ViewPoint is currently accepting new manuscripts

ViewPoint, a publication of the American Association of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN), is peer-reviewed and dedicated to presenting current best practice information on topics relevant to ambulatory care and telehealth nursing. ViewPoint also provides a forum for communication between the AAACN Leadership team and members. If you are interested in submitting a manuscript for publication to ViewPoint, please see the author guidelines listed below.

Author Guidelines

Unless clearly specified, the views expressed in articles, editorials, and letters published in ViewPoint represent the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the official policies of AAACN.

Type of Manuscripts Accepted

Viewpoint accepts original articles: 1) evidence-based or quality improvement initiatives, 2) program evaluations, 3) educational articles on topics of importance to ambulatory care nursing, and 4) advocacy or policy articles with implications for ambulatory care nursing.

Query letters are welcome, but not required. Contact Elizabeth Fritz, editor, at ViewPoint@aaacn.org. Material must be original and never published before. Material is submitted for review with the understanding that it is not being submitted to any other journal simultaneously.

Manuscript Review and Publication Processes

ViewPoint is refereed. All manuscripts undergo review by the editor and blind review by members of the peer review panel. Each manuscript is reviewed for timeliness, importance, clarity, accuracy, and applicability to ambulatory care nursing. Manuscripts that show promise but do not comply with reference, length, or style requirements of the APA Manual (7th ed.) may be returned to the author for revision before peer review.

Upon acceptance of the manuscript, the author will yield copyright to ViewPoint. Acquiring permission to reprint previously published materials is the author's responsibility. Authors are responsible for verifying they have read all the materials cited in their manuscript and, if necessary, have contacted the relevant authors to verify the accuracy of cited material. Manuscripts are subject to copy editing. The author will receive proofs via email for review prior to publication.

Manuscript Preparation

Format and Guideline Recommendations

Manuscripts must be double-spaced. References, photographs, tables, and all other details of style must conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 7th ed., 2020).

All research conducted on human subjects must be approved by either an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Community Review Board (CRB) and noted in the manuscript.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) writing tools, language models, such as ChatGPT and similar assistive technologies do not satisfy ViewPoint’s authorship criteria and do not represent legal entities that can be associated with or assigned copyright. Authors shall be exclusively responsible for the verifiability and originality of their work. Additionally, authors are expected to be transparent and disclose their use of AI writing tools, language models, and similar technologies in the Acknowledgment, Methods, and/or other suitable sections of their paper.

General Guidelines

  • Format: All files should be saved as Microsoft Word documents. Manuscripts must not contain reference software codes.
  • Title Page: Include the manuscript title, authors' names, credentials, and professional affiliation. The corresponding author should include an address for correspondence and an email address.
  • Abstract: Do not include an abstract. Abstracts that are included will not be published.
  • Subheadings: Use headings and subheadings per APA 7th edition guidelines.
  • Word limit: Do not exceed 3,500 words, references included (approximately 16 pages double-spaced)
  • Tables/Figures: Up to four value-added tables or figures can be included in a manuscript. Tables or figures should be referenced within the manuscript (e.g., “See Table 1”). Tables or figures should supplement (not duplicate) information in the narrative.
  • References: References in the text should be cited by author and date, for example (Blevins, 2021), with page numbers cited for direct quotations. The reference list at the end of the manuscript should include only those references cited in the text and be arranged alphabetically by author. References must be current, preferably from the last 3-5 years, unless a seminal work. All citations should reference primary sources. The use of secondary sources (material analyzed or interpreted from the primary source) is discouraged. If necessary, locate a copy of the original work and credit it as such. Sample references are shown below.
    • Periodical: Fowler, S. (2021). COVID-19 experiences of ambulatory care nurses in primary care settings. Journal of Ambulatory Care Nursing 29(5), 341-342. https://doi.org/jacn.10.1000000000001
    • Book: American Psychological Association (APA). (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). Author.
    • Chapter in a Book: Levine, J. (2019). Ethics and advocacy. In C.B. Laughlin, & S.G. Witwer (Eds.), Core curriculum for ambulatory care nursing (4th ed., pp. 25-46). American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing.
    • Website: Include the full date (e.g., 2021, September 2) if the citation is a press release, a news article (e.g., The Washington Post), or a blog post. It is not always necessary to include the date the material was accessed. However, upon page proof stage, you may be asked to update data that were updated since your manuscript was written (e.g., data from the CDC, HRSA, U.S. Census Bureau, etc.) so the most current data are reflected in your published article. If older sources were used or referenced as part of your research project, include the access date.
  • Figures: These include line drawings, photographs, diagrams, and graphs. When using figures adapted or obtained from another source, the author must obtain written permission for both print and electronic use from the original publisher. Include data for graphs whenever possible.
  • Photographs: Photos should be submitted electronically and must be high resolution (at least 300 dpi or a minimum of 1280 x 960 pixels). Please note images found on Google, Bing, or other Internet search engines are not public domain; permission from the original source (not Google) must be provided.
  • Editing: AAACN reserves the right to edit all reader contributions for clarity, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and syntax. Substantive changes of any nature will be verified with the author before publication.

Authorship

ViewPoint endorses and subscribes to the definition of authorship by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which states:

The ICMJE recommends that an author should meet all four of the following criteria:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
  • Final approval of the version to be published.
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Disclosure Information

ViewPoint requires authors, Editorial Board members, and reviewers to disclose any relevant financial relationships.

Inclusive Publication Guidelines

Submit Manuscripts

 


A GUIDE FOR POTENTIAL AUTHORS

Prior to Writing Your Manuscript, Review the Following:

RELEVANCE/CURRENCY - Is the topic current? Is it an issue you have encountered? Is it posing problems in your practice? Is it a national health care issue focused on ambulatory care? Could the issue/solutions that you recommend be extrapolated to other ambulatory care nurses in their practice?

EVIDENCE-BASED - Are you able to find pertinent, current (within the last five years) published evidence on the nature of the problem, or possible solutions? If not, would the topic be a prime opportunity for research within your area or in conjunction with other ambulatory care nurses in their practice?

BEST PRACTICE - Can you define the problem and solutions in the context of your ambulatory care practice?

Searching for the Evidence: The Literature Review

As part of a comprehensive review of the literature for your manuscript, it is necessary to search for the evidence already published on your topic. The evidence is used to support information and ideas in your manuscript.

To begin with, use the PICO format to formulate your search.

P = PATIENT/PROBLEM - Who is the patient, population, or problem that you are searching?

I = INTERVENTION - What are you planning to do to address the identified issue, specific treatment, test, therapy, medication, or teaching approach?

C = COMPARISON - What is the current practice or approach to this issue?

O = OUTCOME - What results do you plan to achieve? How will care be improved or changed to relieve symptoms or to improve function?

In addition to formulating specific parameters for the question, it is important to find the appropriate database in which to search for the evidence. Examples are:

CINAHL@ - provides indexing for more than 3,000 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health.

EBM Reviews - Cochrane Collaboration - Cochrane Review provides systematic reviews and primary research in human health care and health policy and is recognized internationally as the highest standard in evidence-based health care.

EMBASE@ - a European bibliographic database that provides information on medical topics as well as tracking of drug adverse events and comparison of drug therapies for disease using evidence-based medicine research.

MEDLINE@ - contains journal citations and abstracts for biomedical literature from around the world.

PsychINFO@ - provides abstracts of systematic coverage of the psychological literature from the 1800s to the present, as well as free access to abstracts, may have links to full text articles.

PubMed@ - National Institute of Health database for peer-reviewed primary research reports in the life sciences.

When in doubt, ask a medical librarian to assist you!

When Writing Your Manuscript, Use the Following General Outline:

INTRODUCTION - Problem > Significance > Purpose

BODY - Method > Results/Evaluation

CONCLUSION - Summary > Discussion > Recommendations

After You Complete Your Manuscript

Encourage a co-worker to review your manuscript, focusing on the following attributes:

  • Are the ideas clear and concise?
  • Can the reader follow the flow of the article (i.e. identification of the issue, evidence gathered, possible solutions, identified solutions, lessons learned)?
  • Is the manuscript grammatically correct? Consistent use of word tenses?
  • Are citations clearly noted in APA 7th edition format in text and reference list?
  • Do tables and figures support the information provided?

After the Manuscript is Submitted

  • Your professional nursing colleagues and AAACN staff members will provide you with editorial comments.
  • If portions of the manuscript are unclear, suggestions will be offered to you.
  • A member of the Editorial Board will notify you whether or not your manuscript has been accepted for publication.

Manuscript Wishlist