Explore Scholarly Writing Through Academic Journal Articles

Marilyn W. Edmunds PhD, ANP/GNP, FAANP Julee Waldrop DNP, PNP, FAAN, FAANP

www.npjournal.org

Editorial

What is Scholarly Writing?

s a journal, one of our goals is to help authors publish meaningful and relevant clinical content for nurse practitioners (NPs). Through external

Aaudits of our journal, we know that JNP: the Journal for Nurse Practitioners

has a reputation for accuracy in the work we publish and that readers feel they can depend upon what is published. This is an important reputation to keep intact.

We often have reviewers who tell authors in their reviews that their writing needs to be more scholarly. These authors in turn come back to the editors to ask, “What does that mean?”

Scholarly writing is the type of writing that NPs should learn in their graduate-level professional and research courses. Those who are credentialed as PhD or DNP are expected to have a clear and concise written commu- nication style. There is a big focus in nursing on critical thinking. Scholarly communication is a step beyond critical thinking—it is really critical communication.

Prospective authors can consult online programs or texts in order to clearly communicate in writing professional manuscripts. None of these programs will likely tell someone anything they haven’t heard before, which may mean that the author has not mastered things that she or he should know.

Simple but essential scholarly writing rules include: 1. Write a clear, concise statement about what new information the article

presents. This means the author must have a clear understanding about who readers will be. Unique information, particularly on a topic for which there has been a good deal published already, may justify why the article should be published.

2. Begin every paragraph with a simple and direct topical statement. Follow this with 2-4 sentences that elaborate, support, or provide examples about the topical statement.

3. Keep sentences simple and relatively short; use an active voice. 4. To create a scholarly tone, use third-person pronouns and avoid

informal terms, slang, controversial or biased words, and contractions. 5. Avoid repetition and meaningless statements or sentences where the

content is obvious. As a scholarly author you are expected to read the literature and to study and

think about it before you begin to write. The author should not sit at the computer and copy directly from other publications to create a “new” paper. She or he must develop a logical plan for the order in which arguments are advanced, analyze and evaluate the literature, and use references in the discussion of these arguments.

The correct use of references is an essential component of scholarly writing. Particularly in clinical journals, readers want to see the best and most recent references. An article that includes many references older than 5 years casts doubt on the relevance or credibility of the content.

The Journal for Nurse Practitioners - JNP A11

The Journal for Nurse PracA12

When using content directly from other publications, less formal publications use quotation marks around the phrases, sentences, or paragraphs imported from other articles. In scholarly writing, however, the author is expected to rewrite these materials in his or her own words, as well as provide the references. Use of more than 30 words directly from another publication requires the author to get written permission from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) to reprint the ma- terial. Many authors choose to rewrite this material rather than get the copyright permission. It is not adequate to use direct quotations from other published ma- terials (even from the author’s own published work) and just reference them.

Most publishers, including Elsevier, run submissions through software such as iThenticate to compare the author’s submission to other published work. Editors can see exactly whether references are properly cited or if there are copyright violations. The findings of this exercise often determine whether a manuscript will be considered for peer review. Several online programs (for example, https://www.grammarly.com/ or https://www.bibme.org/grammar-and -plagiarism) are available for authors to check their own work prior to sub- mitting to a journal. Many writing resources are available at https:// researcheracademy.elsevier.com.

Finally, remember to edit the manuscript carefully before submission. Look again to make sure references are complete, the introduction is compelling, the conclusion restates the most important information but does not repeat the introduction, and the abstract will entice clinicians to read the article.

titioners - JNP

Marilyn W. Edmunds, PhD, ANP/GNP, FAANP Editor in Chief

Julee Waldrop, DNP, PNP, FAAN, FAANP Associate Editor

1555-4155/18/$ see front matter © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2018.08.012

Errata The name of the fourth author of the abstract “Urological

telehealth e A dollars, sense and distance evaluation” (JulyeAugust 2017, Page e326) should be Eileen Mary Moore.

The final sentence in the article “A Summary and Update on Glucagon-like Peptide Agonists” (May 2018) should have been deleted.

Volume 14, Issue 8, September 2018