Table of contents

• • Aims and scope
• • Research and Publication ethics
• • Manuscript submission
• • Manuscript preparation

Aims and scope

• 1. The Research in Community and Public Health Nursing (RCPHN) is the official journal of the Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing. The RCPHN coverage includes theoretical, practical, and educational issues related to community and public health nursing. Articles include original research articles, reviews, and editorials. This journal aims to provide worldwide access to timely research and practice features of use to community and public health nurses, educators, school health teachers, occupational nurses, and administrators in the field of community and public health nursing.
• 2. The RCPHN is a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly at the end of the month (March, June, September, and December) by the Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing.
• 3. RCPHN is an open-access journal, and articles are made freely available online to read, download, and share, immediately upon publication. The RCPHN endorses the Equator Network (http://www.equator-network.org). This international initiative seeks to improve the reliability and value of research literature in health care by promoting transparent and accurate reporting of studies. Authors are asked to make use of appropriate reporting guidelines to ensure excellence in scientific reporting.

Research and Publication ethics

1. Research ethics

• 1) The policies on the research and publication ethics of the journal follow the guidelines set by the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, http://publicationethics.org/), the Ministry of Education, and the National Research Foundation of Korea with respect to the settlement of any misconduct.
• 2) All manuscripts should be prepared in strict application of the research and publication ethics guidelines recommended by the Council of Science Editors (CSE, http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org/), and the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (KAMJE, http://www.kamje.or.kr/).
• 3) The author(s) must be able to state that the research involving humans or animals has been approved by a responsible IRB and conducted in accordance with accepted national and international standards. RCPHN will follow the guidelines set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, http://publicationethics.org/) to settle any misconduct. All studies involving human subjects or human data must be reviewed and approved by a responsible research ethics board or institutional review board (IRB). Please refer to the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/) for all investigations involving human subjects and materials. The editor of the journal may request the submission of copies of the informed consent received from human subjects in clinical studies or IRB approval documents. Animal experiments should also be reviewed by an appropriate committee (e.g., the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) for the care and use of animals. If the study was exempt from such approval, the basis of such exemption and the regulatory framework should be described.
• 4) Submission Declaration: When submitting a manuscript, authors should include a letter informing the Editor of any potential overlap with other already published material or material being evaluated for publication and should also state how the manuscript submitted to the RCPHN differs substantially from the previously published paper(s). If all or part of the participants were previously reported, this should be mentioned in the Methods section, along with a citation of the appropriate reference(s).
• 5) Permissions: Authors should obtain permission to use measurement tools for their studies from the copyright owners. Permission to reproduce previously published material must also be obtained in writing from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) and acknowledged in the manuscript.

2. Conflict of interest

• 1) The corresponding author of an article is asked to inform the Editor of any potential conflicts of interest that may have influenced the research or interpretation of data. A potential conflict of interest should be disclosed on the title page, even when the authors are confident that their respective judgments have not been influenced when preparing the manuscript. Such conflicts may include financial support or private connections to pharmaceutical companies, political pressure from special interest groups, or academic problems.
• 2) The disclosure form should be the same as the ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest (http://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/).
• 3) The Editor will decide whether the information provided about any conflict of interest should be included in the published paper. In particular, all funding sources for a study should be explicitly stated. The RCPHN asks referees to inform the Editor of any conflict of interest before reviewing a particular manuscript.

3. Authorship

• 1) The RCPHN follows the recommendations for authorship set out by the ICMJE, 2019 (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) and the Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals 3rd Edition (KAMJE, 2019, https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/view?b_name=bo_publication&bo_id=13&per_page=).
• 2) Any designated author should meet all four criteria for authorship, and anyone who meets the four criteria should be identified as an author. Authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. All other contributors not listed as authors should be mentioned in the acknowledgments section.
• 3) When a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation is submitted for publication, the first author should be the person awarded the degree, and they should declare that content is from a thesis/dissertation.
• 4) The corresponding author has primary responsibility for addressing all issues with the Editor and the readership. Any comment by the corresponding author is regarded as the opinion of all co-authors. The corresponding author should confirm that all appropriate persons are listed as authors in the manuscript, and all co-authors should approve the final version to be published.
• 5) When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors and the group name. Journals generally list other members of the group not included as authors in the Acknowledgments section. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship.
• 6) These authorship criteria are intended to keep the status of authorship to those who deserve credit and can take responsibility for the work. Authors are expected to carefully consider the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. All authors, including the order and list of author names, should be confirmed at the time of submission. When submitting the article, all authors are requested to list the ORCID. This ID can be obtained through https://orcid.org.
• 7) Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should only be made prior to acceptance of the manuscript and only if approved by the Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason(s) for the change in the author list; (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with any addition, removal, or rearrangement. In the case of the addition or removal of authors, this includes a requirement for confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, the publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

4. Redundant publication and plagiarism

• 1) Redundant publication (duplication) is defined as “reporting (publishing or attempting to publish) substantially the same work more than once, without attribution of the original source(s).” Characteristics of reports that are substantially similar include the following: (a) “At least one of the authors must be common to all reports (if there are no common authors, it is more likely plagiarism than redundant publication);” (b) “The subjects or study populations are the same or overlapped;” (c) “The methodology is typically identical or nearly so;” (d) “The results and their interpretation generally vary little, if at all.”
• 2) Authors should not submit the same research to more than one journal and should not publish the manuscript in different languages. If authors wish to pursue a secondary publication of the manuscript in another language, they should obtain approval from the editor-in-chief of both related journals. The editorial board will determine the nature and degree of duplicate publication or duplicate submission for the manuscript.
• 3) Plagiarism means the appropriation of another person’s ideas, research processes, results, or text as one’s own. This includes using previously published material of oneself or any other author without citing the reference. Authors are required to submit original manuscripts and confirm that they have cited or quoted others’ ideas and texts appropriately and accurately.

5. Process for managing publication malpractice

• 1) When reviewers or readers suspect publication malpractice, such as fabrication, falsification, salami slicing, plagiarism, or simultaneous/ duplicate publication, inappropriate changes in authorship, an undisclosed conflict of interest, ethical problems with a submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, and complaints against editors, the process of resolution will be initiated according to the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).
• 2) The ethics committee will discuss and adjudicate cases of suspected publication malpractice, as well as complaints and appeals against editors.
• 3) If an author violates the aforementioned research and publication ethics, the editorial board will decide specific penalty, including the prohibition of making contributions for two years.

Manuscript submission

• 1. The first author and corresponding author should be a member, with the exception of non-Korean authors. The Society permits both members and nonmembers to submit manuscripts, but nonmembers shall only be allowed to submit in the following cases:
  • 1) When a nonmember is in joint research with a member of the Society,
  • 2) When a nonmember has received a recommendation from the director of this Society.
• 2. Only research papers, reviews, and editorials are considered for review and manuscripts that do not adhere to the submission regulations shall not be accepted.
• 3. All manuscripts shall be submitted online.
  • 1) All manuscripts may be submitted at any time through the Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing website. Reviews shall be processed on a first-come-first-served basis.
  • 2) For any questions regarding the use of the online submission system, please contact the publication director of the Society via e-mail (office@rcphn.org).
• 4. Types of Publication
  • 1) Research Papers: The RCPHN publishes original research that matches the aims and scope of the journal. These include full papers reporting original research. These are reports of empirical findings from the highest quality basic and clinical research studies within the scope of focus of the RCPHN. The findings from studies utilizing diverse approaches are relevant. These include the following: qualitative methods; measurement, such as the development and evaluation of instrumentation; observational, quasi-experimental, and experimental studies; e-science, information-based studies; mixed-method designs. Research papers should adhere to recognized standards. Analysis by gender is recommended. Instrument development or validation papers are only considered if accompanied by a copy of the full instrument, included as a supplementary file at the submission stage, so it can be published as an appendix online if accepted.
  • 2) Reviews: These include critical presentations of topics of interest and relevance to nursing theory, practice, and education. The body of a review article should be a comprehensive, scholarly, evidence-based review of the literature, accompanied by critical analysis, and leading to reasonable conclusions. The journal publishes systematic reviews (addressing focused research questions) and broader literature reviews (such as scoping reviews). We also publish discussion papers, which are scholarly articles of a debating or discursive nature. In all cases, there must be engagement with and critical analysis of a substantive body of research or other scholarship. Systematic reviews should adhere to recognized standards for reporting.
  • 3) Editorials: These include comments by organizations or individuals on topics of current interest and are by invitation only. Authors with ideas for editorials that address issues of substantive concern to the discipline, particularly those of a controversial nature or linked directly to current/forthcoming content in the journal, should contact the editorial office.
  • 4) Letters to the Editor: These include responses to previous articles and editorials. Designed to stimulate academic debate and discussion, the Editor invites readers to submit letters that refer to and comment on recent content in the journal, introduce new comments and discussion of clear and direct relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, or briefly report data or research findings that may not warrant a full paper.

Manuscript preparation

General guideline

• 1. The first author and co-author shall be addressed separately, and the affiliations and positions of the authors shall be indicated. The author addressed first becomes the first author, followed by the co-authors. The corresponding author shall be explicitly indicated. If the author is an elementary, junior, high school, or college student, it should be indicated that the author is a student and the school to which the author belongs. In the case of a minor who does not belong to a school, their last school, position, and school year shall be indicated.
• 2. Manuscripts shall be proofread by the author(s), and publication charges, special composing frames and supplementary documents shall also be prepared by the author (s) according to the regulations of the Society. The publication charges are 60,000 won (50 USD) per page.
• 3. Authors will be required to complete the Checklist during the submission process to assist them in ensuring that the basic requirements of manuscript submission are met, including details of the contribution of authors, funding sources, and any conflicts of interest. The Checklist is designed to be a self-assessment checklist to assist authors in preparing their manuscripts. A completed form must be submitted to show that have been included all the necessary parts in the submission have been included.
• 4. The procedures of manuscript submission are as follows.
  • 1) The title page and manuscript should be submitted in separate files.
  • 2) The authors’ names can be omitted in the main text, and all pages shall be numbered.
  • 3) The manuscript shall be prepared in an A4 size page in word file, with a 1-inch margin on all sides. The font size shall be 12-point batang or 12-point Times New Roman. The line spacing shall be double-spaced or 200% for the title page, abstract, text, and references. The line spacing should be single-spaced or 100% for the tables, table titles and notes, and figure captions. The manuscript shall be within 20 pages, excluding the title page, abstract, references, and any supplemental digital contents.
  • 4) All manuscripts shall be written in Korean or English with correct spelling. The abstract, acknowledgments and references should be written in English. The abstract shall not exceed 250 words.
  • 5) English abbreviations should be placed in parenthesis after writing the full name, e.g., magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
  • 6) Standard abbreviations and units must be used in accordance with the Citing Medicine: The NLM (National Library of Medicine) Style Guide for Authors Editors, and Publishers 2^nd ed (2007).
  • 7) Even when submitted through the online submission system, only the manuscripts that fit the guidelines regarding the number of pages, order of contents, and organization shall be accepted.

Composition of manuscripts

• 1. The composition of manuscripts shall be in the following order: title page, title, abstract and keywords, main text (introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion), references, tables, figures, appendix, and finally, a literature review if necessary. The composition may be different for special papers. The order of each section shall be I - 1 - 1) – or (1). In the main text (including references, figures, tables, and acknowledgments), the author’s name or identification, such as the name of the institution or IRB, should not be written for anonymous peer review.
• 2. Title page
  On the title page include 1) title and running title, 2) type of manuscript, 3) authors’ names and affiliations (department, location, and ORCID (visit https://orcid.org)), 4) corresponding author’s name and complete address, including e-mail, phone number, ORCID, and fax number, 5) keywords (English and Korean), 6) contributor roles of each author, 7) any acknowledgments, credits, or disclaimers, including funding sources and conflicts of interest, Institutional Review Board statement, data-sharing statements, and registration of study.
  • 1) Copyright Transfer Agreement
    All authors will be required to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement conferring the manuscript copyright to the Research in Community and Public Health Nursing. Copyright Transfer Agreement form and form of Conflicts of interest should be submitted online at submission. Articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License, which allows readers to disseminate and reuse the article, as well as share and reuse the scientific material. It does not permit the creation of derivative works without specific permission. To view a copy of this license, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/.
  • 2) Conflict of interest statement
    Authors are required to disclose any possible conflicts of interest when submitting a paper. These can include financial conflicts of interest, e.g., patent ownership, stock ownership, consultancies, speaker’s fee. All conflicts of interest (or information specifying the absence of conflict of interest) should be included at the end of the article under ‘Conflicts of Interest’. This information will be included in the published article.
    If the author does not have any conflicts of interest, the following statement should be included: “No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).”
  • 3) Funding statement
    RCPHN requires authors to specify any funding sources (institutional, private, and corporate financial support) for the work reported in their paper. This information, in the form of the name of the funding organization(s) and the grant number or should be included at the end of the article under the heading ‘Funding’ and provided at the time of submitting the paper. If there was no funding, the following wording should be used: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.” Any materials suppliers should be named, and their location (town, state/county, country) included if appropriate. This information will be included in the published article.
• 3. Title
  The title should be concise. In the case of a paper written in Korean, the exact meaning of the English and Korean titles must correspond.
• 4. Abstract and keywords
  • 1) An abstract of up to 250 words should be typed double-spaced on a separate page. The purpose, methods, results, and conclusion shall be provided sequentially in subheadings without any partitions between paragraphs. When using abbreviations, explanations for those abbreviations must be given.
  • 2) Below the abstract, three to five keywords shall be given in English. Keywords shall not exceed five words, and they must be words registered in the MeSH (https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/). Up to five Keywords shall be placed at the top of the first page in Korean, and the meaning of them shall match the meaning of the English keywords.
• 5. Main text
  • 1) Introduction: The introduction section shall be clear and precise and provide only the necessary background information related to the purpose of the study.
  • 2) Methods: Describes the study design, setting, samples, measurements/ instruments, data collection/procedure, ethical considerations, and data analysis used. The instrument can be omitted if it is qualitative research. In the section on ethical considerations, the author should describe that this study protocol was approved by the institutional review board (IRB No. ##-##-###).
    [Description of subjects] Ensure the correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biologic factors) and gender (identity, psychological, or sociocultural factors), and unless inappropriate, report the sex or gender of the subjects, the sex of the animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex or gender. The researcher should include gender or sex of the subjects, if possible. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, e.g., only one sex or gender, the authors should justify why, except in obvious cases. The authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.
  • 3) Results: The findings of the study shall be described succinctly and logically.
  • 4) Discussion: The study results shall be interpreted and compared with the findings of other related studies. The research results shall not be described repeatedly.
  • 5) Conclusion: The results or methods of the study shall not be repeated. The interpretations or limitations found in the study must be described, and the purpose of the study shall be related to the results. Authors may propose future directions for research, education, or practice.
  • 6) Conflict of Interests: Authors must disclose any financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that could influence their work.
  • 7) Funding: Authors must specify any funding sources (institutional, private, and corporate financial support) for the work reported in their paper.
  • 8) Author contribution: The RCPHN requires that all authors take public responsibility for the content of the work submitted for review. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
  • 9) Acknowledgments: Persons who have made contributions to the study, but who are not eligible for authorship can be named in this section. Their contribution must be specified, such as data collection, financial support, statistical analysis, or experimentation. The corresponding author must inform the named contributor of the acknowledgment, and acquire consent before manuscript submission.
  • 10) Data availability: A data availability statement tells the reader where the research data associated with a paper is available, and under what conditions the data can be accessed. They also include links (where applicable) to the data set.

Tables and figures

• 1. Tables and Figures shall be expressed in English. The contents of the tables and figures shall not overlap.
• 2. The contents of the tables, figures, and pictures shall be easily understood and stand alone.
• 3. Table guidelines
  • 1) All lines shall be single-lined and vertical lines shall not be used.
  • 2) The title of the table shall be placed on top of the table, and the first letters of the important words shall be capitalized (e.g., Table 1. Overall Responses to Question Types).
  • 3) Separate tables shall be numbered in the order of their first appearance.
  • 4) Footnotes can be used to convey additional information. Nonstandard abbreviations used in the tables must be explained in the footnotes (e.g., HR=heart rate; T=temperature).
  • 5) Footnotes in tables should use symbols in the following sequence: ^{†, ‡, §, ∥, ¶, #, ††, ‡‡} The explanations for these superior characters shall be placed on the bottom left of the tables (e.g. ^†Survival case; ^‡Dead case).
  • 6) 0 shall be placed in front of the decimal point if the number is close to 1 and left blank if the number is not close to 1 (e.g., t=0.26, F=0.92, r=.14, R²=.61).
  • 7) When reporting p-values, which refer to the significance probability, footnotes shall not be used, but the actual p-values shall be provided. If the p-value is .000, it shall be indicated as p<.001, and if the p-value is 1.000, it shall be indicated as p>.999.
  • 8) When reporting decimal numbers, the significance level shall be rounded to three decimal places. Standard deviations, other averages and means shall be rounded to two decimal places, and percentages rounded to one decimal place (e.g., p=.002, 23.98±3.47, 45.7%).
  • 9) When p-values have to be reported using footnotes, *, ** shall be used (e.g., *p<.05, **p<.01).
• 4. Figure guidelines
  • 1) The title of the figure shall be placed below the figure with the first letter capitalized. Separate figures shall be numbered in the order of their first appearance.
  • 2) When there are two or more figures for the same number, alphabets shall be placed after the Arabic number. (e.g., Figure 1-A and Figure 1-B).
• 5. Tables and figures shall be in sharp, black lines and adjusted to fit within the A4 size page (width 150 mm × height 200 mm) with the explanations written separately.
• 6. The resolution of the figures shall be more than 3 million pixels.

In-text citation

Citations of references within the text should follow Citing Medicine: The NLM (National Library of Medicine) Style Guide for Authors Editors, and Publishers 2nd edition (2007) (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/books/NBK7256/)
Use [1], [2,3], or [4-6] in the text, and they should be listed in the Reference section in numerical order of their citation.

References

• 1. All references cited in the text must appear in the Reference section, and all items in this section shall be cited in the text. References cited in the manuscripts such as meta-analyses and systematic reviews are presented in the appendix. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and correct text citations.
• 2. State Journal's full name (e.g., Research in Community and Public Health Nursing). The sequence is authors, the title of the paper, journals name, year published, and volume, followed by page numbers and the Digital Object Identifier (if it is available). For citation from other sources, refer to The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers 2^nd ed. (2007) (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/).
• 3. If the number exceeds six, list only the first six authors followed by et al. shall be given.

Journal article:

• 1. Cho OH, Yoo YS, Kim NC. Efficacy of comprehensive group rehabilitation for women with early breast cancer in South Korea. Nursing & Health Sciences. 2006; 8(3): 140-146.
  https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-2018.2006.00271.x
• 2. Bang KS, Kang JH, Jun MH, Kim HS, Son HM, Yu SJ, et al. Professional values in Korean undergraduate nursing students. Nurse Education Today. 2011;31(1):72-75.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2010.03.019

Forthcoming journal articles (articles published electronically ahead of the print version):

• 3. Scerri J, Cassar R. Qualitative study on the placement of Huntington disease patients in a psychiatric hospital: Perceptions of Maltese nurses. Nursing & Health Sciences. 2013. Forthcoming.

Periodicals or magazines:

• 4. Rutan C. Creating healthy habits in children. Parish Nurse Newsletter. 2012 May 15:5-6.

Newspaper articles:

• 5. Cho C. Stem cell windpipe gives Korean toddlers new life. The Korea Herald. 2013 May 2; Sect. 01.
• 6. Lyderson K. Risk of disease rises with water temperatures. Washington Post [Internet]. 2008 Oct 20 [cited 2008 Dec 19]:A08. Available from:
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/19/AR2008101901533.html Article includes a correction.

Books:

• 7. Peate I. The student’s guide to becoming a nurse. 2nd ed. Chichester WS: John Wiley & Sons; 2012. 660 p.

Parts of books (chapter):

• 8. Reed JG, Baxter PM. Library use: handbook for psychology. 3rd ed. Washington: American Psychological Association; c2003. Chapter 2, Selecting and defining the topic; p. 11-25.

Entire book on the Internet

• 9. Peterson K. Guide to life science careers [Internet]. Cambridge: NPG Education; c2014 [cited 2020 Jul 2]. Available from: https://www.nature.com/scitable/ebooks/guide-to-lifescience-careers-14053951/.

Scientific and technical reports:

• 10. Perio MA, Brueck SE, Mueller CA. Evaluation of 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus exposure among internal medicine house staff and fellows. Health Hazard Evaluation Report. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah School of Medicine, 2010 October. Report No.: HETA 2009-0206-3117.

Dissertations and theses (This journal does not recommend citing dissertations or theses. If necessary, less than three should be cited.)

• - Doctoral dissertation:
• 11. Jin HY. A study on the analysis of risk factors and characteristics for nosocomial infection in intensive care unit [dissertation]. [Seoul]: Yonsei University; 2005. 108 p.
• - Master’s thesis:
• 12. Kim JS. A study on fatigue, stress and burnout of pregnancy nurses [master’s thesis]. [Gwangju]: Chonnam National University; 2012. 50 p.

Papers and poster sessions presented at meetings

• - For a paper:
• 13. Bryar R. The primary health care workforce development roadmap. Paper presented at: The public health nursing contribution to primary health care 3rd International public health nursing conference; 2013 Aug 25-27; National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG). Galway.
• - For a poster session:
• 14. Bigbee J. Promoting the health of the population: Public health nursing leading the way. Poster session presented at: The public health nursing contribution to primary health care 3rd International public health nursing conference; 2013 Aug 25-27; National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG). Galway.

Conference publications

• 15. Dostrovsky JO, Carr DB, Koltzenburg M, editors. Proceedings of the 10th World Congress on Pain; 2002 Aug 17-22; San Diego, CA. Seattle: IASP Press; c2003.

Citing material on the Internet

• - Standard citation to an open serial database on the Internet:
• 16. TrialSearch [Internet]. New York: AIDS Community Research Initiative of America. c2003 - [cited 2007 Feb 1]. Available from: http://www.acria.org/.
• - Standard citation to a retrieval system on the Internet:
• 17. WHOSIS: WHO Statistical Information System [Internet]. Geneva: World Health Organization. c2007 - [cited 2007 Feb 1]. Available from: http://www.who.int/whosis/en/.
• - Standard citation to a homepage:
• 18. Statistics Korea. 2010 life tables for Korea [Internet]. Seoul: Statistics Korea; 2011 [cited 2012 January 16]. Available from: http://kostat.go.kr/portal/korea/kor_nw/3/index.board?bmode=read&aSeq=252533.
• - Homepage with no authors or editors:
• 19. StatePublicHealth.org [Internet]. Washington: ASTHO; [cited 2007 Feb 23]. Available from: http://statepublichealth.org/.

Appendix

• 1. Authors should submit an appendix to show the developed final measurements in the instrument development study and a list of articles reviewed in the systematic review or meta-analysis research.
  • 1) Supplementary material: Supplementary material can support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips, and more. Please note that such items are published online exactly as they are submitted; there is no typesetting involved (supplementary data supplied as an Excel file or as a PowerPoint slide will appear as such online).
  • 2) Please submit the material together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. If you wish to make any changes to the supplementary data during any stage of the process, please provide an updated file, and do not annotate any corrections on a previous version.
  • 3) Please also make sure to switch off the “Track Changes” option in any Microsoft Office files, as these will appear in the published supplementary file(s).

Data sharing and transparency

• 1. This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication, where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate the research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods, and other useful materials related to the project.
• 2. Data generated through the participation of subjects and the public should be put to maximum use by the research community and, whenever possible, translated to deliver patient benefit. Data sharing benefits numerous research-related activities: reproducing analyses; testing secondary hypotheses; developing and evaluating novel statistical methods; teaching; aiding design of future trials; meta-analyses; helping to prevent error, fraud, and selective reporting.
• 3. To promote more transparent and reproducible research, we ask authors to submit a Data Availability Statement in the manuscript to help authors understand how they can access the data, code and other resources that support the research findings.
• 4. The following are examples of data-sharing statements:
  Example 1. Data can be obtained from the corresponding author.
  Example 2. Data can be obtained from the supplementary material link.
  Example 3. (In the case of health care big data) Data can be obtained from (the name of the)__repository source.

Registration of a Clinical Trial

• 1. A clinical trial is defined as “any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention and comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome.” We encourage the prospective registration of studies. Where a study has been registered, please give the number on your title page and include the registration number within the body of the paper as appropriate.
• 2. The journal accepts the registration in any of the primary registries that participate in the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Portal (http://www.who.int/ictrp/en/), the National Institutes of Health ClinicalTrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/), the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Registry (https://www.isrctn.com/), or the Clinical Research Information Service, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) (https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/info/introduce.do).
• 3. This journal follows the data sharing policy described in “Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors” (https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.7.1051). As of July 1, 2018, manuscripts submitted to ICMJE journals that report the results of interventional clinical trials must contain a data-sharing statement. Clinical trials that began enrolling participants on or after January 1, 2019, must include a data-sharing plan when registering the trial. The ICMJE’s policy regarding trial registration is explained at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html.
• 4. The journal follows the data-sharing policy described in “Data-sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)” (https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.7.1051) (http://icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf).
• 5. If the data-sharing plan changes after registration, this should be reflected in the statement submitted and published with the manuscript and updated in the registry record. Based on the degree of the sharing plan, authors should deposit their data after de-identification and report the digital object identifier, or DOI, of the data and the registered site.

Reporting Guidance for Specific Study designs

For the specific study design, such as randomized control studies, studies of diagnostic accuracy, meta-analyses, observational studies, and non-randomized studies, it is recommended that the authors follow the reporting guidelines (https://www.equator-network.org/).

Editorial and peer-review process

• 1. Submitted manuscript
  • 1) All contributions (including solicited articles) are critically reviewed by the Editorial Board members and reviewers. The decision to publish a paper is based on an editorial assessment and peer review.
  • 2) Prereview: Initially, all papers are assessed by an editorial committee consisting of members of the editorial team. The primary purpose is to decide whether to send a paper for peer review and to give a rapid decision on those that are not put forward.
  • 3) Review: Manuscripts going forward to the review process are reviewed by two or more reviewers and the editor. The Editorial Board reserves the right to refuse any material for publication. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to the final decision regarding acceptance. RCPHN uses a double-blinded review. The names of the reviewers will thus not be disclosed to the author submitting a paper, and the name(s) of the author(s) will not be disclosed to the reviewers.
  • 4) The average time from manuscript submission to the author’s receipt of the editor’s decision about publication is approximately three months. Many excellent manuscripts are accepted, some pending minor revisions. Many other excellent manuscripts may receive a “revise and resubmit” decision.
• 2. Revised manuscript
  • 1) When you prepare a revised version of your manuscript, you should carefully follow the instructions given in the Editor’s letter. Authors are encouraged to follow the suggestions made by the reviewers to make changes and then resubmit with a detailed letter to the editor outlining the changes made following the reviewers’ suggestions. Revised submission must also include a point-by-point response to reviewer comments and a traced-changed version of the revised manuscript.
  • 2) Revised manuscripts must be uploaded within two weeks of authors being notified of conditional acceptance pending satisfactory revision.
  • 3) Authors who are responsive to the reviewers’ suggestions are well placed to have their manuscripts accepted for publication.
  • 4) The revised manuscript should have changes highlighted (either by using the “Track Changes” function in MS Word or by highlighting or underlining the text) with notes in the text referring to the editor or reviewer query.

After acceptance of a manuscript

• 1. Paper proof
  • 1) RCPHN provides the corresponding author with paper proofs for their correction. The corresponding author will receive electronic page proofs to check the copyedited and typeset article before publication. Corrections should be kept to a minimum.
  • 2) The Editor retains the prerogative to question minor stylistic alterations and major alterations that might affect the scientific content of the paper. Any fault found after the publication is the authors’ responsibility.
  • 3) We urge our authors to proofread their accepted manuscripts carefully. The corresponding author may be contacted by the Editorial Office, depending on the nature of the correction in the proof.
• 2. Publication fee
  • 1) Authors are asked to pay a fee to allow perpetual, unrestricted online access to their published articles for readers globally, immediately upon publication to cover some part of the costs associated with publication, depending on the number of pages of the published article.
  • 2) The publication charges are 60,000 won (50 US dollars) per printed page.
• 3. Errata and Corrigenda
  • 1) An erratum will be used if a significant error has been introduced by us during the production of the journal article, including errors of omission such as failure to make factual proof corrections requested by authors within the deadline provided by the journal and within journal policy. A 'significant error' is one that affects the scholarly record, the scientific integrity of the article, the reputation of the authors, or of the journal.
  • 2) A corrigendum is a notification of an important error made by the author(s) that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or the journal.
  • 3) We will publish a correction of your article if a significant or important error is discovered after publication.

Additional clauses

These regulations are effective from March 24, 2023.