Author and Editorial Board Information at PathologyOutlines.com

Revised: 24 April 2024
Copyright: 2012-2024, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PathologyOutlines.com is the world's most popular pathology website, averaging over 150,000 daily views / visits (click here for our traffic). Our topics are written by expert Pathologists and reviewed by our Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors-in-Chief and Editorial Board members.

To become an Author, please review the Author qualifications below and our Author agreement form. Either you or a co-author must qualify. Then email your CV, that of any co-authors and a list of preferred topics to Authors@PathologyOutlines.com. Please also review our Author instructions.


Table of Contents Authors | Editor-in-Chief | Deputy Editor-in-Chief | Editorial Board | Board of Reviewers | Resident / Fellow Advisory Board | Author Awards


Videos about Authorship


Our Philosophy Our mission is to provide useful information, fast and free, to practicing pathologists; i.e. those signing out cases. Authors should be experts in what they write. Their task is to make each topic authoritative and at least as thorough as what would be found in a specialty textbook. Topics should use our standardized format. Let us know if you want to combine, split, add or remove topics.


Why Be An Author?

• Author names and links are posted on the topics they write, on associated chapter pages and on the Authors page with an author photo and desired contact information. Authors for the past year will be acknowledged in a display at USCAP, a Blog post and in associated E-blasts.
• Authorship can be highlighted on an academic CV as a book chapter publication with supporting website traffic to demonstrate national and international impact.
• Your work helps the large number of pathologists who visit our website do a better job (see testimonials). Each topic lists the traffic for the current and prior year (click here). How else can you help so many pathologists throughout the world? (see traffic).
• We post the Best Author Awards for each year, as determined by our Editors. Winners receive a certificate, gift card and announcements via E-blast and social media. Top authors may be invited to join the Resident / Fellow Advisory Board or Editorial Board (as applicable) and to submit their topics for invited reviews to the Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine; see example at CNS & pituitary tumors - Hemangioblastoma and J Pathol Transl Med 2022;56:115.
• There is no financial compensation for writing, similar to other academic writing.

Author Qualifications

• Within the past 15 years, you must have published at least 5 first or last author journal articles other than case reports, in U.S., European or comparable journals, verifiable on PubMed, about the subspecialty in which you want to write. Authors are given a choice of topics based on our priorities and their publications.
• You must either be on staff or have been on staff in the past 5 years in the clinical practice of pathology.
• You must be fluent in written English as this is essential to follow author guidelines and we do not have staff available for language editing.
• If you are from outside the United States, then your experience must be comparable to U.S. pathologists.
• Fellows / senior residents or other staff must have their work co-authored by a pathologist who meets the staff pathologist requirements outlined above and the completed work must meet the same quality standards for our other writers. You must find your own co-author - we cannot do this.

Author Responsibilities

• Authors must follow our procedures, which are regularly updated based on feedback from authors and website visitors. Before writing, you must sign the Author agreement form we send you and agree on a first topic. We do not accept unsolicited work. Authors typically work on one topic at a time. If you want to do things differently, you must get approval from us first. We regularly review the work done by authors to make sure that our high standards are maintained. We reserve the right to not ask authors to write again if we believe it is no longer a good fit.
• Authors must include their name, position, institution and location to be posted on the Authors page. We prefer but do not require an email address and headshot.
• You should take pride in your writing, making sure it is thorough and authoritative.
• You will need to thoroughly review the literature, obtain images, write and review your drafts and respond to correspondence from us.
• You must be able to obtain, from your own collection or from others, representative microscopic or gross images of entities for the topics you write about. These images will be posted on our server so the links never disappear. Images should have a brief caption and a figure legend.
• Although we will give you an opportunity to correct any deficiencies, work that does not meet our standards will not be published.
• The writing process may involve a fair amount of communications with our staff until the topic is finalized, including routine edits and adding new material in response to review by our Editors. Thus, you must allow sufficient time for this work even after the draft is turned in. If you stop responding to us, we may not be able to use the topic at all or may assign the topic to someone else and remove your name.
• After your work is published, please send us modifications for your topic (new information, images, references, etc) at any time and we will revise the content within a few weeks. In 2-3 years, we will contact you to ask if you would like to be the author of this topic for the subsequent publication edition.

Editor-in-Chief Responsibilities

• Selected by CEO, typically from Deputy Editors, for a 2 year term.
• Senior authority on all matters of editorial policy decisions and scope of medical content, acting with impartiality and fairness. This includes textbook structure, content, topic templates, case of the month, What's New newsletter and decisions regarding Deputy Editors, Editorial Board and Authors, but excludes business issues.
• Communicate regularly with CEO regarding textbook issues and business issues, as appropriate.
• Communicate regularly with Deputy Editors to ensure progress is being made and any concerns are being addressed.
• Attend meetings (1-2 / year) of the "Executive Committee", which consists of the Editor-in-Chief, the Deputy Editors and PathologyOutlines.com's senior staff.
• Attend meetings of the Editorial Board.
• Supervise Resident / Fellow Advisory Committee.
• Liaison with pathology academic community and pathology organizations.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Responsibilities

• Commit to a 2 year term.
• Suggest improvements in your subspecialty's chapters from time to time.
• After each topic in your subspecialty is reviewed by the Editorial Board, review it line by line to ensure it follows our format and that there are no errors. You can also note questions for the authors or deficiencies to correct. This role is different from the Editorial Board review, which is intended to focus on substantive content issues, although obviously there is overlap.
• Attend meetings (1-2 / year) of the "Executive Committee", which consists of the Editor-in-Chief, the Deputy Editors and some of our senior staff.
• Based on edited topics, suggest candidates for yearly author awards, Editorial Board invitation and Resident / Fellow Advisory Board.
• Oversee Editors in the same subspecialty and assist them with their duties indicated below.
• This position is compensated.

Editorial Board Qualifications

• Our existing Editorial Board or Dr. Pernick typically recommends current authors to be Editors.
• You must have recently written 3-5 topics as an author, typically in your proposed Editorial Board subspecialty, using our current templates and procedures and have been a "good fit" for our textbook.
• You must meet the author qualifications and have demonstrated national impact within your subspecialty via publications, invited speaking and service.
• You must be on the faculty at a medical school or its equivalent.
• We prefer that you have fellowship training or certification and a practice focused in the intended subspecialty area(s).

Editorial Board Responsibilities Main responsibilities:

• Commit to a 2 year term.
• Review up to 2-4 topics per month written by other authors in your subspecialty and suggest changes and corrections. Your name is added to the webpage of every topic you review.
• Evaluate the table of contents for the chapter(s) within your subspecialty annually, suggest the highest priority topics to rewrite and indicate whether any topics should be deleted, merged or otherwise changed.
• We estimate this requires a time commitment of 2-5 hours per month.

Additional responsibilities:

• Participate in 1-2 annual subspecialty editorial board meetings by telephone or video, attend the annual Editorial Board meeting at the time of USCAP and optionally schedule time at our booth to recruit authors.
• Review Cases of the Month in your subspecialty for accuracy.
• Review recommended stains (IHC) and books within your assigned chapter(s).
• Ensure that staging and classification systems are up to date.
• Create a What's New newsletter every 3-4 years for distribution to our 10,000+ subscribers, which you can distribute at conference talks you give.

Benefits:

• Help a large number of pathologists do a better job.
• We promote you, your contributions, your books and your publications via our website, our trade show booths, social media, E-blasts and an editor interview.
• Network with other editorial board members at our annual USCAP breakfast and at other conference events.
• Receive conference gift bag.
• Use editorial board meetings and booth participation at meetings to leverage university business time away from the office.
• Obtain external letters of recommendation for promotion and tenure from the Editor-in-Chief or Deputy Editors.
• This position is compensated.

Board of Reviewers Qualifications, Responsibilities and Benefits

• Qualifications: Our existing Editorial Board or Dr. Pernick typically recommends pathologists to be on the Board of Reviewers based on their publication history, experience in reviewing journal articles and topics written for us.
• Responsibilities: Review topics written by other authors in your subspecialty and suggest changes and corrections. You should be available to review 5 topics per year with a 2-3 week turnaround time on each. There are no other editorial responsibilities.
• Benefits: Your name will be added to the webpage of every topic you review. We recommend you list this position on your CV with your Journal peer review positions. This is not a paid position.

Resident / Fellow Advisory Board Responsibilities

• Resident / Fellow Advisory Board members are nominated by our Editorial Board and must:
  • Participate in 1-2 annual resident / fellow specific conference calls to determine how well we are meeting resident / fellow needs and to help us communicate with residents / fellows.
  • Edit 1 topic per month within your subspecialty. Your name will be included in the topics you edit.
  • Attend the Editorial Board breakfast meeting at USCAP if possible.
  • Participate in Editorial Board conference calls if possible.