Are you considering writing a journal article for Plastic Surgical Nursing (PSN)? This official journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses presents the latest advances in plastic and reconstructive surgical nursing practice. The journal features clinical articles covering a wide variety of surgical and nonsurgical procedures. Patient education techniques and research findings are also included, as well as articles discussing the ethical issues and trends in this expanding clinical nursing specialty. This is a perfect forum to share your knowledge with others in the plastic surgery field, resulting in improved patient care. The editorial board is established and available to assist you in the writing process. It is important to know that you do not have to be an academic scholar to write an article; instead you have information that you would like to share. This article is intended to provide key points to follow to make sure writing your article is a positive experience.
Many authors feel that they are not qualified to write, so they do not even entertain the idea. I cannot lie and say that writing an article is easy. It is a challenge that requires organization and dedicated time. However, it is personally and professionally rewarding once you see the finished product in print. Nurses have a wealth of knowledge that is a part of our normal working environment; what seems like basic information to you would greatly benefit a nurse who has just started in this area of specialty. Sharing this knowledge would improve patient care, which is our ultimate goal with any aspect of nursing.
FINDING A TOPIC
The PSN journal is composed of Continuing Medical Education (CME) articles and Department articles. The Department articles are a great way to get your feet wet. The Departments are intended to be shorter, easier to read articles for those who do not have time to read a full article. Do you have a case study, a new product or procedure, a solution to a problem that was encountered, or a new policy or procedure utilized in your clinic or hospital that you would like to share with the readership? The Departments include the following titles, but topics are not limited to these headings:
Aesthetics (i.e., surgical and nonsurgical facial or body procedures, lasers, and injectables)
Management (i.e., policies, time management, human resources, budgeting, and social media)
Pediatrics (i.e., congenital deformities, adolescent issues, and body dysmorphia)
Skin care (i.e., products ingredients, sun protection, chemical peels, skin cancer, and dermatology)
Reconstruction (i.e., breast and body surgeries, Mohs, burns, flaps, and grafts)
Wound care (i.e., products, procedures, ulcers, care plans, and diabetes)
Other suggested topics include the following:
Ambulatory surgery settings, patient safety, intraoperative considerations
Evidence-based practice, patient education, nursing research
Legal topics-consents, documentation, accountability
Pain management or anesthesia techniques
Age-specific considerations
Pharmacology
Hand surgery or injuries
New products
Psychosocial care
If you are unsure about the topic you have chosen, you can e-mail me and I can provide you with some writing points. The PSN editorial board is poised and ready to assist you throughout the writing process.
Once the topic is decided, the focus of the article should be singled to one main purpose or idea. Discussing too many topics may dilute the knowledge instead of fully explaining the main purpose; readers may feel that the article is too broad and does not provide enough in-depth information. You should complete an organized literature search to see how other authors discussed this topic. A well-structured literature search is the most effective and efficient way to locate sound evidence on the subject you are researching. Evidence may be found in books, journals, government documents, and the Internet. To make this easier, search your topic in the form of a question.
FINDING THE TIME
Once you have decided on an appropriate topic according to your expertise, you must arrange and organize time to write the article. If you wait until you have time to write, that time will never come. You must block time in your schedule to do it. Determine when you are the most productive and most creative. If you are a morning person, then you will make the most of your time in the morning. This may be done in small blocks or a large block of time, whatever works out best for your writing style. Set realistic deadlines to complete each section of the manuscript. This will prevent you from getting discouraged if you do not make the deadlines. Make sure the environment is free of clutter and distractions. You do not want to waste time tidying the area when you could be writing. Use this writing space consistently so that your writing time is productive. (Gonce Morton, 2013a).
IDENTIFY THE TARGET AUDIENCE
The article is to be written, keeping the target audience in mind. The target audience for the PSN journal is nurses and other health care professionals who share a special interest in plastic, aesthetic, and reconstructive surgery.
PREPARE THE OUTLINE
Designing an outline is an excellent way to organize how you feel the article should be laid out; ensuring the flow of the article is favorable to the readership.
An outline is simply a framework for presenting the main and supporting ideas for your topic. A good outline can help you generate ideas, organize thoughts, help you save time, and write faster. Use this time to brainstorm a list of main ideas that you want to present in the article. Once you have these main ideas and structure, you can add content to each one. This may be with text, tables, figures, and/or quotes. Remember that writing is an interactive process and good writers constantly review and revise their writing. The same goes for an outline. It should not be a static framework but more so like a living roadmap (Zomick, 2014).
AUTHORSHIP RESPONSIBILITY
All authors should qualify for authorship. As a single author, you take on the responsibility of preparing and writing the manuscript. Names of those who contributed general support or technical help may be listed in an acknowledgment.
Multiple authors lessen the workload, but you must be confident that the other authors will complete their predetermined part. Each author should have participated significantly in the conception and design of the work and the writing of the manuscript, and be willing to take public responsibility for it. Once complete, one author should do the final review to make sure that the writing style is consistent throughout the manuscript.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Authors must state all possible conflicts of interest in the manuscript, including financial, consultant, institutional, and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, this should also be explicitly stated as none declared. All sources of funding should be acknowledged in the manuscript. All relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding should be included on the title page of the manuscript with the heading "Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding."
In addition, each author must complete and submit the journal's copyright transfer agreement. This includes a section on the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest, based on the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals."
TABLES AND FIGURES
The use of tables is a way to organize information that may be used throughout the article. This table may then be referenced so the information does not need to be repeated in the body of the article (Zomick, 2014). Numbered tables, in black and white, can be submitted in Microsoft Word through Editorial Manager, PSN's online submission site.
High-resolution, camera-ready images may be submitted electronically as either a tagged image file format (TIFF) or an encapsulated postscript (EPS) file, with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Originals can be scanned with a high-resolution scanner and saved as a TIFF file. Use computer-generated lettering. Do not use screens, color, shading, or fine line. Art that has been photocopied, is embedded in a Word document (has a .doc extension), was downloaded from the Internet, or was created in PageMaker cannot be accepted (Wolters, 2011).
The number and title of the table and/or figure appears below the visual.
According to Angeli et al. (2010), the manuscript should contain four major sections:
1. Title page. The title page would include the title of the paper, written in upper and lower case letters and centered in the upper half of the page. The title should be no more than 12 words in length and should not contain abbreviations. Beneath the title is the author(s) name, written as first name, middle initial(s), and last name. Beneath the authors name is the institution affiliation.
2. Abstract. The second section is the abstract. The page is titled "Abstract" and is positioned at top and center of the page. The abstract contains a concise summary of the contents of the article. It is a single paragraph, double-spaced, and should be between 150 and 250 words.
3. Main body. The main body is your written work. This section may be divided into sections or headings to break up the text and organize the information. Editorial Manager requires that Dorland's Medical Dictionary (28th ed.) and Webster's Dictionary (10th ed.) should be used as standard references. Use minimal direct quotes. It is better to paraphrase the information from the resource and cite it according the journal guidelines. Quotes should only be used for famous sayings that may lose its meaning if paraphrased (Gonce Morton, 2013b).
4. References. This is the last requirement of your paper, which will be explained further in the next section. PSN does not endorse any specific programs. Some of the programs available include the following:
* Reference Point Software: http://www.ReferencePointSoftware.com
* Format Ease: http://www.formatease.com
* APA Wizard: http://www.APAFormatWizard.com
* APA Style Helper 5.1: http://www.apa.org/software
* APA Referencing Macros: http://www.southernocean-soft-ware.com/apamacros/
* StyleEase: http://www.styleease.com
APA FORMAT
Many writers get hung up on the American Psychological Association (APA) format of an article, as not all journals follow the same format. PSN follows the guidelines outlined in the Publication Manual of the APA, 6th Edition, 2001. Please refer to the APA Manual for more detailed information and explanations of the required format.
A few key points to remember are as follows:
* Font is new Times New Roman in 12 points.
* Submissions must be double spaced.
* When abbreviating a term, use the full term the first time you use it, followed immediately by the abbreviation in parentheses.
* Scientific (generic) names of drugs should be used when possible.
* Units of measurement should be expressed in the metric system.
* Temperatures should be expressed in degree Celsius.
CITING REFERENCES-WITHIN THE TEXT
Citations in the text provide brief information to lead the reader to the source of information in the reference list at the end of the paper (Table 1).
Guidelines to follow for citing the reference within the text are as follows:
* Use the author(s)-date method; the author(s) last name and the year of publication are inserted into the text.
* Use a page number when utilizing a direct quotation.
* If the direct quote is less than 40 words, incorporate it into your text, using quotation marks.
* If the direct quote is more than 40 words, make the quotation a free-standing indented block of text and do not use quotation marks.
* References require parenthetical citations within the text rather than endnotes or footnotes.
REFERENCE PAGE
1. References must appear on a new page at the end of the manuscript.
2. References should be double spaced.
3. Use the hanging indent format with the first line flush to the left margin and all other lines indented.
4. Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name.
5. List the journal title in full and capitalize all the major words in the journal title.
6. Journal title and the volume number are in italics.
7. Issue number is in regular type in parentheses adjacent to the volume number.
8. If a reference has two to seven authors, list all authors.
9. If a reference has eight or more authors, list the first six authors and the last author (Table 2).
CONCLUSION
Writing an article for a journal can be a challenging but rewarding task. This article was intended to give you some key points to consider to make the writing process easier. The PSN editorial board is available to help you with this process. Please contact mailto:[email protected] if you would like to submit an idea or ask questions about the submission process through Editorial Manager (http://www.editorialmanager.com/psn).
Happy writing.
REFERENCES