Writing for publication

This guide supports NHS staff, learners and researchers to plan, write, publish and share research, audit, continuous improvement (CI), quality improvement (QI), service evaluation, case reports, education innovation, evidence synthesis and other professional outputs.

Plan your publication

Start by being clear about what you are writing, who needs to read it and what you want the publication to achieve. Check whether the output is research, audit, CI, QI, service evaluation, education, a case report or another type of professional article. This will help you identify the right governance route, reporting guideline and target journal.

Before you start writing

Things you need to check:

  • Clarify the publication type
    • Why it matters: Different outputs may need different approvals, reporting guidelines, evidence standards and consent checks
  • Identify the intended audience
    • Why it matters: A specialist journal, professional magazine, local evidence bulletin or service improvement report may need different language and structure
  • Check local governance early
    • Why it matters: Local policy may cover publication approval, consent, conflicts of interest, copyright, data protection and communications sign-off
  • Agree authorship and acknowledgements
    • Why it matters: Discuss contribution, author order, corresponding author responsibilities and acknowledgements at the start
  • Plan publication costs
    • Why it matters: Some routes involve an Article Processing Charge (APC), while other trusted routes may not

Choose a trusted journal or outlet

Deciding where to publish can be difficult. If you decide early, you can use the target journal's author's guidance to shape the article from the start. Shortlist three or four possible journals or outlets and compare scope, audience, article type, indexing, publishing model, copyright, Open Access route and any APC.

For initial ideas, copy and paste your abstract into Journal, Author, Name, Estimator (JANE) or search JOT (Journal Targeter), for journal recommendations.
Other things to consider:

  • Look at where the papers in your literature review were published
  • Ask colleagues which journals they read, trust and submit to
  • Check whether the journal publishes your type of work, such as research, audit, QI, service evaluation, education or case reports
  • Consider emailing the editor with a short title and abstract if the journal guidance allows it
  • Ask your local library service for support with journal selection. They may need your draft paper or abstract to give useful advice

Key publishers

Check publication integrity

Some publishing practices can damage author reputation and the reliability of the scholarly record. Use several checks rather than relying on a single warning list or website.

Predatory journals

Are journals which will publish papers and exploit the open access model. Authors will often pay to have their paper published, which may be subject to misleading promises, unclear fees or weak editorial processes.

Resources

Hijacked journals

Imitate a legitimate journal by copying branding, web addresses or publication details.

Resources

Paper mills

Sell or generate unreliable outputs, including poor-quality or fabricated research.

Resources

Be cautious if the journal scope is unclear, the editorial board is hard to verify, contact details are missing, fees are hidden, Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) do not resolve correctly, or publication frequency changes suddenly.

Use Think. Check. Submit as one practical starting point, then ask your local library service or research team if you remain uncertain.

Check governance, ethics, copyright and AI use

Governance checks are not just for formal research studies. Publication can introduce additional issues around consent, confidentiality, ownership, conflicts of interest, re-use of images or tables, and how findings are communicated.

Responsible publication checks

Ethics and approvals

Ethical guidelines are in place to ensure the integrity of the researcher. Publishers will investigate allegations of ethical issues. These may include author disputes, plagiarism, and competing interests. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has guidance, toolkits and flowcharts which cover all aspects of ethics approval. The NHS Health Research Authority also has a tool to check if ethics approval is required.

If you are still unsure, consult your local research department for assistance in completing an ethics approval form. Also check whether your work is research, audit, improvement or a service evaluation, because local registration, approval and consent requirements may differ. Publication may add other confidentiality and consent considerations, especially case reports or small patient groups.

Confidentiality and consent

Avoid patient-identifiable information unless you have the correct consent and approval. Be especially careful with case reports and small patient groups. Check local information governance policies for advice.  Support may be available through your research and innovation department. Publishers will often supply their own forms for the purposes of ask for consent checks, including use of images.

Copyright and licences

Copyright protects your work and stops others from using it without your permission.

It is automatic, you don’t need to register. Copyright can be transferred by contract or licence. Your employment contract may transfer ownership of work to your organisation. Check your organisational publication policy before submitting.

When publishing, the contract will often state copyright is transferred to the publisher. As an author you will retain the moral copyright on the information usage. Find out more about the rights granted by copyright.

Check employment contracts, funder terms, publisher agreements and permissions for third-party content.

If publishing online, you can opt to use Creative Commons and Open Government Licensing. You retain copyright, but signal how people are allowed to use the content without requesting permission.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

The UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) has a practical guide for researchers. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools may help with planning, structure, grammar, readability, tone and idea generation, but they must not replace the author’s intellectual work. Remember:

  • Do not upload confidential, patient-identifiable or sensitive unpublished information to free or unapproved tools. Check if your organisation has an approved tool.  Information may be available in your local AI Policy or from local Information Governance Team
  • Do not upload copyrighted material (this includes full text articles and abstracts) into any generative AI tool, without express permission from the copyright holder to use in this way
  • Check your target publisher or journal policy before using AI-assisted tools
  • AI cannot be listed as an author, because it cannot take responsibility for the work
  • Authors remain responsible for accuracy, references, interpretation, originality, bias and omissions. Check the references closely. AI has been found to use incorrect or hallucinated references
  • Be transparent and disclose AI use to the journal, publisher, funder or organisation
  • Keep a record of what tool was used, when it was used and how it supported the manuscript

Author responsibility

Authors remain responsible for accuracy, references, interpretation, originality, bias, omissions and final wording. See NHS Resolution guidance on liability issues concerning the use of artificial intelligence.

Useful sources include Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), NHS Health Research Authority (HRA) and UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) AI guidance.

Open Access, APCs and funding

Open Access means that readers can access the article without a subscription. Routes and costs vary, so check the journal, funder, local Research and Innovation (R&I) team and any academic partner agreements before submitting.

Even in Open Access publishing, there are costs. You may be asked to cover the Article Processing Charge (APC) as an author. Thinking about APC early on will allow you to factor these costs into your application for a research grant, allowing you to budget for publication.

The Open University has a clear guide to APCs.

If you are studying at a university or have an honorary contract with an academic institution, you might want to explore whether they have arrangements with certain publishers (Oxford University Press (OUP), British Medical Journal (BMJ), Elsevier). This may mean that the institution will cover the APC:

  • Green Open Access usually means that a version of the article is deposited in a repository, subject to publisher conditions
  • Gold Open Access usually means the final article is openly available on the publisher platform and may involve an APC
  • Diamond Open Access usually means that the article is free for readers and there is no APC for the author, although journal quality and governance checks are still needed
  • If you are applying for a research grant, check whether publication costs can be included under funder rules
  • If you have an honorary academic contract or university collaborator, check whether institutional publishing agreements apply

Review specific publisher Open Access policies:

Potential funding sources to explore include the:

Write and structure your article

Check reporting guidelines from the Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research (EQUATOR). These guidelines will show you how to structure each section of your research paper. Some examples of these are:

Publishers may ask for additional reporting requirements. This may include use of the Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies (PRESS) Checklist for reporting search strategies.

The University of Oxford and Scribbr have produced guidance for essay and dissertation writing skills and guidance on how to write a research paper.

Think about writing a plain language summary of your research that is understandable to a non-clinical audience. Cochrane provides plain language guidance for their Cochrane Reviews, which may be helpful.

Finally, the Research Toolkit from NHS England can assist you in writing up your findings.

Your abstract/title

The abstract and title are the most visible part of your paper and a primary way in which others will be able to find and read your research. Use the target journal's author guidance before you start drafting. Match the journal's article type, word count, formatting, reporting checklist, reference style and disclosure requirements:

  • Ensure your research paper has a clear title and is concise
  • Remember to avoid unexplained acronyms
  • Consider a plain language summary for non-specialist readers
  • Use a reference manager if helpful and check every reference against a trusted source. Do not use AI-generated references unless they have been verified
  • Keep notes on sources as you write to reduce accidental plagiarism
  • Check whether the abstract still reflects the final paper before submission
  • This guide will help you construct a title, abstract and keywords to maximise visibility and impact

Referencing other studies

Referencing styles will be dictated by the publisher and journal in which you publish. Consider using a reference manager to help you produce a reference list and cite other papers correctly. Examples include EndNote Fusion, Mendeley and Zotero.

Your university or NHS Library may be able to help you use reference managers. Affiliation with a university may provide access to referencing management software with your university login.

Below are some help guides on specific reference managers:

  • Mendeley
  • Zotero
  • EndNote Fusion (EndNote Fusion - formerly Refworks. There is a possibility of access to this via an OpenAthens account - please contact your local NHS library for details).

Authorship, affiliations and acknowledgements

Discuss authorship at the start and return to it as the work develops. Keep a written record of contributions, author order, corresponding author responsibilities, acknowledgements and final approval. Seniority alone should not determine authorship:

  • Check the target journal's authorship and contributorship guidance
  • Use the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) to define and allocate roles
  • Make affiliations clear and use the organisation’s preferred wording where available
  • Acknowledge library support where appropriate. If librarian input is substantial, discuss authorship early using recognised authorship criteria and local policy
  • Register or update Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCiD) before submission. An ORCiD account can ensure that you are distinguished from every other researcher. You can link all your published work together under your own unique ORCiD.

Submit, review and respond

  • Submit to one journal at a time
  • Check copyright, licence terms, funding declaration, conflicts of interest, data sharing statement, AI disclosure requirements and reporting checklist before submission
  • Prepare a covering letter if the journal requests one
  • When reviewer feedback arrives, create a response table with the reviewer comment, your response, manuscript change, page or line reference and any outstanding query
  • Respond politely and specifically, with evidence where needed
  • If the article is rejected, read the feedback, look for a new journal in which to publish it. Revise the manuscript appropriately in line with the journal guidelines

Share, archive and evidence impact

The more people that see your work, the more likely it is to be put into practice. The work needs to be visible, accessible and shared with the right audiences. Plan dissemination and implementation before publication where possible:

  • Check your ORCID record has been updated (this might be done through the publisher or require manual entry)
  • Check whether the accepted manuscript or published version can be deposited in a Trust, university or funder repository
  • Let your local library service know so they can advise on repositories, current awareness, research reporting or impact evidence
  • Share with local communications teams, service leads, professional networks and communities of practice where appropriate
  • Consider a plain language summary, blog post, internal news item, teaching session or conference abstract
  • Track proportionate impact, such as service change, policy influence, citations, downloads, altmetrics, enquiries, teaching use or inclusion in guidance

The above approach is known as translational science or knowledge translation.

Page last reviewed: 5 November 2026
Next review due: 5 November 2028