Abstract

The American Journal of Nursing is seeking high-quality writing on a variety of topics.

* Clinical best practices - We continually seek cutting-edge, evidence-based clinical manuscripts on a wide range of topics across practice settings. Such manuscripts should have a focus that can be handled in-depth in about 12 double-spaced pages (excluding references and figures) and include a synthesis of relevant research. Nursing implications and perspectives must also be included. Manuscripts can focus on specific diseases, treatment options, procedures, or dimensions of nursing care that are evolving from research and best-practice work. We welcome queries from expert clinicians and clinical researchers that focus on their areas of expertise.

* Acute and critical care shorts - We seek manuscripts of six-to-12 double-spaced pages on clinical topics relevant to nurses in the acute care setting. These may be quite narrowly focused and should include relevant research and practical applications.

* Original research - AJN seeks to publish original research that is compelling for a broad nursing audience. The focus of the research can be on clinical or professional issues. Peer reviews of research manuscripts include methodological and statistical evaluation. AJN conducts media outreach for the original research it publishes when it's of interest to a public or broader health care audience. Thus, the original research we publish is widely disseminated. Potential authors should query AJN with an abstract.

* Viewpoint is a column for timely, provocative commentaries. These are about 650 words in length and are written in a conversational style. The author should grab the reader's attention in the first two sentences, identify the problem or issue, make a compelling argument supported by anecdotes and/or statistics, and leave the reader with a challenge to think or behave differently. While references are not included in this column, authors need to include their sources for fact-checking by the AJN staff.

* Reflections are stories about nursing, health, or health care that cause readers to reflect on their own practice. Reflections are 850 words in length.

* Art of Nursing - This monthly column publishes poetry and artwork, not necessarily by nurses. Submissions are reviewed by a panel of artists and poets, most of whom are also nurses.