Editorial guidelines – contributing articles to Health Management
What is Health Management?
Health Management is the magazine for members of the Institute of Healthcare Management. Since the beginning of 2007 it has been published by Ashridge Communications and edited by Vicky Burman. The magazine has undergone major improvements with its more dynamic design and accessible features aimed at supporting individual managers across health and social care in their everyday work and ongoing professional development.
Who decides the content of Health Management?
The content of every issue is planned by the editor in collaboration with IHM chief executive Sue Hodgetts. An overall theme is agreed for each issue, reflecting common challenges facing the health and social care sector. A range of specific topics will be identified within this theme to offer a mix of information and advice relevant to the IHM membership, wherever they work and however long they’ve been in management.
In addition to specific features, the magazine includes regular articles on learning and development opportunities, IHM news and regional activities, legal advice and careers guidance.
Who writes for Health Management?
The editor will invite organisations with specific expertise to contribute a feature on a particular topic, agreeing structure, content and tone so that the article is appropriate for the magazine’s readership.
But Health Management also relies on contributions from IHM members, both for its news pages, regular items and specific features. Case studies, letters and other input from personal experience are particularly welcome. If you are carrying out research in the course of studying for a management qualification, why not share your findings with others?
If you have an idea for a feature, or a news item you’d like to submit, please contact the editor at vicky.burman@ashridgecommunications.com to discuss it further. Please note that Health Management rarely uses unsolicited contributions. Guidelines for contributors
After discussing your idea with you, the editor will suggest an outline of what the article will cover, how long it should be and when it needs to be written by. This helps in planning the magazine’s overall content.
Copy deadlines
Health Management has quite long lead-in times. In other words, draft copy for an issue will need to be submitted two months prior to publication. There is a production schedule that the editor, designer, printer and distributor all need to keep to, so articles that arrive after the copy deadline – unless specifically agreed with the editor – won’t get published.
Writing style and word counts
All content goes through a sub-editing process so that the magazine has a consistent style and there are no grammar or spelling mistakes, but at the same time everyone has their own way of writing. So don’t feel you need to use long words or complicated phrases – remember that this is a magazine for other managers with similar experiences to your own, and write with your peers in mind.
Health Management is not an academic journal, so don’t include diagrams or references unless they’re really necessary. The aim is to put across information and advice clearly and in a relevant way.
To make features as accessible to busy managers as possible, the magazine is designed around relatively short articles. A full-page feature will be no more than 700 words long. News stories are about 250 words. This means that copy needs to be succinct and to the point. It is important that the word count is stuck to as much as possible to help the editor and designer lay out the magazine easily.
Don’t worry about headlines and picture captions – that’s the sub-editor’s job. But you could try breaking articles down to highlight case study examples or top tips. Think about other publications you regularly see and what types of feature you find easiest to read and understand.
It can be a challenge to get messages across within a tight word count, but the editor and sub-editor can advise on ways to do this. Most Health Management articles carry a ‘further information’ box to direct readers to websites and other sources of more detailed and in-depth material on the same topic.
Images
Relevant images are always welcome, but if you’re submitting digital pictures with your article, please don’t paste them into the Word file. A separate JPEG file is preferred, which should be in a high resolution format (300 dpi) for use in print - what looks good on a website may appear grainy on paper if the digital quality isn’t good enough. The magazine will always give a photo credit to the owner of the image, so please don’t submit images if you’re unsure of the source or there could be copyright issues.
Why should you contribute to Health Management?
The magazine is only as good as its contributions. For Health Management to be truly relevant, and useful, to health and social care managers requires your input.
Contributing an article to the magazine is a great way to boost personal and professional development in a number of areas.
- If you enjoy writing, the magazine gives you the opportunity to showcase your talents to an audience of more than 10,000 of your peers.
- Health Management can act as a vehicle for you to encourage debate on issues you feel strongly about.
- You can share good practice and lessons you’ve learned to help other managers make improvements in health and social care.
