Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, But when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)
I do not remember ever hearing the word "guideline" when I was in my undergraduate nursing program, which should not come as much of a surprise because I graduated in 1972. In fact, I did not hear about guidelines until after I started doing HIV work in 1988. By then, the first versions of the Occupational Exposure Guidelines (in 1983) and HIV Prevention Guidelines (in 1987) had been published (HIV.org, n.d.), but the first U.S. Health and Human Services HIV treatment guidelines were not published until 1998, which was 4 years before the World Health Organization released their HIV treatment guidelines (Richardson, Grant, & Zolopa, 2014). Guidelines very quickly became my bread and butter. I do not have to tell you how hard, or how important, it has been to keep up with them as we continue to make advances in all aspects of HIV. HIV treatment, prevention, and testing guidelines are essential components of providing excellent HIV care and moving toward the end of the epidemic, especially because they are revised to reflect the evolving science.
Guidelines are now everywhere I look; they exist for every health care problem imaginable, for industry, for sustainability, for clean air, for safety, and even for the written word. Did you know that for the past 15 years, one group has been collecting health research-reporting guidelines from around the globe (Equator Network, n.d.)? Unless you are a writing-reporting-editing nerd, your response to that question is probably, "Huh?" If you do not consider yourself a nerd, but are a student, reader, reviewer, author, editor, or researcher, you need to pay attention.
Reporting Guidelines
Reporting guidelines, much like HIV guidelines, have become essential in an age when editors and publishers are overwhelmed with submissions and, at the same time, can be ever choosier about what to accept for publication. A reporting guideline is "a checklist, flow diagram, or structured text to guide authors in reporting a specific type of research, developed using explicit methodology" (http://www.equator-network.org/about-us/what-is-a-reporting-guideline/, [P]4). Guidelines help researchers report the necessary components of their work so that the report of their research (a) clearly presents information to readers, including reviewers and editors, in an understandable manner; (b) provides details needed for others to replicate the study being reported; (c) can be used by a clinician, if appropriate, to improve patient care; and (d) can be used to support future research and as part of systematic reviews (Equator Network, n.d.). There are many kinds of reporting guidelines. For instance, the EQUATOR Network lists 16 different or extension guidelines for infectious diseases alone. As is probably already dawning on you, the EQUATOR Network website (http://www.equator-network.org) is a great site to find the guidelines you need and the resources to make them work for you.
JANAC Requirements
JANAC requires the use of reporting guidelines and has for several years, but we make it simple-we use four different guidelines specific to the type of research the author is presenting (Table 1). As you can see, we make it easy for authors by providing URLs to access appropriate guidelines. And here is a trade secret for authors: Reporting guidelines improve your writing by providing structure and helping you remember to include all of the important components of your research. When these criteria are used, reviewers and editors have fewer major revisions to request during peer review and readers know that researchers, authors, reviewers, and editors have done the best possible job of assuring that a published paper is credible.
In Addition: JANAC Review Forms
Thanks to the efforts of Associate Editor, Michael Relf, and his committee (Debra Kosko, Sara Looby, and Joe Perazzo), we now have a set of structured review forms that are used by JANAC reviewers during manuscript review to assure that each paper addresses important and required topics. The good news is that we are completely transparent about the forms: Everyone (authors, reviewers, and readers) has access to them. The review forms (a) give authors insight into what we expect and help them prepare papers that are well suited to JANAC, (b) provide a structure for reviewers that helps them offer useful feedback to authors, and (c) allow editors to make the best possible decisions for JANAC. In fact, using the appropriate reporting guidelines and reviewer forms, as well as the JANAC Information for Authors and the JANAC Style Guide, should give authors all of the tools they need to deliver a comprehensive, well-structured, and appropriately formatted paper that will meet the needs of our readers. You can find these resources at the JANAC Website in the "For Authors" tab.
The Take-Home Message
In the constantly evolving, often confusing world of publishing, guidelines are more important than ever, and their use is expected. (Does this sound like HIV treatment guidelines?) Guidelines are your friends-seek them out and play nicely with them!
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