How to Get Published
Why Publish?
Historically, many senior consultants would have just a handful of published work to their name. This was largely because of the scarcity of available opportunities in journals for trainees, but also because publication was seen as necessary often only for 'academics' and those with professorial ambitions.
Things have changed considerably and now even newly qualified trainees are encouraged to target publishing their work in national and even international journals.
This is helped by the recent expansion in the number of peer-reviewed journals available in medicine as a whole. Surgery is no exception.
Besides improving ones CV, publications gives the aspiring surgeon an opportunity to add to the existing body of literature on a topic, expanding one's own knowledge, whilst sharing potentially novel audience with a wider audience than the immediacy of a trust or deanery setting.
Getting published gives you the opportunity to say something important, provoke debate, share your experiences and ultimately to learn something in the process.
Historically, many senior consultants would have just a handful of published work to their name. This was largely because of the scarcity of available opportunities in journals for trainees, but also because publication was seen as necessary often only for 'academics' and those with professorial ambitions.
Things have changed considerably and now even newly qualified trainees are encouraged to target publishing their work in national and even international journals.
This is helped by the recent expansion in the number of peer-reviewed journals available in medicine as a whole. Surgery is no exception.
Besides improving ones CV, publications gives the aspiring surgeon an opportunity to add to the existing body of literature on a topic, expanding one's own knowledge, whilst sharing potentially novel audience with a wider audience than the immediacy of a trust or deanery setting.
Getting published gives you the opportunity to say something important, provoke debate, share your experiences and ultimately to learn something in the process.
What to write about?
Unless you have a proven track record of authorship, it is unusual for a journal to invite you to write a review article, to submit your research or to commission an article. Hopefully, this will come with time. Usually you will have to originate and develop an idea.
We have written a dedicated section on the most common starting point for most trainees; the case report. This utilises the most effective tool at your disposal, namely the amount of time that you will spend with many different patients on your 'on call' and whilst undertaking your ward jobs. This gives you the chance to see a variety of unusual presentations and responses to management. If your seniors are excited by a case, it is likely that a wider readership will be similarly intruiged and you could be looking at a potential opportunity to share a piece of work.
Opinion Pieces and review articles can form the basis of a paper. This may originate from something topical that you read, or an area where there is not a recognised consensus on the 'gold standard' method of treatment. Whilst in this situation, a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) is the definitive method for establishing a definitive consensus on the optimal mode of treatment, a review article will summarise the existing data and try to come to a conclusion based on this. This conclusion will not lead to a change of guidelines, but such a review has a role in crystallising what may up to that point be a diverse and sporadic discussion, often lacking in a knowledge of the evidence base.
Especially early in training, it may be difficult to know where such areas of clinical disagreement may lie. Consultant surgeons will often be all too happy to discuss areas of current clinical debate, especially if they are given the chance to espouse their views in the process.
Once you have an idea of the parameters of the debate, you need to structure the aims of your review paper. You should not have a definite idea of what you are trying to say because a review article should not be directed by the author, but should be a review of the literature to date.
You should start with a detailed literature search using predefined keywords. These should be broad, before becoming more specific and should cover all aspects of the discussion. When discussing a certain disease for example, this may include keywords concerning screening, prevalence, investigation, management or prognosis, but it is important that a review article is well directed. You should be aiming for a sufficient amount of detail as for your artcile to give new information to those with a reasoble prior knowledge of the field, rather than just an overview of the disease. This is the difference between a text-book chapter and a review article on a specific topic.
You have various options with regards to structure. You may want to group your articles chronologiclaly, with a review of how the literature has progressed over the time and with technological development, or you may want to group your literature to frame a debate, for example into the literature for and against a certain mode of treatment.
If this is your frist, or one of your first review articles, it is always useful to work with a senior colleague. Whilst often not doing the bulk of the writing or literature search themselves, they will be able to review your work, ensuring that your work is not too wide ranging or insufficient in breadth and making sure that no exceptional errors in structure or content are made.
We have written a dedicated section on the most common starting point for most trainees; the case report. This utilises the most effective tool at your disposal, namely the amount of time that you will spend with many different patients on your 'on call' and whilst undertaking your ward jobs. This gives you the chance to see a variety of unusual presentations and responses to management. If your seniors are excited by a case, it is likely that a wider readership will be similarly intruiged and you could be looking at a potential opportunity to share a piece of work.
Opinion Pieces and review articles can form the basis of a paper. This may originate from something topical that you read, or an area where there is not a recognised consensus on the 'gold standard' method of treatment. Whilst in this situation, a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) is the definitive method for establishing a definitive consensus on the optimal mode of treatment, a review article will summarise the existing data and try to come to a conclusion based on this. This conclusion will not lead to a change of guidelines, but such a review has a role in crystallising what may up to that point be a diverse and sporadic discussion, often lacking in a knowledge of the evidence base.
Especially early in training, it may be difficult to know where such areas of clinical disagreement may lie. Consultant surgeons will often be all too happy to discuss areas of current clinical debate, especially if they are given the chance to espouse their views in the process.
Once you have an idea of the parameters of the debate, you need to structure the aims of your review paper. You should not have a definite idea of what you are trying to say because a review article should not be directed by the author, but should be a review of the literature to date.
You should start with a detailed literature search using predefined keywords. These should be broad, before becoming more specific and should cover all aspects of the discussion. When discussing a certain disease for example, this may include keywords concerning screening, prevalence, investigation, management or prognosis, but it is important that a review article is well directed. You should be aiming for a sufficient amount of detail as for your artcile to give new information to those with a reasoble prior knowledge of the field, rather than just an overview of the disease. This is the difference between a text-book chapter and a review article on a specific topic.
You have various options with regards to structure. You may want to group your articles chronologiclaly, with a review of how the literature has progressed over the time and with technological development, or you may want to group your literature to frame a debate, for example into the literature for and against a certain mode of treatment.
If this is your frist, or one of your first review articles, it is always useful to work with a senior colleague. Whilst often not doing the bulk of the writing or literature search themselves, they will be able to review your work, ensuring that your work is not too wide ranging or insufficient in breadth and making sure that no exceptional errors in structure or content are made.
Other Options
The BMJ group provides a forum for juniors to write up their owen experiences for those in a similar or more junior stage of careers. These can be a review of a course or a summary of an exeptional medically related experience (on an expedition or on a military secondment for example for example. Again, whilst these do not take the place of more traditional academic submissions, they can be useful additions to a CV before core surgical training interviews. The BMJ also has an Endgames section. This publishes articles on common cases, or images with questions and evidence based on answers aimed at junior doctors. Minerva is another BMJ publication which accepts high quality images with a short educational message.
Starting Online
Some medical journals have well established online communities. You could start by writing or starting a discussion and this can increase your awareness of topical issues within your chosen field. You can post on medical forums such as doc2doc or write a blog for the BMJ via their website. Whilst these will increase your confidence in the early stages of your training, such submissions are absolutely no substitute for traditional publications and would hopefully be an early stepping stone to more substantial work.
Choosing a Journal
Often your supervisor will have a good idea of an appropriate target journal. This will depend on your specialty, but also likely on your seniority and the gravity of your work. Journals have an impact factor rating, that is often used as an approximation of how selective a journal is in selecting work. As you move up the training ladder, this will become of more importance, but especially at the early stages of training, concentration on impact factors should not take precedence over producing good quality work. Look at the word limit of the type of submission you are looking to make and structure your write up accordingly.
'Pitching' your idea
Before you commit time to writing you could consider contacting the relevant editor to discuss your submission. Contact details can be found on journal websites. It is best to keep this brief. Outline your idea, the type of article you want to write, what you qualifications have (and those that any co-authors may have), and how you can be contacted.
It is unusual for a journal to make a commitment to publish an article without seeing the finished product, and it is common for ideas to be rejected. Do not be put off. You may be able to present your idea to another journal, and you are likely to learn something from this process.
It is unusual for a journal to make a commitment to publish an article without seeing the finished product, and it is common for ideas to be rejected. Do not be put off. You may be able to present your idea to another journal, and you are likely to learn something from this process.