Article Types, Topics of Interest, and Other Considerations for Prospective AJN Authors

iPad app exhibit AORNBy Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

I recently wrote a post that attempted to give readers a clearer sense of what we are looking for in article submissions and what we are not looking for: “My Professor Said to Submit My Paper (We Hope They Also Told You This).”

This post will just provide a quick overview of the types of articles we publish, as well as a plug for why it’s good to be published in AJN.

In terms of impact factor, AJN ranks 29/95 among ranked nursing journals, with an impact factor of 1.119. (Nursing journals with higher impact factors tend to be specialty research journals, whereas AJN publishes a broad range of content in addition to research, and for a variety of audiences.) Through our robust print, digital, iPad, institutional, and social media channels, AJN reaches more nurses than any other nursing journal.

We publish original research, quality improvement (QI), and review articles as primary feature articles and as CE articles. We also publish shorter, focused columns. All submissions must be evidence based and are peer-reviewed.

Clinical features should cover epidemiology, pathology, current research/“what’s new” in knowledge and/or treatment, nursing implications. There is no specific limit for word count, though feature articles are usually in the range of 6,000 to 10,000 words. (We have done two-part and three-part series for larger papers.) For examples of feature articles, see any of the CE articles on our Web site, […]

2016-11-21T13:08:08-05:00March 14th, 2013|nursing research|0 Comments
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Thoughts After an INANE Editors Conference

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief—I just returned from 10 days out of the office, a long time for me. The first three days were in San Francisco at the annual conference of the International Academy of Nursing Editors (or INANE), a group that steadfastly declares itself a non-organization, with no officers, no dues, and no bylaws.

Begun almost 30 years ago, the group depends on the goodwill of its 200+ members, who volunteer for Web site operation, take turns organizing the annual meeting, and contribute when needed to support small expenses like mailings, Web site fees, etc.

It’s simple and it works. This year’s conference covered things editors of nursing journals find interesting—copyright, impact factor, ethics, and the like (see INANE’s blog, From the Editor’s Pen—“Cherry Ames” blogged from the conference!), plus a lot of great networking. (Full disclosure: the conference was sponsored by the specialty nursing journals of Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, AJN’s publisher.)

I’m always struck by the breadth and variety of nursing knowledge among the members of this group—there’s everything from skin and wound care and infusion practices to broader topics like oncology and home health. (Not to mention a few broad-based journals, like AJN, that cover all of nursing.) The editors of these journals are passionate about meeting the needs of their readers—for some association journals, this means meeting […]

2016-11-21T13:12:08-05:00August 16th, 2011|Nursing|4 Comments
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On the Nurses Walk

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

As some of you may have seen by my tweets over the last week or so, I was in Australia attending a meeting, the International Academy of Nurse Editors gathering in Coolum (August 11 to 14). We discussed editorial and publishing matters—interesting if you’re “in the biz,” but I imagine most nurses would roll their eyes if I discussed it here.

(Side note, to those interested: there was much discussion about the use and misuse of journal rankings and impact factors and the sustainability of society and clinical practice journals if journal rankings are to be the primary factor in deciding where one should publish one’s work. As long as faculty tenure and promotion are tied to publishing in higher-ranked research and “scholarly” academic journals—and for a thought-provoking discussion on how one defines “scholarly,” see this 2006 editorial (click through to the PDF version) by AJN’s editor-in-chief emeritus, Diana Mason—researchers and scholars will seek to publish in those places, as opposed to in clinical journals that are more widely read by practicing nurses. You’ll hear more from us soon on that discussion.)

Sydney: a proving ground for nurses. So, as long as I was halfway around the world, I took […]

2016-11-21T13:16:01-05:00August 23rd, 2010|Nursing|0 Comments
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What’s Your ‘Impact Factor’ as a Nurse?

Blue Impact I, by Helico, via Flickr. Blue Impact I, by Helico, via Flickr.

I hate to admit this in public but I do enjoy a good self-help book from time to time. My latest guilty pleasure is Write It Down, Make it Happen, by Henriette Anne Klauser. The title sums up the premise of the book pretty well: if you want to make changes in your life, start writing about them and your aspirations will begin to take on a life all their own.

I haven’t actually done that yet, so I will have to keep you posted. However, what really struck me was an anecdote about a study from the 1960’s (apparently this story has gotten around quite a bit and may have become an urban legend). Scientists observing monkeys on an island off the coast of Japan noted that these monkeys were washing sand off potatoes in a stream. Little by little other monkeys adopted this same behavior. When a certain number of monkeys (a “critical mass”) was reached, primates on neighboring islands started to do it too. This is sometimes referred to as the 100th monkey theory. […]

2016-11-21T13:33:56-05:00April 23rd, 2009|Nursing|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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