Featured Activities

March Manuscript Madness!!!

Junior, Senior, Basic Science and Clinical Faculty:

  • Do you need dedicated time to write but don’t find the time?
  • Do you work better with a deadline (which manuscripts don’t usually have)?
  • Are you a super perfectionist to the point where it impacts on your ability to publish?
  • Do you have the chance to write a review article that would be perfect for your career but you can’t find the time?
  • Do you have multiple manuscripts in preparation at one time?
  • Do you sometimes lose track of which co-author is working on a paper?
  • Do you have papers that lose steam over time especially if they are rejected from one journal and need to be sent to another?
  • Do you have papers on the “back burner” that never get moved to the front?
  • Are you working with co-authors or mentors who are slow, slow, slow?

Many of our faculty seem to have similar challenges when it comes to getting manuscripts published. We have dedicated March to helping motivate investigators at all ranks to get their papers moving.

We are offering a spreadsheet to help you organize your papers in progress and resources to help you move them forward.

Click here to see Dr. Zimmermann’s example of the March Manuscript Madness Spreadsheet – this is meant for faculty with several publications in preparation at once. Use this blank template and create your own spreadsheet. Customize it so it meets your needs.

Ask us about editorial assistance, senior faculty review, or librarian assistance for publication searches.

Email Sherri Hart, sherri.hart@medicine.ufl.edu, or Dr. Zimmermann, ezimmer2@ufl.edu, if you are interested in participating in a small writing group that can meet in person or by Zoom™.

Step by Step instructions to participating in March Manuscript Madness!!!

Step 1 Think about your situation and what your stumbling blocks are to publishing more.

Step 2 Address your particular needs or issues. (Ask for Dr. Zimmermann’s advice if needed)

Step 3 Download the spreadsheet if you have multiple papers ongoing and make it yours.

Step 4 Figure out how to dedicate more time to your manuscripts in the month of March.

Suggestions:

Don’t do email for the first hour of your day….write!

Come in an hour early at a few days a week….write!

Get up 2 hours earlier than normal on Saturdays in March. Drink coffee, sit in your jammies on the sofa while your family sleeps and…..write!

While these suggestions sound painful and are probably not sustainable, they may be possible for a month. Trust me, it feels good at the end of the month if you have something tangible that you have done for yourself.

Step 5 Let your collaborators know that you are making this push so that they are responsive and don’t stand in your way.

Step 6 Please let me know if you are participating, and if you are successful. If you have suggestions as to how to make the process of writing manuscripts more effective, let us know.