About the Journal

About the Journal

NEU is a peer-reviewed scientific journal devoted to nursing sciences in the field of neurosciences. Founded in 1976, the journal was originally conceived as an expression of the professional growth and identity of neurosurgical nurses, marking the consolidation of a discipline that had emerged from its pioneering phase. Its renewal reflects an ongoing commitment to professional development, scientific rigor, and the advancement of nursing practice within multidisciplinary healthcare teams.

NEU is the official journal of the National Association of Neuroscience Nurses (ANIN – Associazione Nazionale Infermieri Neuroscienze). It publishes original contributions, subject to the editorial and review process applicable to each article type, related to general, clinical, and pediatric nursing sciences applied to the neurosciences, with particular focus on neurology, neurosurgery, neurorehabilitation, and psychiatry.

The journal prioritizes original research articles, systematic and narrative reviews, clinical practice papers, educational contributions, and reports of projects, innovations, and field experiences aimed at informing clinical practice, supporting professional education, encouraging critical discussion, and disseminating evidence-based nursing care.

Research articles and other scholarly submissions designated as peer reviewed undergo rigorous double-anonymous external peer review. All submitted manuscripts are evaluated solely on their scholarly merit, relevance to the journal’s scope, and contribution to the advancement of nursing knowledge in the neurosciences.

The journal serves as a reference point for nurses, healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, and stakeholders involved in the prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and nursing management of neurological, neurosurgical, and psychiatric conditions. A defining strength of NEU is the active involvement of nursing professionals working in clinical and research settings, which promotes the exchange of expertise, innovation, and best practices, ultimately contributing to the improvement of patient care and health outcomes.

NEU welcomes contributions from national and international authors and encourages collaboration across disciplines, while maintaining a clear and independent nursing perspective within the broader neuroscientific community.

The journal is published in Italian (abstracts in English) by iEditore, Italy, and provides immediate open access to its articles under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0).

Mission and Audience

NEU aims to strengthen the connection between scientific evidence, professional knowledge, and nursing practice in the neurosciences.

The journal welcomes contributions that:

  • evaluate nursing assessment, interventions, care planning, and outcomes in neurological, neurosurgical, neurorehabilitation, and psychiatric settings;
  • examine patient safety, continuity of care, rehabilitation, and the prevention and management of complications;
  • investigate patients’ and caregivers’ experiences, quality of life, communication, participation, and educational needs;
  • describe and evaluate clinical projects, care models, professional innovations, and field experiences relevant to neuroscience nursing;
  • support nursing education, professional development, research methods, and the implementation of evidence in practice;
  • explore ethical, cultural, organizational, and interdisciplinary dimensions of nursing care within the neurosciences.

The readership includes neuroscience nurses, clinical and advanced practice nurses, researchers, educators, healthcare professionals, managers, policymakers, scientific societies, and other stakeholders involved in neuroscience care.

Interdisciplinary contributions are welcomed where the nursing perspective and its specific contribution to patient care, professional practice, or the development of knowledge are clearly identified.

For a detailed description of the journal’s disciplinary coverage and accepted topics, please refer to the Aim and Scope page.

External Peer Review

Research articles and other scholarly submissions designated as peer reviewed undergo an initial technical and editorial assessment followed by double-anonymous peer review by at least two independent external reviewers with relevant subject expertise.

The journal’s standard external peer-review process applies to:

  • Original Scientific Research;
  • Quality Improvement Reports;
  • Systematic Reviews with or without Meta-Analysis;
  • Narrative, Integrative, Rapid, and Scoping Reviews;
  • Case Reports and other scholarly clinical reports designated as peer reviewed;
  • Study Protocols;
  • Brief Reports;
  • Procedures Update articles and other research-based clinical contributions designated as peer reviewed.

The initial assessment considers the manuscript’s relevance to the journal’s scope, completeness, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, competing interests, financial disclosures, data availability, and conformity with the journal’s submission requirements.

Editorials, Commentaries, Letters to the Editor, Conference Abstracts, translations, and other specified non-research content do not necessarily undergo the journal’s standard external peer-review process. These contributions may undergo editorial review or evaluation by the relevant Scientific Committee. Their review status is clearly identified in the published article or section.

Reviewers involved in evaluating a manuscript do not make the final editorial decision on that manuscript. The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief or by an independent editor when the Editor-in-Chief, an Associate Editor, or another member of the editorial team has a conflict of interest.

All submitted manuscripts are screened for originality using Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate).

For full details, please refer to the Guidelines for Reviewers and Editorial Policies.

Open Access Policy

NEU provides free, immediate, and permanent online access to its published articles. Reading the articles requires neither payment nor registration, and no embargo applies.

Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal and Publisher non-exclusive rights to publish and disseminate their work. Articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), permitting sharing, reproduction, adaptation, and commercial reuse with appropriate attribution, a licence link, and identification of any changes.

Material belonging to third parties may carry separate permissions or restrictions, which must be identified in the relevant credit line.

For detailed information on copyright, licensing, and reuse conditions, please refer to the Open Access Policy page.

Publication Frequency

NEU is published quarterly, with four regular issues per year. The publication date, volume, and issue designation are displayed on each issue’s webpage and in the issue archive.

Manuscripts may be submitted throughout the year through the journal’s online submission system.

Online First Publication

Following acceptance and completion of copyediting, typesetting, author proofreading, metadata verification, and final editorial quality checks, articles may be published online as Versions of Record before assignment to a regular issue.

Online First articles receive their final DOI and are fully citable. When an article is subsequently assigned to an issue, its bibliographic record is updated without altering the scientific content of the Version of Record.

Non-final accepted manuscripts are not presented as definitive published articles.

Publication Fees

NEU operates as a diamond open-access journal and does not charge fees to authors or readers.

The journal does not charge:

  • article processing charges;
  • submission fees;
  • publication fees;
  • page charges;
  • colour figure charges;
  • supplementary material fees;
  • fees based on article length.

Readers are not required to pay subscriptions, pay-per-view charges, or access fees.

Fees, advertising, sponsorship, and other financial considerations do not influence manuscript evaluation, peer review, or editorial decisions.

Business Practices

NEU operates in accordance with internationally recognized principles of transparency, editorial independence, and responsible scholarly publishing.

The journal’s commercial and organizational activities are separated from:

  • manuscript submission;
  • reviewer selection;
  • peer review;
  • editorial evaluation;
  • acceptance or rejection decisions;
  • correction and retraction procedures.

Scientific and editorial decisions are based on the quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and relevance of the submitted work.

Revenue Sources

The organizational and publishing arrangements supporting NEU are managed by ANIN and iEditore within their respective association and publishing responsibilities.

Additional financial support may derive from:

  • institutional partnerships;
  • scientific and educational collaborations;
  • sponsorships;
  • clearly identified advertising relevant to the journal’s scientific and professional readership;
  • print publication activities;
  • other publication-related services.

The journal does not receive revenue from article processing charges, submission fees, online subscriptions, or pay-per-view access.

No source of revenue influences editorial policies, reviewer selection, peer review, manuscript acceptance, or publication decisions.

Sponsorship

The journal may receive financial or institutional support from external organizations, including academic institutions, scientific societies, research bodies, healthcare organizations, industry partners, and other collaborators.

The source and nature of sponsorship or other support are disclosed in the relevant publication or publishing initiative.

Sponsorship and institutional support do not confer any right to influence manuscript selection, the appointment of editors or reviewers, the content of review reports, editorial decisions, or the interpretation and presentation of scientific findings.

Sponsored issues, supplements, thematic collections, conference content, and other supported publishing initiatives are clearly identified and remain subject to the journal’s applicable editorial and ethical policies.

Editorial Independence

The Editor-in-Chief and the journal’s independent editorial structure retain full authority over scientific and editorial decisions.

ANIN, the Publisher, advertisers, sponsors, institutional partners, commercial organizations, and other external parties have no influence over reviewer selection, peer review, manuscript evaluation, acceptance or rejection decisions, or post-publication editorial actions.

Direct Marketing

Any direct marketing or promotional communication undertaken on behalf of NEU, including calls for papers, calls for reviewers, invitations to submit manuscripts, and announcements concerning special issues or thematic collections, must be truthful, professional, appropriately targeted, and unobtrusive.

The journal does not engage in indiscriminate, persistent, or misleading mass-email solicitation. Communications must accurately represent the journal’s aims and scope, peer-review process, publication fees, open-access model, indexing status, and editorial services.

Submission invitations do not guarantee acceptance, accelerated review, or preferential editorial treatment. All submissions remain subject to the journal’s standard editorial screening and peer-review procedures.

Recipients may request not to receive further promotional communications. Personal information used for journal communications is processed in accordance with the journal’s Privacy Policy and applicable data-protection legislation.

Advertising

NEU may accept a limited amount of advertising and sponsorship relevant to neuroscience nursing and its scientific, clinical, educational, and professional readership.

Advertising is managed by the Publisher independently of scientific editorial decisions. Advertisements are clearly identified by the label “Advertisement” and are visually separated from scientific and editorial content. In a digital or printed issue, the label appears on the advertisement itself or immediately adjacent to it.

Advertisements are not inserted within the text, tables, figures, references, or supplementary files of scientific articles. Advertising must not be positioned in a way that implies endorsement by a particular article or author.

The journal does not accept advertising that is misleading, unlawfully promotional, discriminatory, unsupported by appropriate evidence, or incompatible with patient safety and professional ethics. The acceptance of advertising does not constitute endorsement, scientific validation, or regulatory approval of a product, service, organization, or therapeutic claim.

Advertising arrangements do not influence reviewer selection, peer review, manuscript evaluation, acceptance, rejection, or post-publication decisions. Concerns about advertising or sponsorship may be reported to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Publication Ethics

NEU is committed to maintaining the accuracy, integrity, and transparency of the scholarly record.

The journal maintains policies concerning:

  • authorship and contributorship;
  • conflicts of interest;
  • research misconduct;
  • plagiarism and duplicate publication;
  • citation manipulation;
  • peer-review manipulation;
  • data availability and research reproducibility;
  • ethical approval and informed consent;
  • patient confidentiality and clinical photography;
  • clinical trial registration;
  • funding disclosure;
  • artificial intelligence and automated technologies;
  • complaints and appeals;
  • post-publication discussion.

Research involving patients or other participants must comply with applicable ethical requirements. Particular care is required when studies involve children, people with cognitive or communication difficulties, individuals with impaired decision-making capacity, or other potentially vulnerable participants. Consent to participate in research and consent to publish identifiable information or images are separate requirements.

Suspected ethical or research-integrity concerns may be investigated before or after publication. The journal may request original data, ethics documentation, consent forms, original clinical images, author contribution information, or other supporting materials where necessary.

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other parties may submit complaints, appeals, or evidence-based concerns to redazioneneu@anin.it. A complaint or appeal is assessed by an editor or other qualified person who was not directly involved in the matter. Where the concern involves the Editor-in-Chief, an independent senior editor or external expert is appointed to assess it.

Responsibilities of editors, reviewers, and authors concerning publication ethics, research integrity, and publication misconduct are set out in the journal’s Editorial Policies.

The use of generative artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies is governed by the journal’s Artificial Intelligence Policy.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

NEU is committed to preserving an accurate, complete, and transparent scholarly record.

The journal may publish:

  • corrections;
  • corrigenda or errata;
  • retraction notices;
  • expressions of concern;
  • editorial notices;
  • updated article versions accompanied by a transparent version history.

Corrections

A correction may be published when an error affects the accuracy, interpretation, discoverability, authorship, licensing information, ethical declarations, or bibliographic record of an article without invalidating its principal findings or conclusions.

Correction notices are openly accessible, assigned their own publication information where appropriate, and linked bidirectionally to the affected article.

Where an article file or metadata record is updated, the date, nature, and reason for the change are clearly disclosed. Corrections to the published record are not made silently.

Retractions

In accordance with the Retraction Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics, NEU may retract a published article when:

  • there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable because of misconduct or major error;
  • the findings have previously been published elsewhere without appropriate disclosure, permission, cross-referencing, or justification;
  • the article contains plagiarism or substantial unattributed material;
  • the article reports unethical research;
  • the peer-review or publication process has been materially manipulated;
  • authorship, data, images, ethical approval, or other essential elements of the scholarly record have been fabricated or misrepresented.

Retraction notices are freely accessible, identify the reasons and responsible parties where appropriate, and are linked to the affected article.

Retracted articles normally remain available with a clear retraction notice or watermark in order to preserve the scholarly record. Removal may occur only in exceptional circumstances involving legal obligations, serious privacy concerns, or a substantial risk of harm.

Expressions of Concern

An Expression of Concern may be published when substantial concerns have been raised about the reliability, ethics, authorship, peer review, or integrity of an article, but the available evidence is not yet sufficient to support a correction or retraction.

Expressions of Concern are linked to the relevant article and may be updated or replaced when an investigation has been completed.

Abstracting, Indexing, and Scholarly Visibility

NEU supports the widest possible dissemination and discoverability of its published content through scholarly registries, indexing and discovery services, open-access infrastructures, and library catalogues.

Crossref
ROAD
OpenAIRE
Google Scholar
Scilit
Dimensions
GFMER
WorldCat
Embase (Elsevier)
CINAHL (EBSCO)

The Editorial Office periodically verifies and updates journal records with relevant services to ensure the accuracy of bibliographic information, ISSN data, DOI metadata, and scholarly discoverability.

Archiving

The journal is committed to the long-term preservation and continued accessibility of its published content.

NEU uses the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), a distributed digital-preservation service for journals using Open Journal Systems. The service uses LOCKSS-based preservation technology.

The journal permits authors to deposit submitted, accepted, and published versions of their manuscripts in institutional or subject repositories without embargo, in accordance with the applicable copyright and licence conditions.

For full details, please refer to the Archiving Policy.

Publisher and Ownership

NEU is owned by ANIN – Associazione Nazionale Infermieri Neuroscienze (National Association of Neuroscience Nurses) and is published by iEditore, Italy.

The association’s scientific and professional role and the Publisher’s technical, production, administrative, and contractual responsibilities are exercised in accordance with the journal’s editorial-independence requirements.

Information about the association is available on the ANIN website. Publisher and editorial contact information is available on the Publisher and Contact pages.

Editorial enquiries: redazioneneu@anin.it.
Publishing and technical enquiries: info@ieditore.com.