Writing for Publication

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Writing for Publication

• Grace Lindsay

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Why write?

• Gain intellectual stimulation
• Share ideas
• Report research
• Express an opinion
• Generate discussion
• Advance ones discipline
• Assert ownership of a topic
• Attain promotion
• Report a case
• Enhance ones personal reputation
• Achieve some small measure of immortality by
  publishing our ideas
• Earn income
• RB Taylor (2005)

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Why write?

• Academic obligation
• Career progression
• Prestige of your institution
• To share research findings
• To disseminate good practice
• Money
• Because you enjoy it?

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Nursing Needs Writers

• Many worthwhile ideas do not get the attention
  they deserve because few people are aware of
  them.
• The nurse who is dedicated to the profession
  accepts the sharing of ideas as a professional
  commitment.
• Sheridan Dowdney, 1986, How to Write and
  Publish Articles in Nursing

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Why writing doesnt happen

• Not enough time
• Nothing to write about
• No one to work with in writing
• Lack of secretarial support
• Lack of knowledge as to how to research
  information
• No mentor for writing activities
• No motivation
• No self-con?dence
• Dont know how to start
• I hate writing!
• RB Taylor (2005)

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Choose a subject area

• Interest
• Knowledge
• Credibility
• Longevity

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What sort of article?

• Research
• Review
• Case report
• Opinion
• Other

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Start writing

• Reviews
• Case reports
• Editorials
• Letters
• Book reviews
• News reviews

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Stages of the Writing Process

• There are three stages to the writing process
• Planning Your Writing
• Writing
• Rewriting

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The three questions

• So what?
• Who cares?
• Where will my article be published?

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So what?

• Am I saying anything new?
• Am I saying anything important?

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Who cares?

• Who will be interested in your article?

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Where will my article be published?

• Target journal
• Broad-Based Peer-Reviewed Journal
• Specialty Oriented Peer-Reviewed Journals
• Controlled-Circulation Journals
• Online Journals
• Type of article
• Impact factor

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• Wonderful articles are alike in so many ways.
  They have a concise introduction that proposes a
  testable hypothesis, a methods section with a
  good study design, a results section in which the
  statistical analysis addresses clinical relevance
  as well as statistical signi?cance, and a
  discussion in which points are made succinctly
  and are based on evidence, not conjecture. In
  wonderful articles, the prose is clear, ?uent,
  and direct. On the other hand, unhappy articles
  are often uniquely bad, each with its particular
  combination of distinctive ?aws.
• Norton SA. Read this but skip that. J Am Acad
  Dermatol 200144714715.

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How to write

• If you want to be a writer, you must do two
  things above all others read a lot and write a
  lot. Theres no way round these two thingsno
  shortcut.
• Stephen King
• I learned to write by writing - professionalism
  comes from being able to write on a bad day
• Norman Mailer

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Mistakes

• Doing it alone
• Running before you can walk
• Being unprepared

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Structure

• Introduction - why did you ever start on this
  study?
• Methods what did you actually do?
• Ethics were your actions morally acceptable?
• Results what did you discover?
• Discussion so was it worthwhile?
• Clinical message so what?
• Accompanying statements
• References where can the reader find other
  parts of the greater story?
• Illustrations making it more interesting

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Length of articles

• Articles should be as long as necessary and as
  short as possible.
• As a guide for ordinary articles, 1,500 words of
  text is good and 3,500 seems rather too long.

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Formulating a Writing Project

• Choose a Topic and Journal
• Gather Information
• gather information you will need for writing
  references, examples of manuscripts from the
  targeted journal, patient records or data,
  previously published and related articles, etc.
• Planning Your Writing Time
• set up a rough timeline, planning to do one step
  each day or week.

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Formulating a Writing Project

• Contact journal editors to assess interest in
  your proposed manuscript
• Do this sooner rather than later
• I wonder whether you would be interested in
  receiving a second paper that describes the
  follow up at seven years of a different cohort of
  patients under going CABG?  It does, I think,
  have a number of interesting points regarding
  cardiac rehabilitation in this group,
  particularly as different data (for example locus
  of control, smoking behaviours, well being) were
  collected.
• If the second study is also from an RCT then yes
  otherwise it is less likely but you could submit
  especially if the group is large, fairly
  representative and you have new or important
  confirmatory findings on prognosis (for example).

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Feelers

• Is my article on the right lines?
• Is this the right journal?
• Would the editor accept it with changes?
• Allows changes/adaptations early on
• Can be submitted to several journals at once

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Contact content

• What the article is about
• Why it is of interest to the journal/editor
• New findings/applications
• In what way different from previous papers
• Evidence from literature search
• Why you have expertise in the area
• Highlights your thinking and writing abilities

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Editors response

• Response may come in a few days
• If a positive response is received, acknowledge
  receipt and establish any deadline for submission
  of the manuscript
• Indicate your willingness to follow suggestions
  for changes in your proposed article and to
  incorporate these in the manuscript
• Include a covering letter with your article
  demonstrating how you have followed the guidance.

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Application

• Produce one of the following (approx 500 words)
• An outline of a paper for an editor
• A case study in the style of a particular journal