When we see a good journal article, we think of things like words like relevant or informative. And if it’s not relevant to us, we’ll typically flip or scroll passed the article onto something that is of interest. But how can we get to the point where people think that our writing is relevant and informative? First and foremost, we need to think about the three people who’re likely to interact with your writing: the reader, the editor and the yourself as author.
For the reader, a good article is likely to be one that’s accessible, of interest, uses a shared language, and has findings that are transferable to their own setting.
For the editor, a good article is likely to be one that’s in-scope, aligns with the journal’s author guideline, and is written to provide a coherent and credible account of the work being shared.
And from a writer’s perspective, a good article might simply be on that’s finished! Add to that, that it’s submitted (lest we forget, it needs to leave our laptop!), is in front of the right readers, and aligns with our sense of self (our identity) and why we wanted to write (our purpose).
When we think about writing a journal article, a journal’s author guidelines are a great place to start because they’ll guide how we approach our writing. Author guidelines let us know how long (or short) our article needs to be, whether our writing needs a formal structure, or if we need to use supporting references.
So, how might we usefully think about what makes a good journal article? It’s not simply a case of what we want to say. A good journal article is one that considers three perspectives. A good journal article meets the journal’s author guidelines, contains something that’s potentially useful for the reader, and is submitted so that we can get it in front of those we want to share our work with.
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