Nursing Times author guidelines for opinion articles

Nursing Times publishes opinion articles on a range of nursing topics and settings, some political, some clinical and many that are hard to categorise and simply represent a view or an experience.

Some of the articles are commissioned specially by the editorial team and others are submitted by contributors, either already fully written or as ideas that can be developed.

We are very keen to encourage our readers and other stakeholders to write opinion pieces when there is something they want to comment on, either as a specialist or simply having a strong view.

Here are a few guidelines on our opinion pieces to help prospective contributors:

It helps us best if, before writing one, that you please read some of the articles on the opinion page of the Nursing Times website to become familiar with our style: www.nursingtimes.net/opinion

Opinion articles submitted to Nursing Times should be around 650 words in length, though a bit less or a bit more is fine. They should be in a free-flowing text style without sections or headings.

In addition, Nursing Times aims to publish articles in clear, plain English, so please avoid complex or overly academic language, and keep jargon to a minimum.

Our opinion articles do not need a formal reference list and should not include any figures or tables. However, links to relevant articles or websites for further reading can be included.

Last but not least, please do not submit your opinion article to other publications while it is under consideration by Nursing Times. We are interested in exclusive and genuine views, not marketing.

Please note that all opinion articles are edited before publication.

To submit an opinion piece for consideration or to discuss an idea for an article further, please email Nursing Times production editor Sam Gournay: sam.gournay@emap.com

Further tips:

• Please include your name, job title or role, and employer or education institution with your submission, as we will normally include this information when we publish your piece
• When submitting your article, please attach a landscape-style image of yourself that is suitable to be published it. This can also be sent at a later date, after the piece has been accepted for publication, if you prefer. Please avoid sending holiday snaps or pictures where you are wearing sunglasses