Publication plan

The first step in the publication process is for you to complete the publication plan form, for which your Publication Research Manager will contact you. This form outlines the plan for the publications that will be included in your awards issue. It also helps our editors understand your award and how your publications fully report your funded work.  

Award details section 

By gathering information about your research we gain insight into your work, enabling us to understand what we expect to see reported. This is often achieved by looking at the aims and objectives and the study protocol/proposal for the whole award. These allow us to assess the alignment between your research and our publication expectations. You may provide an infographic if you think it will aid our editor. 

Publication plan section 

Please provide a list of planned articles that will report on the funded work you have undertaken. This should state what element each are reporting on and how that relates back to your funded protocol/proposal or aims and objectives, as well as each work package. The publication plan is reviewed by  the journal editors, who assess your plan against our full reporting expectations, while also encouraging succinct and efficient overall reporting of an award in an issue of the journal. We expect most awards to be able to report their funded work in no more than 4 to 6 research articles (not including the protocol and analysis plans, if relevant; these are posted on the NIHR funding and awards site). However, if you believe you can achieve this with fewer than 4 articles, that is acceptable. Please provide a justification if you require more articles, which will be assessed by our editor. Note that this expectation specifically relates to articles that will appear in your issue of the journal and is not a limit on what you wish to publish elsewhere. If you plan to or decide to publish further articles beyond those intended for the journal issue please follow our Notification Procedure so these articles appear on the awards funding and awards page. Please note, you do not need to include details of your synopsis here, as this is a mandatory requirement for all teams. 

The location of your articles can be the NIHR Journals Library or an external journal. Articles can be submitted and published whenever they are already but must be submitted no more than 2 weeks after the end date of the award. If you are publishing externally, please state your target journal. Please note your synopsis will be due to be submitted 2 weeks after the end date of the award. We understand this plan represents your intended publications and they may not actually happen as first described; please be realistic in your external target journal and be aware of lengthy publication timelines and how that will impact on your submission to the NIHR Journals Library. Consider submitting your research articles to the NIHR Journals Library, in view of the editorial support we provide and our peer-reviewed, non-competitive process.  

Delivery of the publication plan and publication of the final issue 

Please complete the publication plan form accurately and concisely. This will facilitate the review process and enhance our understanding of your work. Remember, the publication plan is an important step in determining how you will report your award and giving our editors enough information to give feedback on your plan.  

Once you have submitted your publication plan form, our editorial team will review it and provide feedback, if necessary. We encourage open communication and collaboration throughout the publication process to ensure a collaborative effort in how you will tell the story of your research. Once the plan is agreed by the Senior Journal editor the delivery of the plan will be managed by the editorial office. We expect plans to change, therefore please contact your Research Manager if changes are required or when articles have been submitted or published. For external articles, we ask that you send us the submitted and accepted versions as soon as possible after submission or acceptance. We will not formally peer or editorially review these, but the editors need to see them to assess the content of the synopsis and the overall reporting of the award. 

The NIHR values efficient and timely dissemination of its funded research so that it can have the maximum benefit. As a signatory to the WHO joint statement on public disclosure of results from clinical trials, the Journals Library are committed to all its NIHR-funded research should be published in a peer-reviewed journal within 24 months of primary study completion within the Threaded Publication Model. 

If you do have any questions, please contact your Publication Research Manager or email journals.library@nihr.ac.uk