How to submit

Online Submission
The European Journal of Midwifery uses the online system "Editorial System" for manuscript submission, peer review and editorial handling. Submissions received by e-mail will not be considered.
Within the submission system, the corresponding author will have the ability to upload a cover letter and will also be able to select pre-identified statements related to the originality of the work, the potential conflicts of interest, authorship and the role of funding sources in manuscript preparation. Additional information may be requested by the Editorial Board so as to ensure the integrity and ethics of the manuscript.

Correspondence
Receipt of a manuscript is acknowledged via automated email from the online submission system. This included a manuscript tracking number, which should be provided in all correspondence with the editorial office with regard to that manuscript. We kindly request that only the corresponding author is in contact with the editorial office, on behalf of all of the manuscript's authors.

Submission conditions
During submission, you will need to accept and confirm the following three conditions:

1) All authors of the manuscript meet the ICMJE criteria for authorship. All authors must have read and agreed to its content and are accountable for all aspects of the manuscript.The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
taba. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
tabb. Final approval of the version to be published.
tabc. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity
tabx2of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
tabd. In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done, an author should be able to identify
tabx2which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in
tabx2the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

2) The article must be original, must not have already been published in a journal, and is not currently under consideration by another journal (prior publication as a conference abstract or in an abstract book is allowed).

3) You agree to the provision of Creative Commons International Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0) or the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-ND 4.0), unless another license is mandated by employers (for instance where Crown Copyright applies or researchers are US government employees).

4) Data availability and sharing
taba. The data supporting this research are available from the author(s) on reasonable request.
tabb. The data supporting this research cannot be made available for privacy or other reasons. [please give the reasons
tabx2if possible]
tabc. The data supporting this research are available from the following sources: [link] OR [DOI]
tabd. The data supporting this research can be found in the Article appendix or supplementary content.
tabe. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created.

Peer Review and Manuscript Handling Process
Peer review is the critical assessment of manuscripts. All articles submitted to the European Journal of Midwifery undergo peer review. Upon receipt, the manuscript is checked using plagiarism identification software and this report is provided along with the manuscript to the editorial board members who make an initial decision on the manuscript, based on the manuscript's content, novelty, sample size, manuscript preparation and quality in light of the other manuscripts currently under peer review. At this stage, the journal may either send the manuscript out for double-blind peer review, may reject the manuscript without peer review or may send the manuscript back to authors for adjustment before it is evaluated again.

Should the manuscript pass this initial phase of the internal review, external peer reviewing is then performed. External reviewing of manuscripts is double blind. Two external peer reviewers are invited to provide their opinion on the manuscript. These two external peer review reports are then evaluated by a member of the editorial board or the Editor-in-Chief who then makes a decision on the manuscript. In all cases the manuscript is reviewed by at least one member of the editorial board and the Editor-in-Chief. To aid this process authors may suggest reviewers that are qualified to peer review the manuscript, provided that they have not collaborated closely in the near past and that they are not from the same institution. Authors may also note peer reviewers who they would not prefer to review this paper. While the authors suggestions are taken into account, the Editorial Office reserves the right to handle peer review at its discretion. Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents.
Reviewers are requested to report on the ethical aspects of the manuscript they are allocated to review and are requested to report also on the novelty, the impact, the statistical analysis, references and potential conflicts of interest.
Letters to the Editor and Editorials are peer reviewed internally. All articles have a specific provenance and peer review tab (commissioned vs. non commissioned; internally vs. externally peer reviewed).

Article Processing Charges
From November 2024, articles that are accepted for publication will carry an APC of 2200 Euro (exclusive of VAT where applicable), unless one of the below criteria apply:

• All manuscripts from Low-Income Countries are automatically granted a waiver.
• Manuscripts from Low Middle-Income Countries and from authors of High-Income Countries who are unable to pay the APC, are evaluated on a case by case basis by the Editor-in-Chief and the Publisher.
• Editorials and Letters to the Editor do not have any APCs.

The editorial office
European Journal of Midwifery