I hear it all the time. A talented and accomplished clinician or healthcare educator comes to me and says: “my next big goal is to finally get something published in a medical journal.”
Part of me cheers. It means they are brave enough to lean into professional discomfort. It means they have the ambition to reach beyond their immediate environment. It means they want to embrace something I love: the writing process.
But another part of me cringes. I know their main goal isn’t really publication. They want to make an impact on the world and “publication” is one way to demonstrate that. A mental framework that prioritizes the act of publication over a true professional or personal goal can lead writers astray and squander their time and energy. I’ll show you how.
The problem with trying to “get published”
As a journal editor, I should want people to make publication their goal. It gives me a constant stream of articles that are tailor-made for my journal (and allows me to reject anything that doesn’t fit). It keeps the people funding my journals happy. After all, publishers need to publish.
But as someone who wants to help develop your careers through writing, I know focusing on publication above all else can cause major problems:
- It scatters our focus. Publication is a vague goal, one we can meet in many ways. Too many ways. If all we care about is seeing our name in print, we will spend time on any and every project that might have a chance of acceptance. Even if we succeed, instead of a cohesive body of work, we are left with an eclectic jumble of articles that only serve to fill space on our CVs. When our collective works don’t focus on a common topic or area of interest, outside observers (including academic promotion and tenure committees) have a hard time figuring out where our expertise lies. Since good ideas tend to build on each other, we often do out best work when multiple articles or projects focus on a specific area or theme.
- It’s too close, and yet too far. Aiming for publication creates a short trajectory for career development. If we achieve the goal and publish an article, what next? Our plan is complete; our momentum stops dead. We are right back to staring at the blank page. Worse yet, if we fall short of our goal, we might be left with nothing—a Frankenstein’s draft buried in a sad folder on our hard drive.
- It’s heartbreaking. If publication if out goal, our success (and often our self-worth) hinges on the approval of a clunky system full of critics with fickle opinions (I should know, I am one of those dastardly critics). If publication is the primary goal, we will spend our careers completely dependent on external approval, stumbling through a minefield of heartbreak and rejection.
An example:
Let’s say your goal is “to publish a clinical review article covering everything there is to know about atrial fibrillation in The Journal of the American Academy of PAs (JAAPA).” Bad news, the editor sends you a quick rejection letter because that article already exists in JAAPA.
Now what? You’re dead in the water. Your goal has been vaporized in an instant and you’re left with just your despair.
But let’s make a tiny mental adjustment. Now let’s say your goal is “to improve your colleagues’ clinical care of atrial fibrillation.” Now, that rejection letter is just a speed bump. You realize you can publish the same article in a different journal, or turn that excellent material it into a conference lecture, or rework the manuscript into an update article on the latest guidelines or research, stuff that old article didn’t cover.
The possibilities are endless because your goal is bigger than any one article or journal or even the act of publication itself.
The value of writing for impact
A simple mental adjustment brings infinite value to our writing work in academia and beyond. Rather than trying to publish, we tell ourselves that we can use publication (in all of its many forms) as a vehicle to drive towards meaningful impact. That impact becomes both our aspiration and our measure of success.
Impact can be anything. It can mean improving the care of a specific patient population. It can mean raising awareness of an important social issue. It can even include one or more secondary impact(s) such as advancing our career or establishing our expertise on a topic. Impact is the thing you truly want to accomplish, the end result, your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
When impact is the goal—and writing and publication are merely the tools to achieve it—we avoid many pitfalls:
- Our work is focused. Rather than wandering aimlessly from isolated article to isolated article, over time our effort forms a cohesive body of work that orbits around a specific area of interest and aligns with our values. Even from afar, others can see that we consistently demonstrate knowledge and experience in a particular realm and we are viewed as authorities and experts on that topic. That effort then has a retrospective effect: the individual elements of our work carry more weight because they were written by someone with expertise in that area.
- Impact nurtures career growth. Aiming for impact means that with each publication, we see a natural progression to the next project. Publications are stepping stones, not our final destination. After we submit a manuscript to a medical journal, we don’t sit still awaiting our editorial fate. We keep driving towards that larger impact. Our career grows because we have naturally shifted our vision from the short term and superficial to the long term and meaningful. This doesn’t mean we need a formal, 5-year plan (that’s a daunting task you may not be ready to tackle). But it means the plan will eventually come together because the pieces naturally fit.
- Our setbacks are building blocks. Our quest to make an impact will involve setbacks and rejection. But those moments serve as valuable lessons. If we aim for impact rather than just publication, rejection doesn’t mean defeat. We have gathered valuable tools, skills, and resources along the way. A rejected manuscript might contain the raw materials for a lecture or conference presentation. We might use the research we’ve already done to create a second or third manuscript tackling our problem from a different angle. We may network with the collaborator or mentor we met along the way. We may simply pivot to a new journal or media outlet.
Finally, I believe aiming for impact makes writers happier people. After all, our words are just ink on paper (or, more often, pixels on a screen). It is the effect they have on others that gives them value and meaning. Focusing on impact reminds us that writing is fundamentally about human interaction. And that is where we most often find the joy in our work.
Something to ponder: What impact would you like your professional career to have? Do your writing ideas or projects support that impact or distract from it?
Want to take the next step toward getting published?
Click below to download my free guide to getting published – it’s written specifically for healthcare professionals.
