How to Get Started With Publishing Your Ideas

Have you ever thought about publishing an article in a professional journal? What's holding you back? Are you afraid of rejection, or maybe you just don't know where to start? I have been the editor for two nursing journals, so let me give you a few tips on how to get started.

The first critical step is to pick a topic. The following are essential criteria when selecting a topic.

The potential topic must:

• 1Offer new information or a new perspective on existing information.

• 2Spark the interest of the intended audience. Readers can relate to the topic and learn something new.

• 3Focus on one and only one main purpose.

• 4Answer the "so what?" or "who cares?" questions.

• 5Match the goals and purposes of the intended journal.

• 6Align with the targeted readers of the intended journal.

• 7Provide sufficient information so readers can learn from and apply your ideas in their settings.

The next important step in publishing a journal article is to identify the target audience. Is your topic meant for staff nurses? Or is your topic more appropriate for advanced practice nurses, nurse managers or staff development educators? You must select just one audience and gear the manuscript to that audience. If others can benefit from reading your article, that's great but when writing, keep only your target audience in mind.

The third step in the publishing process is to select a possible journal for publication of your manuscript. It is critical to select a journal that is a good match for your topic and your audience. For example, if you send a clinically focused manuscript to a journal intended for nurse educators, your manuscript will be rejected without even being sent for peer review, because your topic is not a match for the goals of the journal. Keep in mind that the American Journal of Critical Care focuses on publishing research that is applicable to practice. Critical Care Nurse is geared toward acute and critical care staff nurses. AACN Advanced Critical Care is intended for advanced practice nurses.

To help find an appropriate journal for your topic, access the website of the International Academy of Nursing Editors, which contains a nursing journal directory. The directory offers key information and links to nursing journal websites. Review the websites of potential journals to make certain the journal you select is appropriate for your intended readers and your topic.

Now it is time to determine authorship for the manuscript. Are you going to write alone or work with others? If you are an inexperienced author, I highly encourage you to invite a more experienced author to join you. You can learn a great deal from the wisdom of someone who has published successfully in the past. If you form a team of writers be sure to consider the following:

• Be clear on what part of the manuscript will be assigned to each author.
• Make sure that one author edits the entire manuscript for consistency and removal of any redundancies.
• Be clear from the start about the order of authorship.
• Make a written agreement that if any authors exceed the due date by an agreed amount of time, the team has the right to eliminate that person from the writing group.

Guidelines for rights to authorship have been published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. These criteria are especially helpful when selected members of a project team who want to publish the work.

To help you get started with publishing your idea, I have included a few additional resources:

• An online publishing course, “Writing for Professional Journals,” by Patricia Gonce Morton.
• Morton PG, Nerges J. Strategies to turn a graduate school paper into a publishable journal manuscript. AACN Adv Crit Care. 2020;31(4):371-379.
• Morton PG. Tips for selecting a topic for a journal article. Nurse Author Ed. 2019;29(2):1-8.
• Morton PG. Publishing in professional journals, part I: Getting started. AACN Adv Crit Care. 2013;24(2):162-168.
• Morton PG. Publishing in professional journals, part II: Writing the manuscript. AACN Adv Crit Care. 2013;24(4):370-374.

Writing for a professional nursing journal can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your career. Promise yourself you will get started. Don't wait for your "to do" list to be completed, because it never will be. Instead, block out some time on your calendar every week to work on your manuscript and, before you know it, you will have a manuscript suitable for publication.

What tips can you share to help your colleagues become successful authors?