Writing for Publication

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Writing for Publication

• James Munro
• University of Sheffield

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Why write?

• Fame and fortune
• Bolster the CV
• Pressure from above
• dissemination

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So whats the problem?

• No ideas
• Ideas but no writing
• Writing but nothing sent off
• Writing sent off but not accepted

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The other problem

• Time
• Writing is a lot of work
• Even academics dont have time

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What well talk about

• Writing an academic paper
• 10 ways to be rejected
• Magazines and books are a bit different

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Any ideas?

• Experience
• Everyday working
• Problems
• Costly activities

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More ideas

• Questions from clinicians
• especially those you cant answer
• Things that go wrong
• Things you disagree with

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You already have something

• But is it publishable?
• Is it interesting?
• Could it affect practice or policy?
• Is it generalisable?
• Almost everything is publishable somewhere

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Dont start writing yet!
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Dont write yet!

• Whats the context?
• Whats the story?

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The context

• Everybody needs a context

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Context for a research paper

• Whats already known?
• Whats unknown?
• Whats controversial?

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The need to know

• Providing a context and a question creates the
  readers need to know

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Whats the story?

• If this was a news report, what would the
  headline be?
• What is the central idea?

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BMJ approach

• What is already known on this topic?
• What does this study add?

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Outline your story 1

• Context
• Once upon a time
• Methods
• there were 3 bears

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Outline your story 2

• Results
• and she ran home.
• Conclusions
• never go into the woods alone.

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Dont start writing yet!
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Who is the story for?

• Whod like to know?
• Who needs to know?

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Reasons for rejection

• The commonest reason editors give
• is that the subject matter wasnt suitable for
  their journal

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So find the right journal

• Get to know the journals in your area
• What are their interests?
• What are their styles?

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So find the right journal

• Where were other papers on this topic published?

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Journalology

• Refereed or not?
• Listed in bibliographic databases?
• Impact factor?

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Write for a journal

• Select one of the journals which might be
  interested in your story
• Write for that journal

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Writing for that journal

• Instructions for authors
• Usually on the web
• But you need to see a copy
• Headings, weighting, referencing, interests

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Develop your outline

• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion

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Introduction

• What is the issue?
• What is already known about it?
• Set up a question in the readers mind
• Explain why your study is needed

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Methods

• What did you do?
• How did you do it?
• Have a logical order
• Dont report results here by mistake!

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Results

• Follow the order of the methods
• Who? When? What?

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Discussion

• Summarise the findings
• Draw out the lessons
• Acknowledge the limitations
• What should happen now?

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BMJs suggested structure

• Statement of principal findings
• Strengths and weaknesses of the study
• Strengths and weaknesses in relation to other
  studies, discussing particularly any differences
  in results
• Meaning of the study possible mechanisms and
  implications for clinicians or policymakers
• Unanswered questions and future research

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Structuring

• Subheadings are essential
• For RCTs, use CONSORT
• For MA of RCTs, QUOROM
• For MA of observational studies, MOOSE

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Macro-editing

• Highlight the key sentence in each paragraph
• Does the story flow?
• Ask others to read the draft
• Give them a specific task

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The little things

• Spelling
• Grammar
• Tense, voice, singulars and plurals
• Consistent layout
• Page numbers
• References
• See bmj.com

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When your paper is rejected

• Dont be discouraged!

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When your paper is rejected

• Try to find out why
• Does it need revising?
• Send it off to another journal
• after checking for style

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Referees comments

• Dont be defensive
• You dont have to do everything they suggest
• But you do have to address each point

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Dont!

• 10 ways to get your paper rejected

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1 Choose a journal which has never shown an
interest in this subject
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2 Write well over the specified word length to
show the importance of the topic
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3 Try to include at least 10 key messages and
some extra data from other studies
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4 See if you can improve on the journals
standard headings
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5 Dont bother with any statistical advice,
since nobody understands it
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6 Dont worry too much about spelling or grammar
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7 Ignore the journals own referencing style
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8 Add a few new results in the abstract which
you didnt have space for in the main text
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9 Use different terms for the same thing
interchangeably
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10 For a more personal touch, send a handwritten
manuscript
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Good luck!