Focus and Scope

The aim and purpose of the DO are to provide a resource to members of the NIDCAP Federation International and others with an interest in the development and support of newborn babies in hospitals. The desired audience includes international health professionals from all disciplines (doctors, nurses, therapists, scientists and researchers) as well as families who have been involved in hospital care for premature or sick infants.

Original scholarly articles are sought from practicing clinicians, parents, researchers and educators which inform the practice of supporting vulnerable infants in hospitals. The submissions are mostly less than 2000 words but this maybe negotiated with the editor. We will also accept submissions that review publications, books, poetry or art that has a focus on infant development within a family centred framework.

Submissions are sought in English. Manuscripts that are written in other languages may be considered and need to be negotiated with the Senior Editor.

Peer Review Process

Editorial review team and external reviewers

Publication Frequency

Three issues each year - February, June and October.

 

Open Access Policy

All articles published in the Developmental Observer are fully open access: immediately freely available to read, download and share. Articles are published under terms which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Articles from Developmental Observer, duly acknowledged, may be reprinted with permission.

An Open Access Publication refers to the following two conditions:

1. The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
2. A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving (for the biomedical sciences, PubMed Central is such a repository).

Open access is a property of individual works, not necessarily journals or publishers. Community standards, rather than copyright law, will continue to provide the mechanism for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use of the published work, as they do now. All submitted manuscripts undergo review by the editorial team. Feedback will be given to the acceptability of the manuscript and revision requested if necessary. The manuscripts are to be original and not previously published in journals or on-line platforms. There are no costs involved for open access of the DO content.

Sponsors

NIDCAP Federation International (NFI)

Advertising in the Developmental Observer

All advertisements are approved by the Editorial team in consultation with the Executive Committee of the NFI. Advertising rates are available on request from the Senior Editor.