TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT

TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT

Jurnal Keperawatan Merdeka publishes scholarly manuscripts that contribute to the advancement of nursing science, nursing practice, nursing education, and healthcare delivery. The journal welcomes empirical, theoretical, methodological, and evidence-synthesis contributions relevant to its Aim and Scope.

Topics include medical-surgical nursing; community and family nursing; maternal and child health nursing; pediatric nursing; gerontological nursing; mental health and psychiatric nursing; oncology nursing and palliative care; emergency and critical care nursing; perioperative nursing; nursing management and leadership; nursing education and simulation; health promotion and disease prevention; patient safety and quality of nursing care; evidence-based nursing practice; nursing informatics and digital health; professional ethics and nursing policy; and interdisciplinary research relevant to nursing and healthcare systems.

Jurnal Keperawatan Merdeka encourages interdisciplinary scholarship connecting nursing with public health, medicine, behavioral and social sciences, health technology, and healthcare management. Contributions should promote scientific rigor, research integrity, ethical conduct, patient safety, respect for human dignity, and the responsible dissemination of nursing knowledge.

All manuscripts must be original, scientifically rigorous, ethically conducted, relevant to the journal’s scope, written in English, and prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines and Publication Ethics of Jurnal Keperawatan Merdeka. Submissions are subject to editorial assessment and, where applicable, peer review.

1. Original Research Article

Original Research Articles report original and previously unpublished empirical research that makes a substantive contribution to nursing science, nursing practice, nursing education, or healthcare delivery.

Jurnal Keperawatan Merdeka welcomes quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research, including experimental and quasi-experimental studies, randomized controlled trials, observational studies, cross-sectional surveys, cohort and case-control studies, qualitative interviews, focus group discussions, ethnographic studies, phenomenological research, action research, implementation research, and other scientifically appropriate designs.

Research topics may include nursing interventions, patient outcomes, health promotion, disease prevention, community-based nursing, family nursing, gerontological care, oncology nursing, nursing education, clinical decision-making, patient safety, professional practice, and healthcare service improvement.

An Original Research Article should generally include:

  1. Abstract and Keywords;

  2. Introduction;

  3. Methods;

  4. Results;

  5. Discussion;

  6. Conclusion; and

  7. References.

The Results and Discussion sections may be combined where appropriate to the research design and journal guidelines.

Authors should clearly explain the research problem, study objectives, theoretical or conceptual framework where applicable, research design, setting, population and sample, sampling procedures, data collection methods, instruments, and analytical techniques. Findings should be presented accurately and interpreted in relation to relevant literature and nursing practice.

Studies involving human participants must comply with applicable research ethics requirements, including ethical approval where required, informed consent, confidentiality, protection of vulnerable participants, and appropriate safeguards for patient safety and dignity.

2. Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Systematic Review articles provide a rigorous, transparent, and reproducible synthesis of existing research addressing a clearly formulated question relevant to nursing science, nursing practice, nursing education, or healthcare delivery.

This category may include systematic reviews, systematic reviews with meta-analysis, scoping reviews, evidence maps, and qualitative evidence syntheses, where appropriate to the journal’s scope.

Authors should clearly describe:

  • the research question and review objectives;

  • eligibility criteria for selecting studies;

  • databases and other information sources;

  • search strategies and search dates;

  • study-selection and screening procedures;

  • data-extraction procedures;

  • assessment of methodological quality or risk of bias, where applicable; and

  • methods of data analysis and evidence synthesis.

Reviews should critically evaluate the quality, consistency, limitations, and applicability of the available evidence. Conclusions and recommendations must be supported by the findings and should not exceed the strength of the evidence.

Systematic reviews should follow recognized reporting standards appropriate to their design, such as PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, PRISMA-ScR for scoping reviews, or relevant reporting guidance for qualitative evidence synthesis, where applicable.

Authors should explain the implications of the findings for nursing practice, clinical decision-making, education, research, management, or health policy, as appropriate.

3. Review Article

Review Articles provide comprehensive, critical, and balanced analyses of established or emerging topics in nursing and healthcare.

A Review Article should go beyond a descriptive summary of previously published studies. Authors are expected to synthesize relevant scholarship, examine theoretical and empirical debates, evaluate developments in the field, identify knowledge gaps, and propose directions for future research or professional practice.

Relevant topics may include nursing theories and models, evidence-based nursing, nursing interventions, chronic disease management, community and family nursing, gerontological care, oncology nursing, palliative care, mental health nursing, nursing education, simulation-based learning, patient safety, nursing leadership, digital health, and the development of nursing services.

Review Articles should generally contain:

  1. Abstract and Keywords;

  2. Introduction;

  3. Relevant Thematic or Conceptual Subsections;

  4. Critical Discussion;

  5. Conclusion; and

  6. References.

Authors should explain the scope and basis of literature selection sufficiently to make the coverage and limitations of the review clear. The discussion should integrate relevant findings, critically assess differences in the available literature, and identify implications for nursing knowledge and practice.

A Review Article should be distinguished from a Systematic Review by its primary purpose and methodology. Manuscripts claiming to provide a systematic synthesis must meet the methodological and reporting expectations of systematic review research.

4. Conceptual and Theoretical Article

Conceptual and Theoretical Articles develop, examine, integrate, or critically evaluate concepts, theories, models, frameworks, or propositions relevant to nursing science and healthcare.

These contributions may address nursing theories, models of nursing care, community and family nursing frameworks, patient-centered care, holistic nursing, health promotion, nursing ethics, clinical reasoning, nursing leadership, nursing education, chronic disease management, palliative care, and other areas within the journal’s scope.

Manuscripts should present a clear and original scholarly argument. Authors are expected to establish the conceptual foundations of their analysis, engage critically with relevant literature, consider competing explanations, and explain the contribution of the proposed argument or framework to nursing knowledge.

Conceptual and Theoretical Articles may propose:

  • new nursing concepts or theoretical propositions;

  • conceptual models or frameworks for nursing practice;

  • integration or reinterpretation of existing nursing theories;

  • critical evaluations of established nursing models;

  • context-sensitive explanations of nursing and healthcare phenomena; and

  • theoretical approaches to improving nursing care, education, management, or health outcomes.

Arguments should be logically developed and supported by appropriate scholarly literature. Where relevant, authors should explain how the proposed framework could inform empirical research, nursing interventions, professional education, clinical decision-making, healthcare management, or health policy.

5. Methods and Measurement Article

Methods and Measurement Articles present significant methodological developments relevant to nursing research, clinical practice, nursing education, or healthcare evaluation.

These may include:

  • development and validation of nursing research instruments;

  • adaptation and cross-cultural validation of questionnaires and assessment scales;

  • development of clinical assessment tools, nursing indicators, and patient-reported outcome measures;

  • evaluation of the reliability and validity of nursing measurement instruments;

  • methodological innovations in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods nursing research;

  • development and evaluation of nursing intervention protocols;

  • simulation-based assessment and educational evaluation methods;

  • methods for evaluating nursing care quality, patient safety, and healthcare services;

  • innovative approaches to data collection, analysis, and interpretation in nursing research; and

  • methods for evaluating digital health tools and technology-supported nursing care.

Manuscripts should clearly identify the methodological problem, explain the proposed approach, and demonstrate its scientific value through appropriate empirical evidence, practical application, or worked examples.

Instrument and scale-development studies should explain the conceptual basis, item development, content validation, pilot testing where applicable, sampling and data collection procedures, statistical analysis, and relevant evidence of reliability and validity. Authors should justify the suitability of the instrument for the intended population, language, culture, and healthcare setting.

Particular attention should be given to methodological transparency, reproducibility, data integrity, appropriate statistical procedures, and ethical considerations. Authors should distinguish between instrument development, cultural adaptation, validation, and evaluation of clinical usefulness, as these represent different methodological objectives.

6. Brief Research Report

Brief Research Reports present original research or significant preliminary findings in a concise format.

Suitable contributions may include focused studies of nursing interventions, patient experiences, community health activities, nursing education, health promotion, gerontological care, oncology nursing, patient safety, nursing service evaluation, or other topics within the journal’s scope.

These manuscripts must maintain the same standards of scientific rigor, research ethics, transparency, and methodological quality expected of full Original Research Articles. Preliminary findings should be explicitly identified, and conclusions should be appropriately limited.

A Brief Research Report should generally include:

  1. Abstract and Keywords;

  2. Introduction;

  3. Methods;

  4. Results;

  5. Discussion and/or Conclusion; and

  6. References.

The shorter format should not omit essential information needed to assess the credibility of the study. Authors should clearly explain the study’s contribution, limitations, and implications for nursing research, education, or practice.

7. Perspective

Perspective Articles present scholarly viewpoints on important, emerging, or contested issues in nursing science, professional practice, education, and healthcare delivery.

These articles may examine the future of nursing, emerging models of nursing care, digital transformation in healthcare, nursing workforce development, professional ethics, nursing education reform, patient safety, oncology nursing, aging and long-term care, community health challenges, interprofessional collaboration, or other relevant topics.

Perspectives should be evidence-based, analytically clear, academically balanced, and properly referenced. Authors should engage with relevant scholarship and differing viewpoints while clearly distinguishing established evidence, scholarly interpretation, and normative arguments.

A Perspective Article should offer a substantive contribution to academic debate and explain its relevance to nursing practice, education, research, management, or policy. Unsupported opinion, promotional content, and commentary without adequate scholarly grounding do not meet the requirements of this article type.

Interdisciplinary and Contextual Perspectives in Nursing

Jurnal Keperawatan Merdeka recognizes that nursing research and practice are shaped by clinical, cultural, social, institutional, economic, technological, and geographical contexts. Accordingly, the journal encourages scholarship that examines these contexts explicitly and avoids unwarranted generalization beyond the evidence or setting studied.

Jurnal Keperawatan Merdeka encourages authors to:

  • incorporate local, national, international, or comparative perspectives where relevant;

  • consider differences in healthcare systems, nursing services, workforce capacity, and access to care;

  • account for relevant patient, family, community, professional, and institutional factors in research design and interpretation;

  • protect patient safety, privacy, dignity, autonomy, and rights;

  • consider cultural and contextual factors that may influence health behaviors, nursing interventions, and healthcare outcomes;

  • evaluate the contextual relevance of theories, methods, and measurement instruments;

  • distinguish empirical findings from interpretation and recommendations;

  • promote responsible dissemination and application of nursing knowledge; and

  • foster interdisciplinary dialogue that strengthens nursing science and healthcare delivery.

Jurnal Keperawatan Merdeka welcomes studies conducted in Indonesia and other countries, including comparative and multicenter research. Contributions should explain how their findings advance broader nursing knowledge while remaining attentive to the specific populations, settings, and healthcare systems in which the research was conducted.

The journal particularly encourages research addressing underserved populations and communities, including studies of barriers to healthcare access, health disparities, chronic disease prevention and management, aging, cancer care, family caregiving, and the quality and safety of nursing services.

Research involving patients, children, older adults, people with disabilities, vulnerable populations, or sensitive health information should use precise terminology, avoid stigmatizing generalizations, and explain measures taken to protect participants, confidential data, and patient safety.

Editorial Consideration

Acceptance of an article type does not guarantee publication. All submissions are initially assessed for relevance to the Aim and Scope of Jurnal Keperawatan Merdeka, originality, academic quality, methodological adequacy, ethical compliance, and contribution to nursing and healthcare literature.

The Editorial Team reserves the right to recommend reclassification when a manuscript’s content, methodology, or scholarly contribution does not correspond to the article type selected during submission.

Authors must ensure that their manuscripts are written in English and comply with the journal’s Author Guidelines and Publication Ethics before submission.