Birth

Edited by:
Diony Young

Print ISSN: 0730-7659
Online ISSN: 1523-536X
Frequency: Quarterly
Current Volume: 37 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 1/60 Nursing (Science); 13/61 Obstetrics & Gynecology; 9/86 Pediatrics; 1/58 Nursing (Social Science)
Impact Factor: 2.836

TopAuthor Guidelines

Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care is in its 36th year of publication. It is an editorially independent, interdisciplinary journal published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell. Birth publishes original, peer-reviewed experimental research and review papers on clinical practice in the fields of perinatal medicine, perinatal nursing, maternal/newborn public health, and the social sciences.

Birth is ranked as the #1 nursing journal worldwide (of 46 in that category), with an impact factor of 2.217, according to the most recent edition of the Journal Citation Reports from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).* The Journal is also highly ranked in the categories of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Pediatrics. The ISI tracks and compares scholarly journals worldwide.

Readers and subscribers of Birth are nurses in obstetrics, public health, and neonatology; midwives; physicians; childbirth educators; lactation counselors; doulas; psychologists; social scientists; epidemiologists; and other health workers and policymakers in perinatal care. Information on the Journal's aims and scope and the author guidelines are available on the Birth website at www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/birth.

The contents of Birth are indexed in Index Medicus and indexed or abstracted by U.S. and major international on-line computer retrieval services including MEDLINE of the National Library of Medicine, Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences, PsycINFO, Research Alert, Social Sciences Citation Index, Social SciSearch, SciSearch, The Cumulative Index of the Nursing and Allied Health Literature, RNdex Top 100TM, and other major indexes. Articles are abstracted in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Psychological Abstracts, and Dokumentation Arbeitsmedizin.

Birth welcomes submission of original experimental research (quantitative and qualitative) and reviews of current topics that address clinical and public health issues in perinatal care. A paper is considered for publication on the understanding that it has been submitted solely to Birth and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. A paper presented at a scientific meeting may be considered if it has not been published in full in a proceedings or similar publication. Authors have a responsibility to inform the Editor about potential conflicts of interest, and to send to the Editor any previous reports that might be regarded as prior or duplicate publications of the same data.

NEW: Presubmission English-Language Editing Services
Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission to improve the English. A list of independent suppliers of editing services can be found at www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/english_language.asp . All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.

Copyright Transfer Agreement
Publication in the journal is subject to the condition that the article (as a whole or in part) has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. In submitting the manuscript to the publisher, the author certifies that neither the author's contribution nor any text or figures procured and included by the author infringes upon the rights of a third party, and that the author alone is authorized to dispose of the existing right of utilization. The author will refrain from any other duplication and distribution or digital transfer and reproduction (e.g., on the Internet) during the period of the contract. A paper presented at a scientific meeting may be considered if it has not been published in full in a proceedings or similar publication. Authors have a responsibility to inform the Editor about potential conflicts of interest, and to send to the Editor any previous reports that might be regarded as prior or duplicate publications of the same data.

In order for an article to be distributed as widely as possible in the journal, the author must grant Wiley-Blackwell an exclusive license to publish the article, including the abstract in printed and electronic form, in all languages, and to administer subsidiary rights agreements with third parties for the full period of copyright and all renewals, extensions, revisions and revivals. The article is deemed to include all material submitted for publication with the exception of Letters, and includes the text, figures, tables, author contact details and all supplementary material accompanying the article.

Authors will be asked to complete a Copyright Transfer form on formal acceptance of their article for publication by the Editor. The Copyright Transfer form can be found here.

Note to NIH Grantees
Pursuant to NIH mandate, Wiley-Blackwell will post the accepted version of contributions authored by NIH grant-holders to PubMed Central upon acceptance. This accepted version will be made publicly available 12 months after publication. For further information, see www.wiley.com/go/nihmandate

Process
Manuscripts should conform to the specifications of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Detailed instructions for authors and the ICMJE guidelines can be found at http://www.icmje.org/.

On submission, the Editor reviews a manuscript to determine if the content is appropriate and if it meets the standards of Birth. Articles are reviewed by two or more members of the Editorial Board of Birth and/or by outside experts in the field, using a double-blind review process. A decision for acceptance, revision, or rejection and reviewers' comments will be sent to the primary author. Reviews take from 6 to 10 weeks.
Authors are expected to provide final revised versions of articles on electronic disk, formatted in, or compatible with, Word for Windows, version 6.0 or higher (preferred). Accepted articles will be edited for length if needed, journal style, and language. Proofs will be sent via e-mail as an Acrobat PDF format file. They should be returned to the publisher within 3 days of receipt.

Manuscript Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted as follows:
Electronic format (e-mail attachment)
1. Manuscript must be formatted in, or compatible with, Word for Windows, version 6.0 or higher. File must follow manuscript format guidelines (see below).
2. Subject line of e-mail should read 'Birth Paper Submission,' followed by title of article.
3. A cover letter must accompany the manuscript. Include all author contact information (name, address, phone/fax, alternate e-mail address) and title of paper.
4. Birth office will reply with a confirmation e-mail to the author within 3 business days of receipt of the e-mail and attachments. If author does not receive this confirmation e-mail, he or she must assume that the e-mail did not get through, and should contact the Birth office by telephone at +1 (585) 243-0087 (U.S. Eastern time) to arrange for an alternate method of submission.
5. Further communication by the Editor to the author about the submission will use the author's e-mail address.
6. Send e-mail submission to Diony Young, Editor, at: diony@frontiernet.net.

Manuscript Format

Presentation of text
1. Print submission on one side of white paper, 1-inch margins, double-spaced, in 12-point type
2. Delete running headers and footers.
3. Delete all types of embedded and hidden formatting.
4. Number all pages consecutively.
5. Do not use footnotes; incorporate material into the text or delete.
6. Add Acknowledgments at end of the text.

Title page
1. Type the author name(s) (maximum 7) and degree(s) (maximum 3) under the title.
2. Next, add a statement of current author affiliations (primary affiliation for each author) with job titles.
3. If appropriate, describe the institution and its location, and identifying numbers of grants supporting the work.
4. Next, add address information for correspondence to the author, including postal address, telephone/fax numbers, and e-mail address.

Abstract
1. Compose a concise abstract, using complete sentences, a structured format for research and review papers, and maximum length 250 words.
2. Add internal headings of Background (includes objective), Method(s), Results, and Conclusions.
3. Add a list of 4 or 5 keywords.

Length
1. The word limit is flexible, but short papers (10-12 pages of double-spaced text) have a better chance of acceptance than long papers because of space constraints.
2. Maximum number of references for a research report is 50.
3. Letter to the Editor should be brief, with no more than 1 table.

Tables, figures, photographs
1. Compose tables in Microsoft Word format, numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Each table or figure must be mentioned in the text.
2. Double-space tables and add a column head for each column.
3. Create figures in black-and-white. Include a key as needed within the figure.
4. Place tables and figures on separate pages at the end of the article.
5. Format tables and figures so text can be accessed for editing.
6. Type figure legend on a separate page.
7. Photographs should be black-and-white glossy prints with primary author's name and placement instructions indicated on the back.
8. Attribute borrowed material and quotations to author and source; obtain and include copyright holder's written permission to use this material.

References
1. Double-space references in a list at end of the manuscript. List each reference with consecutive Arabic numerals followed by a period.
2. Add text reference citations that refer to the numbered reference list as consecutive numbers in parentheses, not superscript.
3. Place references to personal communications or unpublished (submitted) material in the text in parentheses, not in the reference list.
4. Remove any automatic software features and/or linkages between text reference numbers and list reference numbers (e.g., reference manager) before submission.
5. Abbreviate journal names in MEDLINE style and use Vancouver style for references. For example, McCandlish R. The role of a perineal clinic in a maternity hospital. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 2002;5:63-83.
6. Book/report references must be complete and include inclusive chapter pages as needed. For example: Snowdon C, Garcia J, Elbourne D. Decisions, decisions: How do parents view the decision they made about a randomized clinical trial? In: Fulford BKWM, Dickenson DL, Murray TH, eds. Healthcare Ethics and Human Values. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002:261-269.
7. For Internet references, provide author(s), title, publisher, date accessed, and website address.

Offprints
Free access to the final PDF offprint of your article will be available via author services. Please sign up for author services if you would like to access your article PDF offprint upon publication of your paper, and enjoy the many other benefits the service offers. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/ to sign up for author services.

Editorial Address
Letters to the Editor and other editorial correspondence should be addressed to Diony Young, Editor, Birth, 31 Stuyvesant Mnr., Geneseo NY 14454, USA; Tel/Fax +1 (585) 243-0087.
*2007 Journal Citation Reports. Copyright 2008 by Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, PA, USA.