Manuscripts submitted to the Nurse Educators & Practitioners Journal (NEPJ) should meet the following criteria:

1. The study is conducted ethically, and the material is original.
2. The writing is clear and well-structured.
3. The study methods are appropriate and rigorously applied.
4. The data presented are valid and reliable.
5. The conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data.
6. The information contributes meaningfully to nursing education, practice, or research.
7. The topic is relevant and of interest to the NEPJ target audience.

The Editorial Board recognizes that many submissions may focus on knowledge sharing, innovation, and policy initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality of nursing education and patient care. Authors are strongly encouraged to evaluate the impact or effectiveness of such research whenever possible. Submissions that include an evaluation component are more likely to be accepted than those that are purely descriptive, unless the work demonstrates significant innovation. Formative or pilot studies in nursing education or practice should clearly present their methods, objectives, and intended outcomes to strengthen scientific rigor and ensure meaningful contribution.

Copyright Policy

Authors retain the copyright for all articles published in the Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal (NEPJ). This means that the intellectual property rights remain with the author(s), allowing them to control how their work is used while ensuring that proper attribution is always given.

Rights Granted to Third Parties

Authors grant permission to third parties to use their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). This allows others to copy, distribute, display, remix, adapt, and build upon the work for any purpose, even commercially, provided that:

• The integrity of the work is maintained.
• Proper attribution is given to the author(s), including citation details and acknowledgment of NEPJ as the original publisher.
• Any changes made are clearly indicated.
• Derivative works are distributed under the same license (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Any citation of the original work must include:

• The article title
• The author(s) names
• The name of the journal (Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal)
• The DOI of the published article

Publishing Rights

Authors retain all publishing rights to their work. By submitting their article to NEPJ, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish the article. This license includes the right to:

• Publish and Distribute: Make the article available to the public in both print and online formats.
• Index and Archive: Deposit and preserve the article in recognized indexing and archiving services (e.g., Internet Archive, National Library of the Philippines, institutional repositories).
• Identification as Publisher: Recognize NEPJ as the original publisher of the work.

License

All articles published in the Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal (NEPJ) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

This license permits anyone to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Provided that:

• Appropriate credit is given (including citation of the original work, authorship details, and a link to the license).
• Any changes made are clearly indicated.
• Derivative works are distributed under the same license (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The full license terms are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Copyright and Licensing Information

• Copyright is retained by the authors.
• Authors grant NEPJ the right of first publication and distribution under CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Published articles must always include a clear citation of the original source (Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal).
• Authors are encouraged to self-archive (deposit) the accepted manuscript or published version in institutional repositories, subject repositories, or personal websites immediately upon publication.

Author and Reader Rights

• Read, download, copy, print, and redistribute the full text of articles.
• Translate articles into other languages.
• Reuse data, figures, and tables (with proper attribution).
• Use articles for text and data mining purposes.
• Remix, transform, and build upon articles for educational, research, or commercial purposes, provided that derivative works are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

No special permission is required to reuse content published in NEPJ. Reuse does not imply endorsement by the authors or the journal.

Archiving Policy

The Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal (NEPJ) is committed to ensuring the long-term accessibility and preservation of its published content.

• NEPJ content is archived through the Internet Archive and deposited in the National Library of the Philippines for long-term preservation.
• Digital preservation services ensure that all published articles remain available even in the event of the journal’s discontinuation.
• NEPJ is working toward inclusion in additional preservation networks such as CLOCKSS/LOCKSS to strengthen long-term archiving.

Repository Policy

NEPJ supports the widest possible dissemination of knowledge and allows authors to self-archive versions of their work.

Authors may deposit any version of their manuscript (pre-print, accepted manuscript, or final published version) in:

• Institutional repositories
• Subject repositories
• Personal websites or blogs
• The publisher’s own site (NEPJ platform)

Deposited versions must include a citation of the original publication in NEPJ with a link to the official article DOI.

There are no embargo periods. Articles may be deposited immediately upon publication.

To ensure discoverability and citation, NEPJ assigns persistent identifiers to all published articles:

• Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs): Issued through CrossRef or other registration agency and linked permanently to each article.
• Metadata is structured to comply with indexing services and repository harvesting standards (OAI-PMH).

The Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal (NEPJ) is a non-profit organization duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the Philippines. As an open access journal, NEPJ provides free and immediate online access to scholarly articles, ensuring that nursing education and practice knowledge is available to everyone without paywall restrictions.

To sustain our operations, we implement an Article Processing Charge (APC) model. APCs are only collected from manuscripts that successfully pass peer review and are formally accepted for publication.

1. Rationale for APCs

• Open access eliminates subscription barriers, enabling global readership and reuse.
• APCs are necessary to cover the costs of peer review management, production, digital preservation, indexing, platform maintenance, and long-term archiving.
• As a non-profit, all revenues from APCs are reinvested directly into maintaining and improving NEPJ’s publishing services, not for profit-making.

2. NEPJ APC Rates

To keep publication accessible and equitable, NEPJ maintains low and competitive APCs compared to international standards.

• Standard Article APC: PHP 6,500 or USD 115
• Invited Articles / Editorials: No APC

3. Fee Waivers and Discounts

• Discounts: The availability and rate of discounts may vary depending on NEPJ’s programs and projects. All approved discounts will be announced on the homepage announcement corner.
• Full/Partial Waivers: Available upon request for authors without institutional or grant funding. Waiver requests are considered after peer review to ensure that editorial decisions remain independent of financial considerations.

4. Institutional and Partnership Support

• NEPJ welcomes institutional memberships and partnerships with nursing schools, research centers, and healthcare organizations to support open access publishing for their faculty and students.
• Institutions may sponsor APCs for affiliated authors through agreements with NEPJ.

5. What NEPJ APCs Cover

• Editorial and peer review management
• Professional copyediting and typesetting
• Assignment of persistent identifiers (DOI)
• Online hosting and digital archiving (institutional repositories)
• Indexing in scholarly databases
• Author and article promotion through digital platforms and academic networks

6. Transparency and Integrity

• NEPJ follows an open and transparent APC policy consistent with global best practices (Budapest Open Access Initiative, Berlin Declaration, Plan S).
• Acceptance decisions are based solely on scholarly merit and peer review outcomes, independent of the author’s ability to pay APCs.

7. Payment of APCs

• APCs are payable upon acceptance of the article.
• Payments can be made through bank transfer, institutional payment, or other authorized channels.
• Authors will receive an official receipt acknowledging payment.

Compliance with Open Access Declarations

NEPJ defines open access in line with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), the Berlin Declaration, and the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing. This means that:

• Peer-reviewed articles are freely available without subscription or embargo.
• Users are permitted to reuse material with proper attribution under the license terms.

Important Note on Third-Party Materials

Some articles may contain material (such as figures, images, or data) not covered by the journal’s license because copyright is held by a third party. Users must obtain permission from the original copyright holder before reusing such materials.

Ethical Issues and Considerations

The Nurse Educators and Practitioners Journal (NEPJ) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethical conduct in scholarly publishing. While working toward membership with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), NEPJ fully adheres to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and ensures all editorial and publication processes meet internationally recognized benchmarks of quality, credibility, and accountability.

NEPJ upholds strong publication ethics. All manuscripts submitted to NEPJ are expected to comply with established ethical guidelines, including those of the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board (PHREB) as outlined in the National Ethical Guidelines for Health and Health-Related Research (NEGRIHP). Additionally, NEPJ aligns with the principles and oversight frameworks of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and any suspected misconduct is investigated according to COPE flowcharts and procedures .

Informed Consent Policy

Authors must ensure that studies involving human participants have obtained approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent ethics committee, and that informed consent was obtained in alignment with applicable laws and regulations.

Animal Research

For studies involving animals, authors must adhere to recognized institutional and national standards for animal care and use.

Digital / Technology-Based Interventions & Privacy

Manuscripts describing digital or technology-based interventions must clearly demonstrate adherence to ethical principles around privacy, confidentiality, and protection of participants’ personal data in compliance with relevant national and international regulations.

Special Article Types & Qualitative Research

Some article types (e.g. case reports, educational simulations, clinical interventions) may have additional ethical requirements. For qualitative research, authors should explicitly consider participant anonymity, sensitive data handling, cultural respect, and ethical safeguards.

NEPJ reserves the right to request documentation verifying ethical approval, informed consent, data protection measures, or compliance with regulatory requirements prior to publication. Authors are encouraged to consult NEPJ’s full Publication Ethics Guidelines and the linked international frameworks to ensure full compliance and responsible conduct of research.