Change? Yuck!

Article Outline

• Changes for JANAC
  • Articles in Press
  • Facebook
  • New APA Formatting Guidelines
• Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading
  • Flush Left, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading
    • Indented, boldface, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period
  • Conflict of Interest Policy
  • Online Submission and Review System Upgrades
• Reference
• Copyright

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.

—W. Edwards Deming

Change is not a word that inspires a warm, fuzzy feeling. Personally, I have always approached it as something to be borne, bravely, but with a lot of complaining. Hearing the quote above in a presentation at the recent International Academy of Nursing Editors conference, however, made me rethink my position. Change may be anxiety producing, difficult, and time consuming, but it is also thought provoking, stimulating, and a path to the future. Change indicates that we are living.

We have been celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC) this year, highlighting the leaders who have guided this journal and the roads the journal has traveled. The editorial team enters the next phase of JANAC's history with the goal of continuing JANAC's development and honoring its traditions. We have looked at the great innovations that technology has brought to publishing and are embracing changes that will reinforce JANAC's strengths and enhance the Journal for the future. Following is a list of changes you will see; some now and some beginning with the first issue of the 21st volume. We hope you will find these changes beneficial to the Journal; but remember, as exciting as we think they are, they are merely an icing on the JANAC cake. The cake is you: our readers, authors, and reviewers—JANAC's foundation.

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Changes for JANAC 

Articles in Press 

You will now find a link on the JANAC Web site (http://www.nursesinaidscarejournal.org/) called “Articles in Press.” Accepted, typeset articles will be available online ahead of print through this link. Each article will have a digital object identifier (DOI) number assigned to it and will be fully citable. These articles will not include a volume, issue, or page number and may undergo minor corrections before publication. (Please see Example 5 of section 7.01 in the American Psychological Association [APA] manual, 6th edition, for information on how to format these articles in your reference lists; APA, 2010) When they are published in a hard copy issue, they will be removed from the “Articles in Press” section and made available through the usual hard copy and online mechanisms.

Facebook 

Social media has become a very popular means for connecting individuals around specific topics of interest. Connected individuals become “communities” who can interact with one another on sites such as Facebook. And guess what? JANAC now has a Facebook page to facilitate interactions between individuals interested in JANAC. On the page, you will find the following:

The site will change based on user interest, so please become a “fan” and let us know your thoughts.

New APA Formatting Guidelines 

The APA recently released the 6th edition of the Publication Manual (APA, 2010), which is the basis for JANAC's manuscript formatting guidelines. You will see specific requirements in the updated Information for Authors that will be published in the January/February 2010 issue and will be available online at http://www.nursesinaidscarejournal.org/. Some highlights are listed later, but if you are planning to submit a manuscript to JANAC or another nursing journal (many use APA style), it is imperative to obtain a copy of the new edition and familiarize yourself with the content. (Yes—there's no getting around it; this is one of those changes that falls in the “anxiety producing, difficult, and time consuming” category.) The new edition includes an excellent section on publication ethics, which is worth the cost of the book; an expanded section on journal article reporting standards; and an expanded section on reducing bias in your writing. The new edition also includes a useful table of contents to help you locate specific topics.

Highlights of changes from the 5th edition to the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the APA include the following:

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Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading 

Flush Left, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading 

As always, when submitting a manuscript, carefully review the journal's Author Guidelines/Information for Authors. Determine the basic formatting style (such as APA, and which edition) and note journal-specific formatting requirements. Preparing your manuscript according to these guidelines before submission can save time and frustration for you as well as for the editors and reviewers.

Conflict of Interest Policy 

JANAC is in the process of adopting a conflict of interest policy, which will soon be available at www.nursesinaidscarejournal.org. A conflict of interest is any relationship (economic, commercial, personal, professional, political, religious, or other) that affects or could affect a person's judgment in the process of authoring, reviewing, editing, or publishing a manuscript. Conflicts of interest are most significant when they are undisclosed.

We are committed to making all potential or real conflicts of interest transparent; this is the only way to maintain the high standards of the Journal. JANAC will now require all authors to list any possible conflicts of interest on their title page to allow editors, reviewers, and the readers of published manuscripts to determine whether a conflict of interest has affected the manuscript.

Online Submission and Review System Upgrades 

Our publisher, Elsevier, upgrades our online submission and review system, Elsevier Editorial System (EES), on a regular basis. EES users now have the ability to choose more classifications and enter their own key words within their personal accounts in the system. These classifications and key words are especially important for matching appropriate reviewers with submitted manuscripts, as well as identifying authors for specially invited papers.

Please take a minute to update your account in EES. Visit the site at http://ees.elsevier.com/janac/ and enter your username and password, then click on the Change Details link at the top of the screen in the grey shaded box. Scroll down until you see the Select Personal Classifications and the Select Key Words links. Click on these links and follow the instructions.

Change is occurring at JANAC, and we hope you will agree with us that these changes are of the “thought provoking, stimulating, and a path to the future” variety. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about the changes detailed above, or let us know your suggestions for changes you would like to see in JANAC's future.

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Reference 

1. American Psychological Association (APA). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed.. Washington, DC: Author; 2010;
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