Editor`s Opinion: A Time-Honored Tradition

  While folks in large sections of the country were shoveling layers of snow and ice, faculty members and organizers of the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care and the Wound Healing Society were thinking about April in Tampa, Fla. Buoyed by visions of palm trees, planners and presenters have been busy preparing syllabus materials and slides, trying to gauge the wide spectrum of attendee interests and learning needs. Like OWM readers, attendees vary in terms of experience, educational background, and conference objectives but they are united in their passion to increase individual and collective knowledge of wound care to improve outcomes and quality. Speakers must be cognizant of such diversity and single-mindedness of mission.

  The time-honored tradition of organizing meetings and publishing journals to foster the scientific exchange of ideas is alive and well after hundreds of years. However, the tools and rules have changed dramatically. We have computer-generated slides instead of handwritten notes. We don’t simply gather anymore – the format and content of professional meetings generally follows policies and guidelines developed by professional organizations such as State Nurses Associations and the North American Center for Continuing Medical Education. Some guidelines are easier to implement and follow now than a few decades ago. Others are more demanding.

  For most authors, the process of preparing and submitting a manuscript to a scientific journal is much simpler. Forget typewriters, white-out, and sending multiple copies of the manuscript and sets of camera-ready photographs, figures, and tables via snail mail – now authors can compose and edit on screen, paste and copy manuscripts (and figures and tables) into the required forms, and submit via email and/or upload to the journal’s manuscript submission website. However, instructions for authors and manuscript content standards have increased substantially. Because the public and the healthcare community rely on the editorial process to ensure the information provided is trustworthy, many journals, including OWM, have adopted strict manuscript review procedures and processes. Specifically, OWM editorial policies for authors, reviewers, and editorial staff are based on the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (see https://www.icmje.org/).

  To help novice and expert authors-to-be meet these requirements and submit the evidence-based manuscripts our readers need and demand, OWM recently updated its author instructions (available at https://www.o-wm.com). In addition, if you are considering attending the SAWC this year and interested in learning more about evaluating, reading, and conducting research or want to know more about how the publication process works, you can attend Pre-conference Session 3 on Saturday, April 28, and the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care Research Forum on Tuesday, May 1. These two sessions will address numerous publishing considerations, including but not limited to the reasoning behind increased regulatory scrutiny of clinical publications and the need to maintain the highest research and journalistic integrity when preparing manuscripts, as well as insights into the submission/review process and practical tips on applying submission guidelines to specific manuscript types (eg, original clinical research and case studies).

  Quite frankly, there is selfish interest here. The Editors and reviewers at OWM, WOUNDS, and other HMP Communications publications hope that by explaining the theory and practice involved in manuscript submission, potential articles that cross our desks will be more likely to pass muster with fewer requested revisions. But in the grander scheme of the healthcare arena, our motivation is more humble. If we champion well-planned, well-detailed, well-executed studies through our SAWC sessions and OWM articles, we celebrate the cause of evidence-based practice, which ultimately provides the best patient care. And hasn’t that been the mission of speakers, meeting organizers, attendees, authors, editors, and readers for decades – to provide the best care possible?

  The seemingly never-ending changes in clinical, research, and communication tools not only require us to be diligent in our publication and presentation preparations. They also give testament to the power of process and to the sense of purpose we share with visionaries of the past.

This article was not subject to the Ostomy Wound Management peer-review process.