Putting pen to paper: writing for publication
We recently updated our author guidelines, which explain how to get your work published in The Podiatrist. Download them today and help to shape your membership magazine.
The Podiatrist accepts two main types of writing:
1. Articles relating to practice, including:
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- News, branch updates, event overviews (100 to 500 words)
- Personal perspectives (500 or 1000 words)
- In-depth articles on a single topic (500 to 2000 words).
2. Research papers, including:
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- Case studies based on observation
- Novel research and experiments
- Reviews and meta-analyses.
All up to 3000 words, excluding references.
Articles relating to practice
Make a plan
All good pieces of writing start with a plan. This helps identify the most important themes or points and gives a framework to write within. It will also help you stick to the key message of your article.
We like to work with authors from the start. Rather than send a finished article to The Podiatrist (although we will read any full articles sent to us), we would prefer for you to send a plan.
The plan should cover:
- Whether your article is a piece of news, a personal perspective, an in-depth article or something else
- Approximately how many words you want to write (note the word counts above)
- A one-sentence summary of your article: what is the key message?
- A brief outline of the sections and arguments you plan to make
- Why you want to write this article. Tell us a bit about your experience and send links to any other writing you have had published, if appropriate.
Send your plan to editorial@the-podiatrist.co.uk
The 10-step process for articles relating to practice:
- Plan read by the editorial team
- Editorial team gives guidance for writing a full article
- Writer sends the full article
- Changes may be requested by editorial team
- Article is professionally edited for spelling, style and clarity
- Article is designed
- Author is sent the finished article
- Author requests any final changes
- RCPod reviews the article
- Article published in the magazine.
Research papers
Getting the structure right
Papers published in The Podiatrist are subject to double-blind peer review. At least two reviewers with expertise relevant to the topic of the paper will give anonymous feedback and recommendations. This process can take several months.
To make sure you have included all the necessary detail in your paper, use this structure:
- Introduction
- Study aims or purpose
- Method, including relevant ethical approval
- Results
- Discussion
- Implications and recommendations
- Conclusion
- References
- Acknowledgements (if appropriate)
- Appendices, tables and images (if appropriate).
Send your paper, including a full list of references and any accompanying appendices, tables and images, to editorial@the-podiatrist.co.uk
The 10-step process for research papers:
- Paper read by the editorial team
- Changes may be requested by editorial team
- Paper sent to at least two reviewers for peer review
- Anonymous reviews shared with author
- Author addresses all feedback from reviewers
- Resubmitted paper sent to reviewers for final check
- Paper is designed
- Author is sent the finished paper and requests any final changes
- RCPod reviews the paper
- Paper published in the magazine.
Plan ahead for submissions
The Podiatrist is published six times per year.
Due to our printing schedule, we need a lot of notice to publish an article in a particular issue of the magazine. We try to publish articles in the order they have been submitted, but space does not always permit.
If you are keen for your writing to appear in a particular issue, please give at least six months’ notice for research papers, and contact us by the following dates for articles relating to practice:
- 11 August for the November/December 2025 issue
- 9 October for the January/February 2026 issue
- 8 December for the March/April 2026 issue.
Warning
The Podiatrist does not accept any writing suspected to have been created using artificial intelligence (AI). Please do not submit AI-generated text. Articles we suspect to have employed AI will be put through software that can detect its use, and if evidence is found we will reject the article, no matter what stage it is at.
This blanket ban is to ensure the quality of the publication. Text generated by AI can be inaccurate, may plagiarise the work of others and ultimately does not showcase the creativity of RCPod members. We want to read about your experiences in your own words.
Read or download the author guidelines