Transcript Writing for Publication Grace Lindsay

Writing for Publication
Grace Lindsay
Why write?
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Gain intellectual stimulation
Share ideas
Report research
Express an opinion
Generate discussion
Advance one’s discipline
Assert “ownership” of a topic
Attain promotion
Report a case
Enhance one’s personal reputation
Achieve some small measure of immortality by publishing our ideas
Earn income
– RB Taylor (2005)
Why write?
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Academic obligation
Career progression
Prestige of your institution
To share research findings
To disseminate good practice
Money
Because you enjoy it?
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”
Why writing doesn’t happen
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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-confidence
Don’t know how to start
“I hate writing!”
– RB Taylor (2005)
Choose a subject area
• Interest
• Knowledge
• Credibility
• Longevity
What sort of article?
• Research
• Review
• Case report
• Opinion
• Other
Start writing
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Reviews
Case reports
Editorials
Letters
Book reviews
News reviews
Stages of the Writing Process
• There are three stages to the writing
process:
– Planning Your Writing
– Writing
– Rewriting
The three questions:
• So what?
• Who cares?
• Where will my article be published?
So what?
• Am I saying anything new?
• Am I saying anything important?
Who cares?
• Who will be interested in your article?
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
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 significance, and a
discussion in which points are made succinctly
and are based on evidence, not conjecture. In
wonderful articles, the prose is clear, fluent, and
direct. On the other hand, unhappy articles are
often uniquely bad, each with its particular
combination of distinctive flaws.
• Norton SA. Read this but skip that. J Am Acad Dermatol 2001;44:714–715.
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. There’s no way round these
two things…no shortcut.
• Stephen King
• I learned to write by writing professionalism comes from being able to
write on a bad day
• Norman Mailer
Mistakes
• Doing it alone
• Running before you can walk
• Being unprepared
Structure
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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
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.
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.
Formulating a Writing Project
• Contact journal editors to assess interest
in your proposed manuscript
– Do this sooner rather than later
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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.
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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).
“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
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
Editor’s 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.
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