 Let's talk next about the publishing process and how a journal is actually put together. First, we'll talk about the role of the editor, also sometimes called the editor-in-chief. The editor is responsible for the content of the journal to make sure that the content matches the purpose of the journal and the target audience for the journal. The editor also manages the review process and by that I mean that the papers come in, the editor selects peers to review the paper, sends the paper to those peers, receives the reviews back and makes decisions about the paper. The editor has the authority to make the final decision about the paper even though the reviewer's comments may be in conflict, one reviewer may say accept, one reviewer may say reject. It's the editor's decision of how to resolve those differences. The editor also works with the editorial board in selecting topics for the journal, helping to focus the journal and being sure that the journal is really meeting its goals and its target audience's needs. The role of the publisher in the journal, the publisher helps to maintain compliance with all of publishing best practices. If the journal has advertising in it, it's up to the publisher to work with obtaining that advertising. It's up to the publisher and their team to market the journal and they manage all the subscriptions. So I often, as an editor, would get emails or letters from the subscribers saying, my journal didn't arrive this month in the mail, can you help me with that? It's really not the role of the editor. The marketing, the packaging, the printing and the mailing of the journal is all done by the publisher themselves. The publisher also helps to manage the final version of the paper in that the publisher then will do the final editing of the paper through a copy editor and then either print or post online and the publisher is responsible for then setting up the print pages, binding the journal, shipping the journal and all those final steps. The editorial board, you've probably noticed that in every journal there's a list of an editorial board in the front of the journal. Each editor can decide how they want to use that editorial board. They're chosen based on their expertise in the topic area. Perhaps they've already published in that journal, but it's up to the editor to select the editorial board and to decide how long of a term that member will have. The editorial board helps the editor set the direction for the journal. What might be topics of the future? What type of papers are we seeking? Editorial board members may also be called upon to serve as reviewers. It depends on the journal and the editor's choice. The editorial board members may serve as what we call department editors or column editors where they may be responsible for a certain section of the journal, helping to let's say for example to solicit manuscripts or to get people interested in writing for a certain feature or department within the journal. Editorial board members are not paid for their work. Their volunteers, and again depending on the editor, really determines how much work an editorial board member may have. But if you ever join an editorial board, you want to be clear with the editor what are your responsibilities? How long is your term of office? Because sometimes editors merely like to list people who have content expertise as part of an editorial board, but don't call upon them for a great deal of work. The role of the manuscript reviewer. Let's talk about that next. In most journals, the paper is sent to peers for the peers to critique your article and to review it. In the world of nursing, most of that process is done what we would call blindly in that the reviewer does not know who the author is and the author does not know who the reviewer is. So we would call that double-blind peer review. So the reviewers look at the manuscript, read it carefully, and they review it for content and they provide feedback to the editor about that paper. Is it appropriate for the journal? Is the content accurate? We're not asking reviewers to look at grammar, spelling, punctuation. Although I can tell you from experience, most editors have reviewers who get distracted by poor spelling, punctuation, and grammar. And what happens unfortunately is sometimes reviewers spend way too much time on fixing grammar, punctuation, or other kinds of errors. Reviewers don't really need to attend to that kind of work. That's done by copy editors. We really need reviewers who have the content expertise. Can tell us is the content accurate? Is it written at a level appropriate for the intended audience? Are there parts that are missing? Are there parts that should be expanded? Is it too confusing and not a well-organized paper? So I would say that reviewing is one of the most excellent ways to really become a good writer. Once you sit down and begin to critique other people's writing, I found for myself it was one of the best ways to improve my own writing. So I would encourage you to think about volunteering to be a reviewer for a journal in your own field. Editors are always looking for reviewers, but if you do volunteer, one of the most important things is to return the paper on time. Editors have reviewers who are volunteers, they agree to review, they have good intentions and they mean well, but often they fail to return the paper. So if you're going to be a reviewer, only volunteer if you can really turn the paper back in a timely way.