Originality and Quality

Any manuscript submitted to Science of Nursing and Health Practices - Science infirmière et pratiques en santé must meet the quality criteria for publication as presented in PLOS ONE (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/criteria-for-publication) and Open Science Journal (https://www.osjournal.org/criteria_for_publication.html) that is:

The article presents original results.
The results reported have not been published elsewhere and are not similar to those of another published manuscript based on the same investigation.
The manuscript has not been simultaneously submitted to another journal.
Experiments, statistics, and other analyses are performed to a highly technical standard and are described in sufficient detail.
Conclusions are presented appropriately and are supported by the data.
The manuscript is presented in an intelligible fashion and is written in English or French standard.
The research meets all applicable standards for the ethics of experimentation and research integrity.
Authors must assume the integrity of the data, that is, that the manuscript does not present fabrication or falsification of data.
The manuscript conforms to appropriate reporting guidelines and the standards of the open access scientific community for data availability.
All use of artificial intelligence (IA) instruments must be mentioned in the article. Parts of the text written using AI must be marked as such in the article, and AI instruments must be listed in the bibliographic references.
Furthermore, AI-generated content is only allowed for sections that review research literature or explain the theoretical framework. It is not permitted for any other sections of the paper (e.g., introduction, conclusion, analysis of the case study, or empirical part of the paper).
To find out about the reporting guidelines for different types of studies, visit the EQUATOR (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research) Network website at https://www.equator-network.org/. The authors may choose the appropriate grid for their research or knowledge synthesis.

Public Access to Data

Authors may be invited to provide the research data presented in their paper. If applicable, they should retain these data and make them publicly available for a reasonable period (no less than six months) after publication.

Authorship

The contribution of each of the authors must be specified according to the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors whether an author has: 1) made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work; analysis, interpretation of data, 2) penned the work or revised it critically for a significant intellectual contribution, 3) approved the final version to be published and 4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of it is investigated and resolved appropriately.

Permissions

Authors are responsible for the content of their manuscript and for obtaining written permission from the editors or authors to reproduce any material protected by copyright (e.g., excerpts, tables, figures). Thus, authors must clearly stipulate the source of the material used.

Plagiarism

Copying in whole or in part, word for word, without permission or without adequately citing authors or original sources, and paraphrasing or appropriating the ideas or words of others after modifying them without giving credit to the author or original sources are different forms of plagiarism.

Authors must make sure not to use the words, ideas, or figures of others without proper attribution. All sources must be cited where they are used (text, table, figure), and any words or passages reproduced in part or any ideas paraphrased must be attributed to their authors in the text.

Regarding text recycling, or “self-plagiarism,” which is the reuse by an author of passages from his or her own previously published work, COPE guidelines provide guidance on the actions to take depending on the type of reuse, whether minor or major. Text recycling differs from the phenomenon of publication redundancy, which involves duplicating one’s own research data in multiple publications. In cases of redundancy, COPE guidelines for retraction apply. For more information, please refer to publishing ethics.

***All manuscripts undergo plagiarism detection with Turnitin’s online tool. This program generates a report highlighting text excerpts similar to existing content on the Internet and in its database. The editorial team interprets similarity reports and determines whether they are potentially harmful to publication ethics. COPE flowcharts are used for editorial decisions regarding plagiarism. The editorial team will contact the authors of the manuscript based on the outcome of the similarity check report.*** Some manuscripts may need to be edited or corrected.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject manuscripts on the grounds of plagiarism when sufficiently substantiated.

Ethical Conduct of Research

All manuscripts submitted to the journal must be based on research conducted strictly with the codes of ethics in research and conducted according to each author's professional association.

Conflict of Interest

The journal policy requires authors' statements of conflict of interest (real, potential, or perceived). This statement is readable at the end of the published manuscript. So, any professional, financial, personal, intellectual, or other kinds of potential conflict of interest must be clearly stated in the cover letter of the initial submission of the manuscript. "A conflict of interest may arise when activities or situations place an individual or institution in a real, potential or perceived conflict between the duties or responsibilities related to research, and personal, institutional or other interests. These interests include, but are not limited to, business, commercial or financial interests of the institution and/or the individual, their family members, friends, or their former, current or prospective professional associates." (Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2, 2018, p. 91). Suppose a declared conflict of interest may influence trust between parties, such as the journal's readership trust concerning data presented in a paper. In that case, authors should inform the editors to manage the COI or abandon the submission when there is no ethical solution.

Human Participants

Research must have been conducted respectfully based on the principles of the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association - Declaration of Helsinki. Studies conducted with volunteers must have obtained the approval of the author's research ethics board and participants' free and informed consent. Authors must specify, in the Methods section, the ethics certificate number of the study and whether participants provided verbal or written consent.

Note. In animal research, approval from the Ethics Committee for the Use of Animals is required. – The journal is considering the possibility of accepting clinical articles that are in the experimental research phase (e.g., nurses working on the development of an insulin paste to accelerate healing).

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject any manuscript based on human research that did not receive prior ethical approval from a recognized, reputable institution.

Authors who submit a manuscript of a clinical trial evaluating the effects of one or more health-related interventions on the health outcomes of participants (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council [SSHRC], Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council [NSERC] of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research [CIHR], 2018) must have registered the study protocol before the recruitment of the first participant in a publicly accessible registry (see ISRCTN or the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform: https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform) in accordance with the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR, December 2018) and the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Registration is required for the manuscript to be considered for double-blind peer review. When submitting the manuscript, the registry name and the study protocol registration number must be provided on the cover letter. In addition, all clinical trial manuscripts must be accompanied by the 25-item CONSORT checklist completed at the time of submission.

Inclusive Language

Inclusive language, as it reflects our contemporary society, values diversity in recognizing the importance of equality by using non-discriminatory communication (Université du Québec. (2021). Guide de communication inclusive: Pour des communications qui mobilisent, transforment et ont du style! 62 pp.). Authors must be aware of stereotypes and avoid expressions that vehiculate negative assumptions about lifestyles or identities, for example, ages and generations, drug consumption, sex work, religious beliefs, or gender. A reader, no matter of personal or cultural background, should not feel discriminated against or stigmatized when reading an article published in our journal. Therefore, the editors may ask authors to modify specific terminologies used in their manuscript. The journal also recommends using, when possible, gender-neutral expressions such as "the nurse" and "the physician" instead of "he" or "she." The editorial team works collaboratively with authors to identify appropriate language to use in accordance with the specific context of their research work and manuscript.

Ethical Considerations for Authors