Nurses in all settings depend on sound evidence to inform their decisions and guide their practice. Professional journals such as JNPD provide a way for nurses to access evidence and disseminate their findings and recommendations. Authors, like you and your colleagues, use mentors and other resources to help craft, write, revise, and submit manuscripts. This evidence cycle is fueled by asking good questions and finding viable answers to enhance our practice, as mentioned by Schmidt (2017).

JNPD is now in its 34th year, and we're proud of how it has evolved and responded to readers' needs. Each issue features a continuing education feature, an editor's pick, several topical columns, and a number of full-length articles. This year, for example, we've heard from nursing professional development leaders Donna Wright, Kathleen Dunn-Cane, Joan Warren, Annie Colvin, Julia Aucoin, and Kathy Chappell in our Ask an Expert column. We encourage you to read or revisit these columns for inspiration, advice, and examples of exemplary leadership and practice.

There are many opportunities for nurses to hone their writing skills and contribute to the literature. Peer-reviewed journals are a mainstay of professional information. There are also organizational newsletters, specialty blogs, and society updates that frequently seek contributors. Nurses can volunteer to write book or technology reviews, serve as guest columnists, or contribute to a white paper. They can also serve as peer reviewers. I believe that being a good reader helps one to be a better writer, and that reading and reviewing manuscripts is a terrific way to practice and improve one's critical reading skills.

Despite these opportunities, we regularly hear about real and perceived barriers to writing. Results from a recent poll on the JNPD website, http://jnpdonline.com, showed that, by far, finding the time to write was the biggest obstacle for respondents. Identifying and narrowing a topic, searching the literature, and getting organized were also selected as barriers. Fortunately, there are numerous resources available for nurses who want to write. Journal websites contain information to help potential authors decide whether their topic will be a good fit and to describe the required manuscript details and submission process. Many editors will respond to an author's query with basic guidance or direction regarding general presubmission questions. This step can help streamline authors' efforts in choosing an appropriate journal. Wolters-Kluwer provides a comprehensive author resource review (http://wkauthorservices.editage.com/resources/author-resource-review.html), full of information and tips from experienced editors and publishers. Another free resource for authors is a helpful online program, "Writing for Professional Journals," available at http://nursing.utah.edu/journalwriting/. The International Academy of Nursing Editors provides useful information via their online journal directory at https://nursingeditors.com/journals-directory/.

For a detailed, data-driven look at formatting and referencing challenges, please see our Editor's Pick feature in this issue from preeminent nursing editors and leaders Drs. Leslie Nicoll, Peggy Chinn, and Marilyn Oermann, et al. For a more hands-on experience, you may want to consider attending the preconference writing workshop that we will present at this summer's annual Association of Nursing Professional Development convention in Orlando, Florida.

We hope some of these ideas inspire you to sharpen your pencils, dust off your keyboards, recruit a colleague, and begin (or finish!) putting your ideas in print. We are here to help, and we look forward to reading your contributions to the fast-growing nursing evidence.

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