The Editor of Nurse Education Today, Professor Martin Johnson, welcomes the submission of papers for publication. Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article via page of this journal http://ees.elsevier.com/net you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, takes place by e-mail and via the Author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.

The above represents a very brief outline of this form of submission. It can be advantageous to print this "Guide for Authors" section from the site for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation. If you do not have internet access, please contact the editorial office for alternative submission instructions (see masthead page for contact details).

In the interests of both readers and authors the Journal Editor has manuscripts peer-reviewed, and may recommend revisions.

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all Authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, Authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/authors ). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding Author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided.
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the Author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by Authors in these cases: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: phone (+1) 215 239 3804, fax (+1) 215 239 3805, e-mail healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions ).

Presentation of Papers
Length
All articles should be 3500-4500 words, including abstract/summary and references. Please check your text carefully before you send it off, both for correct content and typographic errors. You will increase the chances of acceptance if you draw on the experience of previously published colleagues where possible. It is not possible to change the content of accepted papers during production.

Do not use 'he', 'his' etc where the sex of the person is unknown, say 'the nurse' etc. Avoid inelegant alternatives such as 'he/she'. Nurses should not be automatically designated as 'she', and doctors as 'he'. In terms of style, try to avoid artificially objective language such as 'the author thought that' or 'the researcher' where this person is yourself. 'I' or 'we' are acceptable when related to matters concerning the author(s) themselves or their opinions.

Title page
•The title page should be provided as a separate file.
•Your title page should give the title in capital letters, below which should be the authors' names (as they appear) in lower-case letters.
•For each author you should give one first name as well as the family name and any initials
•Authors' addresses should be limited to the minimum information needed to ensure accurate postal delivery; these details should be on the title page below the authors' names and appointments
•Authors should also provide a daytime contact telephone number, fax number and e-mail address.

Keywords
Include three or four keywords. The purpose of these is to increase the likely accessibility of your paper to potential readers searching the literature. Therefore, ensure keywords are descriptive of the study. Refer to a recognised thesaurus of keywords (e.g. MEDLINE, CINAHL) wherever possible.

Abstract/Summary
An abstract of your paper, a maximum of 200 words summarising the content, should follow the title page.

Headings
The content of your paper should determine the headings you use. If yours is a quantitative research paper the headings should follow the usual layout, such as: Introduction, Background/Literature, Methods, Data/Results, Discussion, Conclusions. If your paper takes another form, theoretical or qualitative for example, you should use the appropriate headings, but do bear in mind that headings should facilitate reading and understanding. You should use only two kinds of headings, major headings should be indicated by underlined capital letters in the centre of the page whereas minor headings should be underlined, have lower-case letters (beginning with a capital) and begin at the left hand margin.

Tables
Each table needs a short descriptive title above it, and a clear legend or key and, if necessary, suitably identified footnotes below. When drawing up the tables take care to include all the units of measurement. Make sure that each table is cited in the text.

Illustrations
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/authors

If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article.

Permissions to reproduce borrowed material
Written permission to reproduce borrowed material (illustrations and tables) must be obtained from the original publishers and authors, and submitted with the article. Borrowed material should be acknowledged in the captions in this style: Reproduced by kind permission of ... (publishers) ... from ... (reference).

Reference Style
The accuracy of the references you provide is your responsibility.
•In the text references should state the author's surname and the year of publication (Smith, 1989). If there are two authors you should give both surnames (Smith & Black, 1989). When a source has more than two authors, give the name of the first author followed by 'et al.'.
•Where a quotation is used within your paper the author, date and page number should be given, e.g. 'Pain probably disables more people than any single disease entity.' (McCaffery 1979, p.1)

•A list of all references in your manuscript should be typed in alphabetical order. Each reference to a paper needs to include the authors' surnames and initials, year of publication, full title of the paper, full name of the journal, volume number, issue number and first and last page numbers. Do not add unnecessary punctuation.

For example:
Aggleton, P., Allen, M., Montgomery, S., 1987. Developing a system for the continuous assessment of practical nursing skills. Nurse Education Today 7 (4), 158-164

References to Books should be given in a slightly different form, as in these examples:
Houle, Co., 1972. The Design of Education. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Quinn, S., 1982. Nursing education in the countries of the Common Market. In: Henderson, M.S. (Ed.), Nursing Education. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, pp. 125-140

The digital object identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The correct format for citing as DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B):

doi: 10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071

When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Citing and listing of Web references: As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (Author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Proofs
When your manuscript is received by the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as "drafts". One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding Author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. A form with queries from the copyeditor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required.

The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. Return corrections within 48 hours of receipt of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this. Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof of your article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your corrections, just that only one set of corrections will be accepted. Should you choose to mail your corrections, please return them to: Log-in Department, Elsevier, Stover Court, Bampfylde Street, Exeter, Devon EX1 2AH, UK.

Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author. For further information please consult http://www.elsevier.com/authors

Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies

Enquiries
Authors can keep a track on the progress of their accepted article, and set up e-mail alerts informing them of changes to their manuscript's status, by using logging on to: http://authors.elsevier.com/TrackPaper.html. For privacy, information on each article is password-protected. The author should key in the "Our Reference" code (which is in the letter of acknowledgement sent by the publisher on receipt of the accepted article) and the name of the corresponding author. In case of problems or questions, authors may contact the Author Service Department, E-mail: authorsupport@elsevier.com

CHECKLIST
Before submitting your paper. please check that:
•All files are uploaded.
•The reference list is complete and in correct style
•Written permission from original publishers and authors to reproduce any borrowed material has been obtained.