected]