Access Type

Open and public access

Open Access Policy

The journal adheres to the DOAJ definition of open access.

Publication License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Open Access Statement

Caring Today is a fully open-access scientific journal. All articles are freely and immediately available online to all users upon publication without restriction. In accordance with the DOAJ definition of open access, the journal is committed to the free and unrestricted dissemination of knowledge in caring sciences. Benefits to authors include retention of copyright, free worldwide access, greater accessibility and visibility, increased citation potential, absence of geographical access restrictions, and rapid and timely publication.

Copyright Statement

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Copyright in accepted articles remains with the author(s), who retain full control over their work, including the rights to reuse, distribute, and republish it. Under CC BY 4.0, users may share, copy, redistribute, adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the work for any purpose, including commercial purposes, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated.

Anti-Plagiarism Policy

Caring Today follows COPE publication-ethics standards and the national executive regulations on preventing and addressing fraud in scholarly works. Persian manuscript text is screened using Irandoc and Noor/Samim similarity-detection services, while English abstracts and extended abstracts are checked using iThenticate and Grammarly. If plagiarism is detected in the Persian text or English abstract, the journal office rejects the manuscript immediately and places the authors on the journal blacklist for five years. Authors are therefore advised to check their full manuscript before submission. Manuscripts involving plagiarism or self-plagiarism are rejected as soon as the journal becomes aware of the issue. If a violation of plagiarism, copyright, or publication ethics is identified before acceptance, the manuscript is rejected; if identified after publication, the article may be retracted.

Retraction Policy

An article may be retracted when its findings are considered unreliable because of misconduct or scientific error, when it plagiarizes previously published work, or when publication-ethics requirements have been violated. Retraction may also be warranted when the integrity of a published work is substantially undermined by errors in the conduct, analysis, or reporting of the research. The original article is marked as retracted; however, its PDF remains available to readers, and the retraction notice is linked bidirectionally to the original publication. Retraction notices generally state whether the authors agree or disagree with the retraction.

Publication Model and Fees

Peer-review and publication fees: None. Access to articles is free and open access.

Copyright Holder

Authors retain copyright in their articles without restriction and maintain full control over their scholarly work, including the rights to reuse, distribute, and republish it.

Journal Revenue Sources

Support from the parent organization and charitable financial contributions.

Description

Caring Today, published by the School of Nursing and Midwifery of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, is an open-access, double-blind peer-reviewed journal that publishes scientific research and review articles in caring sciences, particularly nursing, midwifery, and related disciplines, in Persian with English abstracts, extended abstracts, and references. The journal serves as a platform for scholarly discussion and exchange.

Complaint Process

Authors have the right to submit complaints and request clarification regarding any suspected violation of relevant policies or ethical guidelines. Complaints may be sent to caringtoday.j@lums.ac.ir. The journal follows COPE guidance on responding to whistleblowers, including preservation of anonymity. Complaints may concern authorship issues, peer-review bias, copyright infringement, falsification or incorrect research results, unusually delayed manuscript processing, plagiarism, unsatisfactory peer-review comments, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or violations of research ethics and integrity.

Complaints Handling Policy

Upon receipt of a complaint, an acknowledgment is first sent to the complainant confirming that the necessary action will begin within three working days, excluding the date of receipt. The review is initiated by the journal’s complaint-handling team under the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief. After the investigation, a meeting is held to review the comprehensive complaint report. A decision is then made and communicated to the relevant author through the email address provided at submission. Complaints are regarded as opportunities to improve the manuscript-processing system and are handled courteously, promptly, and carefully.

Digital Archiving Policy

Caring Today collaborates with organizations such as the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), the National Library and Archives of Iran, and the Lorestan University of Medical Sciences server to preserve its digital archive. These arrangements support permanent access to and preservation of scientific research and enable migration or upgrading of digital file formats to meet evolving technological standards.

COPE

The journal adheres to the standards of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and to the national executive regulations on the prevention of and response to fraud in scholarly works.

Informed Consent of Research Participants

All participants in human-subject research published in Caring Today have the right to privacy, and researchers must not violate that right without informed consent. Identifying information, such as names, photographs, or pedigrees, must not be published unless it is essential for scientific purposes and the participant, parent, or legal guardian has provided written informed consent for publication. Consent documentation must be recorded and archived in accordance with national regulations or local law at the journal office, the researchers’ workplace, or both.

Ethical Principles and Informed Consent

Compliance with medical ethics, participant anonymity, and protection of patient confidentiality must be treated as fundamental principles. The protections for human research participants derived from the Declaration of Helsinki should be observed, and approval from the relevant university ethics committee should accompany the submitted manuscript. For studies involving human participants, informed consent must be obtained from competent adults and from the parents or legal guardians of minors.

I4OC Standards for Open Citations

Caring Today supports the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC). Citation data, including reference lists, are freely available to the public and are released under the CC0 public-domain dedication. Researchers may therefore use, redistribute, and analyze these citation data without restriction.

Data Citation

Data should be cited in the same way as articles, books, and web resources, and data citations should be included in the reference list. Data citation is appropriate for datasets held in institutional, disciplinary, or general repositories. When citing data or data-based claims, authors should cite the data at the relevant point in the manuscript and provide a formal reference in the reference list. The journal follows the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles and recommends the following format: Author(s); Year; Dataset title; Data repository or archive; Version, if applicable; Persistent identifier, such as a DOI.

Data-Sharing Policy

Caring Today adopts a basic data-sharing policy and supports a more open research environment that facilitates reproducibility, verification of data, methodology and reporting standards, and faster, more effective research discovery. Authors are encouraged to cite and share research data, including raw and processed data, software data, algorithms, protocols, methods, and materials, provided that doing so does not compromise human-subject protections or legitimate privacy or security concerns. Authors are encouraged to archive supporting data and other research artifacts in an appropriate public repository and to include a Data Availability Statement with the repository link for publication alongside the article. For original and secondary research articles, authors are asked to deposit relevant de-identified data in a repository and explain in the manuscript how the data may be accessed. Data include digital materials underlying the reported results, such as spreadsheets, text files, recorded or transcribed interviews, images, videos, statistical-software outputs, computer code, and scripts. Authors should deposit at least the data necessary to reproduce the reported results. Suitable repositories include institutional repositories and public repositories such as Figshare, Open Science Framework, Zenodo, Dryad, Harvard Dataverse, OpenICPSR, or discipline-specific repositories. The Data Availability Statement should appear at the end of the main text before the References and should provide the location of the data, a unique identifier such as a DOI, accession number, or URL, and any instructions required for access. During submission, authors will be asked whether a dataset is associated with the manuscript and, if so, to provide its DOI, preregistered DOI, link, or other persistent identifier. Datasets are not formally peer reviewed as part of manuscript submission, and authors remain responsible for data accuracy. Because the journal uses double-blind review, the anonymized main manuscript should not contain information that could identify the authors, and data-availability information that reveals identity should be omitted from the blinded version. Exceptions to data sharing may apply where de-identified data cannot be shared because of proprietary restrictions, participant privacy, biosafety, or third-party licensing conditions. Confidential human or patient data must always be de-identified or shared only with prior permission. Where uncertainty exists, authors should consult their institutional ethics committee. Examples of acceptable statements include: “Data from the present study are available from the authors upon request”; “Data related to this article are available in the Open Science Framework”; or “Data from this study are publicly available in [repository name] at [DOI/URL], reference number [number].”

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process

Where authors use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, these technologies should be used only to improve readability and language. Their use must remain under human oversight and control. Authors must carefully review and edit the output because AI can generate content that appears authoritative but may be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies must not be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship entails duties and responsibilities that can only be attributed to and performed by humans. Authors must disclose their use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in accordance with the journal’s instructions, and a statement confirming such use will appear in the published article. Authors remain ultimately responsible and accountable for the content of their manuscript. In the final manuscript, this disclosure should appear before the References under the heading “Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process.” Suggested wording: “During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [name of tool/service] for [reason]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the article.” This disclosure does not apply to assistive tools used only for checking grammar, spelling, references, and similar matters. If there is nothing to disclose, no statement is required.

Privacy Policy

Names and email addresses entered on the journal website will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal and will not be used for any other purpose or made available to any third party.

Advertising Policy

Caring Today maintains strict policies to protect scientific and academic integrity and independence. Accordingly, the journal does not accept advertising of any kind—print, digital, or promotional content—from commercial institutions, companies, or other third-party organizations. This policy ensures that all published material remains free from commercial influence and is evaluated solely on academic merit, scientific credibility, and relevance to the journal’s scope. The absence of advertising also supports transparency and trust in the research published by the journal. By maintaining a clear separation between scholarly content and commercial interests, Caring Today upholds high standards of scientific publishing and preserves the trust of authors, readers, and the broader scientific community.

Address

Caring Today Journal Office, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Khorramabad, Iran. Postal Code: 6813833946

Telephone

066333120140

Email

mailto:Caringtoday.j@lums.ac.ir

Website Address

https://caringtoday.lums.ac.ir/