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Approach to publishing for large health services research projects

William Hogg, Melissa Donskov, Grant Russell, Clare Liddy, Sharon Johnston and Liesha Mayo-Bruinsma
Canadian Family Physician September 2014, 60 (9) 854-855;
William Hogg
Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, cross appointed to the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, at the University of Ottawa in Ontario and Senior Research Advisor at the C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre at the Bruyère Research Institute.
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Melissa Donskov
The former Operations Manager at the C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre.
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Grant Russell
A former scientist at the C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre and is now Professor and Director of General Practice Research at the Southern Academic Primary Care Research Unit in the School of Primary Health Care at Monash University in Melbourne, Aust.
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Clare Liddy
Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa and Scientist at the C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre.
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Sharon Johnston
Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa and Scientist at the C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre.
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Liesha Mayo-Bruinsma
Former research associate at the C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre.
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Large health services research projects can inform policy change and improve practice. Unfortunately, a lot of good work never gets published and its effect is lost.1–4 Little has been written about how to improve publication success. We present our approach to supporting the publishing of our research findings— developed over several large, multidisciplinary, multiyear research studies—that addresses challenges common to many research teams including the following:

  • the organization of and accountability for writing tasks;

  • time commitments and coordination of writing team members; and

  • the career mobility needs of authors.

Dealing with organizational and accountability challenges

Preliminary writing meetings

Near the beginning of each project, the investigators and senior project staff meet to develop an organized strategy for writing papers. The principal investigator encourages the team to identify potential ideas. The list is subsequently organized into a coherent group of papers. Members of the team then volunteer to join or lead core writing teams. Timelines are negotiated and staff are assigned to support each writing group and provide progress reports at regular intervals. If the leader of a writing group becomes unable to commit to drafting the paper in a timely manner, he or she may step down. The principal investigator then takes on the responsibility of finding someone else to fill the lead role.

Authorship

Authorship is important for academics. Our Authorship Policy, guided by the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals,5 is available on request (whogg{at}uottawa.ca). An authorship contribution table is maintained for each project describing how each person has contributed. Once a paper is ready for publication, the principal investigator consults with the lead of the core writing group; reviews the authorship contribution table; and proposes the authors, their order of citation, and the acknowledgment list. The person who has contributed the most will be the first author, and this is usually but not necessarily the lead of the writing group. After the writing team signs off on the authorship attribution plan, it is sent to all project investigators for discussion and ultimately for approval.

Timelines and key deliverables

Initially, the core writing group leads produce a high-level outline of what will be addressed in the papers and identify the targeted journals. This information is shared with other writing teams to avoid overlapping publications. Timelines are negotiated for an initial draft of each paper.

Information management

A centralized database of potential journals targeted for publication saves investigators’ time by providing access to the journal’s general focus, types of articles it wishes to attract, manuscript guidelines, and other relevant information. Writing teams use common reference management software (eg, Reference Manager, EndNote), and the staff maintain a centralized reference database that is updated on a regular basis.

Monitoring progress

The progress of the writing groups is monitored quarterly by the principal investigator. If the timelines are not met, the principal investigator seeks to understand why. Assistance is offered where possible, but if a second deadline is not met, the lead of the core writing team might be asked to step down from this role, usually being replaced by another member of the core writing team.

Time commitments and coordination of the writing team

Writing coordinator

For large projects, assigning one of the staff members the role of writing coordinator will support the execution of the publication plan.

Writing retreats

Writing retreats, in a local setting, allow the authors to remove themselves from other commitments to focus solely on writing. These retreats can save many weeks or months compared with what would occur within regular routines.

Writing coordination meetings

About once a year, a project meeting is dedicated to coordinating the writing of the various papers. These writing coordination meetings help overcome challenges such as project “branding,” duplication of effort or content, or need for additional skills to complete analyses. They also reinforce accountability to the master plan. Solutions that emerge from these meetings are then disseminated to all project members.

Review process

As a paper begins to take shape, all investigators, including those not on the core writing team, are given drafts in order to provide feedback. If they make substantive contributions, investigators who are not part of the core writing team can also be included as authors.

Career promotion needs

Career promotion needs are identified at the preliminary writing meetings and are addressed by assigning roles that give the investigator the opportunity to earn authorship.

Implementation

Our managerial approach considerably enhances our writing productivity. In the 4 years following the completion of data collection for our largest project to date,6 23 articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals and 2 are currently under review.

Conclusion

This article is meant to share an approach that encourages and supports research teams throughout the process of writing for publication. In sharing our experiences, we hope to assist others in overcoming the obstacles inherent to most applied health services research environments and in moving efficiently through this fundamental step in the knowledge translation process.

Notes

Hypothesis is a quarterly series in Canadian Family Physician, coordinated by the Section of Researchers of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. The goal is to explore clinically relevant research concepts for all CFP readers. Submissions are invited from researchers and nonresearchers. Ideas or submissions can be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cfp or through the CFP website www.cfp.ca under “Authors and Reviewers.”

Footnotes

  • Competing interests

    None declared

  • Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada

References

  1. 1.↵
    1. Cupples SA
    . Publishing the research report. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 1999;13(Suppl 1):S123-30.
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    1. Grzybowski SC,
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    . A physician peer support writing group. Fam Med 2003;35(3):195-201.
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    1. Meinsenhelder JB,
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    . Perceived barriers to getting published: results of the Janac Survey. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care 1995;6(6):57-62.
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    . Facilitating writing by practitioners: survey of practitioners who have published. Soc Work 2003;48(1):75-83.
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  5. 5.↵
    International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: writing and editing for biomedical publication. 2006. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
  6. 6.↵
    1. Dahrouge S,
    2. Hogg W,
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    7. et al
    . The Comparison of Models of Primary Care in Ontario (COMP-PC) study: methodology of a multifaceted cross-sectional practice-based study. Open Med 2009;3(3):e149-64.
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Canadian Family Physician: 60 (9)
Canadian Family Physician
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Approach to publishing for large health services research projects
William Hogg, Melissa Donskov, Grant Russell, Clare Liddy, Sharon Johnston, Liesha Mayo-Bruinsma
Canadian Family Physician Sep 2014, 60 (9) 854-855;

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