Advances in Family Practice Nursing

About Advances in Family Practice Nursing

About Advances in Family Practice Nursing

Advances in Family Practice Nursing is an annual clinical periodical published by Elsevier Inc., devoted to keeping advanced practice nurses — and the registered nurses who work alongside them — current with the evolving knowledge base of family and primary care practice. It carries the ISSN 2589-420X in print, with an associated electronic identifier, and its articles are published under DOIs in the 10.1016/j.yfpn prefix. The first volume appeared in 2019, and the series has continued annually since, reaching its eighth volume in 2026.

The defining clarification about this title is its publication type. Advances in Family Practice Nursing is not a conventional research journal with rolling submissions and monthly issues; it is an annual edited periodical in the tradition of Elsevier's "Advances in..." and "Clinics" review series. Each yearly volume is a curated collection of commissioned, peer-reviewed review articles organized around the clinical domains of family practice nursing. There is no standing impact factor, no article processing charge, and no open submission system in the journal sense — contributions are developed through the volume editor and the publisher's developmental editorial process.

The series is edited by Linda J. Keilman, DNP, GNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, of the Michigan State University College of Nursing in East Lansing, Michigan, who has served as editor (and editor-in-chief in earlier volumes) across the series' run. The founding volume in 2019 was edited by a team of four: Geri C. Reeves, Sharon L. Holley, Linda J. Keilman, and Imelda Reyes — all doctorally prepared advanced practice nurses — establishing the series' identity as a publication by and for advanced practice nursing. Publisher-side editorial support is provided by Elsevier staff, including the volume editor Kerry Holland and developmental editor Akshay Samson as credited in recent volumes.

Each volume is organized into three standing sections that mirror the lifespan scope of family practice: Adult/Gerontology, Women's Health, and Pediatrics. Within these sections, contributing authors — themselves advanced practice nurses with clinical expertise — address new guidelines, disease states, medications, technologies, protocols, and patient-care expectations that have emerged or changed since the previous volume. The explicit aim, stated in the series' prefaces, is to give practising nurses trustworthy, state-of-the-art content they can translate directly into practice.

The readership is precisely defined: family nurse practitioners, adult-gerontology nurse practitioners, pediatric nurse practitioners, women's health nurse practitioners, and other advanced practice registered nurses working in primary care, together with registered nurses, nurse educators, and graduate nursing students. For this audience, the series functions as an annual knowledge update — a structured way to stay current across the full breadth of family practice without chasing dozens of separate guidelines and literature streams.

History and Background

The series launched in 2019 with Volume 1, whose preface — titled "Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Practice in a New Era" — was authored by the four founding editors. The timing was significant: the volume appeared just as the United States was entering a period of profound change in primary care, with the nurse practitioner workforce expanding rapidly (the preface to a later volume notes more than 385,000 NPs practising in the US) and the profession's scope continuing to broaden. The series positioned itself as the annual companion to that expansion.

From Volume 2 (2020) onward, the series settled into its annual rhythm, with each volume appearing around May of its year and running to roughly 220–250 pages. The prefaces, written by the editor, have become a distinctive feature of the series: each year's preface takes the measure of the moment in advanced practice nursing. The 2023 preface, for example, was written in January 2023 as the US Department of Health and Human Services extended the COVID-19 public health emergency, and reflected on what the pandemic meant for advanced practice nursing. The 2025 preface marked the passing of Dr. Loretta C. Ford — the co-founder of the nurse practitioner profession — at 104, dedicating the volume to her vision of the unification of nursing education, research, scholarship, and advanced clinical practice. The 2026 preface welcomed readers to Volume 8 and reaffirmed the series' mission of filling its three sections with pertinent, practice-ready information.

Editorially, the series consolidated under Linda J. Keilman's editorship after the founding volume, giving it a consistent voice and a stable organizational framework. The three-section structure — Adult/Gerontology, Women's Health, Pediatrics — has remained constant, providing continuity for readers who use the series as a yearly reference. Individual articles within each volume carry full scholarly apparatus: author affiliations, keywords, key points, and DOIs, and they are published on ScienceDirect and the series' dedicated platform, where they are citable as journal-like articles despite the annual volume structure.

The series' growth mirrors the maturation of the advanced practice nursing literature. Where early volumes concentrated on establishing the clinical foundations of the periodical, later volumes have taken on emerging and sometimes difficult topics — the 2026 volume, for instance, includes material on gun violence prevention in pediatric primary care, reflecting the series' willingness to address the real problems its readers encounter in practice.

Aims and Scope

The series' aim is practical and explicit: to bring advanced practice nurses state-of-the-art information they can translate into their professional roles, whether as registered nurses or as advanced practice nurses. The scope is the full clinical territory of family practice nursing across the lifespan, organized into the three standing sections.

The Adult/Gerontology section addresses the care of adults and older adults in primary care: chronic disease management, geriatric syndromes, pharmacologic updates, preventive care, and emerging concerns such as the use of simulation education for aging populations. The Women's Health section covers the primary care needs of women across the lifespan, from reproductive health through menopause and beyond. The Pediatrics section addresses child and adolescent primary care, including anticipatory guidance, developmental surveillance, immunisation, and injury prevention.

Across all three sections, the content emphasizes what has changed: new or updated clinical guidelines, newly characterized disease states and viruses, new medications and treatment protocols, new technologies, and shifting patient needs and expectations. The series does not attempt to be a comprehensive textbook of family practice; rather, it is a yearly delta — what is new, what has changed, and what the practising APN needs to know now. This "what's new" orientation is what justifies an annual periodical rather than a static reference work.

Methodologically, the articles are narrative and evidence-based clinical reviews rather than original research reports. Authors synthesize current evidence, guidelines, and expert consensus into practical guidance, typically structured with key points, keywords, and clear clinical recommendations. The intended use is direct application: a family nurse practitioner preparing for a week of clinics can read the relevant section and encounter the year's important updates in her domain.

Publication Details

A note on volume numbering: volumes are numbered sequentially by year, with Volume 1 dated 2019 and Volume 8 dated 2026. Each volume's articles carry DOIs incorporating the volume year, and the print ISSN 2589-420X appears in each volume's front matter alongside the copyright statement of Elsevier Inc.

Editorial Process and Peer Review

As an edited annual periodical, the series follows a commissioning model rather than an open-submission model. The editor identifies topics for the year's volume — guided by what has changed in guidelines, practice, and the healthcare environment — and commissions expert authors, who are themselves advanced practice nurses with clinical and scholarly credentials. Manuscripts then pass through the publisher's editorial and peer-review process, supported by Elsevier's developmental editors, before publication.

This model has strengths that match the series' mission. Commissioning ensures comprehensive coverage of the year's important topics rather than the happenstance coverage of unsolicited submissions; it lets the editor balance the three sections and avoid duplication; and it recruits authors chosen for their expertise in the specific topic. The trade-off — common to all edited volumes — is that publication is by invitation rather than open competition. Researchers hoping to publish in the series should understand that the pathway is professional visibility and editorial invitation, typically built through clinical expertise, prior publication, and engagement with the advanced practice nursing community.

The prefaces, written by the editor for each volume, function as the series' editorial voice: they frame the year's clinical content within the broader story of the profession. Readers who want to understand where advanced practice nursing stands in a given year will find the preface as valuable as any single article.

Indexing and Abstracting

Articles in the series are published on ScienceDirect with full metadata — titles, authors, affiliations, abstracts, keywords, and DOIs — which makes them discoverable through ScienceDirect's own search, through general academic search engines, and through library discovery systems that index Elsevier content. The dedicated series site provides an additional access point with full-text and PDF versions of articles.

Because the series is an annual periodical rather than a conventional journal, its treatment in citation databases differs from that of monthly journals; coverage in any particular database should be verified directly with that database. What is verifiable is the series' stable bibliographic identity: a registered ISSN, a consistent DOI prefix, annual volumes catalogued by libraries, and full-text availability on a major publisher platform. For citation purposes, articles should be cited with their DOI, volume year, and page range in the standard format for periodical articles.

Metrics and Standing

No Journal Citation Reports impact factor is published for Advances in Family Practice Nursing, and none should be claimed. Its standing rests on different foundations: publication by Elsevier, one of the world's principal scholarly publishers; editorship by a nationally recognized advanced practice nursing leader; authorship by doctorally prepared APNs; and a stable annual rhythm sustained across eight volumes. Citation indicators that appear for the title in some databases describe aggregate citation activity and should be interpreted in the annual-periodical context, not compared directly with monthly research journals.

For academic CVs, articles in this series count as peer-reviewed publications in an edited periodical — substantive scholarly outputs, particularly valued in practice disciplines where translating evidence into clinical guidance is itself a scholarly contribution. For clinical readers, the series' value is simpler: it is the year's trusted update, vetted by experts, in the domains they practise in every day.

Access and Open Access

The series is published by Elsevier as a commercial periodical; access is typically through institutional subscription to ScienceDirect or through the series' dedicated site, subject to the publisher's access terms. Individual articles may be available through institutional holdings, and readers should check their library's subscriptions. The copyright statements in recent volumes reserve all rights, including for text and data mining and AI training, reflecting Elsevier's standard terms.

There is no article processing charge, because the series does not operate on an author-pays open-access model. Authors are commissioned rather than charged, and readers (or their institutions) fund access through subscriptions — the traditional model for edited clinical periodicals.

For Prospective Authors

Because the series commissions its content, the realistic pathway to authorship is through professional standing rather than unsolicited submission. Advanced practice nurses with deep expertise in a topic area, a record of publication or presentation, and visibility in the professional community are the natural candidates for commissioning. Those interested should engage with the series as readers first — studying the structure and tone of recent volumes — and with the advanced practice nursing community through conferences, professional organizations, and scholarly networks where editors identify contributors.

What the editor looks for in contributors can be inferred from the published volumes: clinical currency (command of the latest guidelines and evidence), practical wisdom (the ability to translate evidence into what to do on Monday morning), and clear, structured writing that serves busy clinicians. Articles are expected to carry the full scholarly apparatus — key points, keywords, references — while remaining readable and directly applicable.

Reading the Series as a Yearly Curriculum

One of the most practical ways to use Advances in Family Practice Nursing is to treat each volume as a structured yearly curriculum for continuing education. A family nurse practitioner might begin with the volume preface to absorb the editor's framing of the year's themes, then work through the three sections in order of relevance to her own patient panel. Within each article, the key-points boxes serve as rapid-review summaries, while the full text provides the evidence and reasoning behind the recommendations. For preceptors and nurse educators, the series offers ready-made teaching material: assign a section's articles as background reading before a clinical rotation, then use the key points as discussion prompts. For graduate nursing students, consecutive volumes provide a compact history of how guidance in a specialty area has evolved year over year — a perspective that single guidelines, frozen at their publication date, cannot give. Used this way, the eight volumes together become more than the sum of their articles: a longitudinal record of what advanced practice nursing has needed to know, year by year, since 2019.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Advances in Family Practice Nursing a journal?
It is an annual peer-reviewed edited periodical published by Elsevier — one curated volume per year — rather than a conventional monthly or quarterly journal.

What is the ISSN?
The print ISSN is 2589-420X. Articles carry DOIs under the prefix 10.1016/j.yfpn.

Who is the editor?
Linda J. Keilman, DNP, GNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, of the Michigan State University College of Nursing. The founding 2019 volume was co-edited by Geri C. Reeves, Sharon L. Holley, Linda J. Keilman, and Imelda Reyes.

How often is it published?
Annually. Volume 1 appeared in 2019; Volume 8 appeared in 2026.

What are the three sections?
Adult/Gerontology, Women's Health, and Pediatrics — covering family practice nursing across the lifespan.

Does it have an impact factor?
No Journal Citation Reports impact factor is published for this annual periodical.

Is there an article processing charge?
No. Content is commissioned by the editor and publisher; there is no author-facing APC.

Who should read it?
Family and adult-gerontology nurse practitioners, pediatric and women's health NPs, other advanced practice registered nurses in primary care, registered nurses, nurse educators, and graduate nursing students.

Where can I access it?
On ScienceDirect and the series' dedicated site, typically via institutional subscription; check library holdings for access.

Can I submit an unsolicited manuscript?
The series commissions its articles through the editor rather than operating an open submission system. Prospective contributors should build visibility through clinical expertise and scholarly engagement in the advanced practice nursing community.

How should I cite an article from the series?
Cite it as a periodical article with its DOI (prefix 10.1016/j.yfpn), the volume year, and page range — for example, articles in Volume 8 carry 2026 DOIs.

Why This Series Matters

Primary care knowledge has a half-life, and for advanced practice nurses that half-life is short: guidelines revise, medications change, new threats emerge, and patient expectations shift. A profession that cannot keep its knowledge current cannot keep its patients safe. Advances in Family Practice Nursing exists to solve exactly that problem on an annual cycle — a commissioned, peer-reviewed, expert-authored yearly update across the full lifespan scope of family practice. Eight volumes in, under steady editorship and a major publisher, it has become part of the infrastructure of advanced practice nursing knowledge. Understanding it as an annual periodical rather than a journal is the key to using it well: consult the current volume for what is new, cite its articles by DOI, and treat each year's preface as the profession's annual letter to itself.