Advice for Writing a Journal Article – Journal of Youth Development Editors Weigh In

The hard-earned knowledge that comes from the day-to-day work of youth development programming is important to capture (Larson et al., 2015). 4-H youth development professionals have a lot to offer their colleagues. Other youth development professionals benefit when we share the challenges faced, lessons learned, strategies for success, and the implications of our work. Sharing one’s work advances the profession. One way to do this is through publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. But for many, publishing seems like a daunting task. The NAE4-HYDP Research and Evaluation Committee reached out to the editors of the Journal of Youth Development to ask for their advice on publishing in the journal. Across the responses from the editors, we saw three main themes.

• Fit: Make sure it is relevant to readers.
• Follow the guidelines.
• Fix common problems.

We’ll address each of these areas in more detail and share the editors’ feedback.

Fit
No matter what journal you submit to, making sure that your article fits the journal is good advice. Journal editors consistently recommend that authors understand the journal’s target audience. The Journal of Youth Development (JYD) fills a unique niche among youth-related journals. The journal was founded to provide an outlet for applied research about youth development, to make research accessible to practitioners, and to provide insights from practitioners to researchers in the field. Therefore, editors seek work that bridges research and practice. To be considered for JYD, an article must include the “so what” of your work and make a contribution to the field, which means that it is necessary to have practical applications, whether for new research, improved practice, or policy. Keep in mind that JYD’s audience is youth development professionals broadly defined, not just 4-H professionals, so the considerations extend beyond just what you or other 4-H colleagues could do with the results.

Maria Guzman, JYD Features section editor, offers this explanation of what it means to bridge research and practice.

I’m looking for a strong focus on bridging the research/evaluation components of the work the authors are submitting so that practitioners who read the article when it’s published are able to take some of those learnings and think about applying them in their work.

If you have questions about fit, reach out to Kate Walker, the journal’s managing editor (kcwalker@umn.edu), or to one of the section editors. Doing so may point you down the right path and save valuable time.

Follow the Guidelines
Journal editors stressed the importance of following the guidelines, both overall guidelines that are for the journal and for the specific article category. This includes guidelines on word limit, style, and structure.

The journal has four article categories. Expanded descriptions can be found on the journal’s website (https://jyd.pitt.edu/ojs/jyd/about/editorialPolicies#sectionPolicies).
• Feature Articles address important topics, issues, and trends. Articles in this area will transcend a single program and broadly inform principles of youth development.
• Program & Practice Articles share new findings from approaches to applied research and evaluation.
• Research & Evaluation Studies present and discuss programs, practices, trainings, and policies designed to inform and improve practice.
• Resource Reviews share valuable resources and keep readers abreast of important developments in the field.

Jill Young, section editor for Research and Evaluation Studies, commented that the most common feedback she gets from reviewers is that the manuscript does not adhere to the style guidelines. The journal uses the style guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th edition. APA has a great website (https://www.apastyle.org) and a manual. The manual itself is inexpensive and provides a wealth of additional information beyond what is contained on the website, especially for examples of reference citations.

Fix Common Problems
Many of the common mistakes that editors identified can be categorized as somehow “missing the mark.”
• The topic doesn’t fit (see “Fit” section).
• The “story” isn’t clear.
• The work is not situated within the literature (typically applies to novice authors).
• The writing is too technical and does not have implications for practice.
• The author overgeneralizes their findings beyond what is acceptable given their data and methods or the author does not explore the data deeply enough.

As Kate Walker explains: “We see two things. Often established scholars miss the mark on application and get too technical for our readers, and emerging scholars need support situating their work in the literature and with writing and organizing their manuscript.”

Writing that lacks clarity, coherent organization, structure, and flow is difficult to read. As well, a manuscript that is poorly written and has a significant amount of distracting grammatical errors is difficult to review. Authors should take the time and effort to make sure that their work is clear and free from errors. Taking time to write in a way that makes the work approachable, leaving out jargon and highly technical language, and avoids overly complex vocabulary provides a level of clarity and usefulness to the work, making it more likely to be published in a journal focused on translating research to practice.

Editors noted that there are often problems with one or more sections of the manuscript.
• Abstract: omitting the abstract or not realizing its importance (it should not be an afterthought)
• Introduction/Review of Literature: not articulating the relevance of the topic or not providing a strong theoretical framing
• Methods: carelessness in carrying out the methods or lack of clarity in explaining the methods
• Results: making analytical mistakes or mixing results and implications
• Discussion: no discussion of findings, findings have not been placed within the context of the theoretical framing, or making statements about causal links that are not warranted; the discussion should not be just a reiteration of the results with no real expansion or implications
• Implications/Conclusion: lacks bridge between research and practice or has not explained the study’s, program’s, or resource’s limitations

Fixing common problems brings us back to the need to format according to APA style. The website and manual provide advice on writing style and grammar, formatting tables and figures, and reference examples. A chapter in the APA manual and a section of the website (https://apastyle.apa.org/jars) are devoted to journal article reporting standards. This specialized set of guidelines can help authors know what to include in each section of a manuscript. These standards are most applicable when reporting empirical research, but similar principles apply for other types of papers. Even for the Resource Review section, authors should situate the resource within the relevant literature and discuss factors that youth development professionals should consider about using the resource, including strengths and any limitations regarding suitability for audience, setting, or other relevant factors.

Thought Leader section editor Dale Blyth stresses the importance of a clear story line. Another suggestion is to use a similar article from the journal as a model. Editors agree that it is helpful to discuss your proposed article with someone early in the process as well as having someone else read your manuscript before you submit it. Seek out advice if you are uncertain about the appropriateness of the analysis. Andrea Ettekal, Feature Article section editor, encouraged authors to consider talking through their idea with a colleague before starting to write.

It helps to talk to others about your findings before you write them up. Send your results to a colleague and then call them up and tell them about the findings. It's amazing how much you discover about your own results just by telling someone else about them (before you ever write!).

Other advice is offered in the Envision Yourself as an Author session presented at the 2020 NAE4-HYDP conference. This 1-hour presentation reviewed publishing benefits, obstacles, and myths; standard article components, and how to overcome common mistakes. It was recorded and is posted on the journal’s website (https://jyd.pitt.edu/ojs/jyd/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2).

Conclusions

The primary message from the editors who responded to our questions was that good articles take time and focus to produce. Prospective authors should take time to read through the expectations of the journal to make sure the manuscript they are working on is a good fit for readers. Following guidelines set out by the journal is another critical step to getting work published. Ultimately, a solid article tells a coherent story, is situated within the existing literature, and matches the claims to the data and methods. It is clearly organized, easy to read, free from writing errors, and formatted appropriately.
The biggest takeaway from writing this article is that the editors are approachable and invested in helping new and seasoned authors alike to share the hard work being done by 4-H youth development professionals. You can find the editorial team’s contact information at https://jyd.pitt.edu/ojs/jyd/about/editorialTeam.

As a youth development organization, 4-H has a unique home within the land-grant university system, and therefore it is incumbent upon us as 4-H professionals to be a two-way bridge between research and practice: ensuring that research informs practice and that practice informs research (Ferrari & Arnold, 2021). We hope you will consult the Journal of Youth Development for research to inform your practice, as a source of practical applications, and as a place to publish your work.

References
Ferrari, T. M., & Arnold, M. E. (2021). The application of social science in 4-H youth development programs. Chapter to be included in M. R. T. de Guzman & H. Hatton-Bowers (Eds.), The Role of Social Sciences in Extension. Cambridge University Press.

Larson, R. W., Walker, K. C., Rusk, N., & Diaz, L. B. (2015). Understanding youth development from the practitioner’s point of view: A Call for research on effective practice. Applied Developmental Science, 19(2), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1080./10888691.2014.972558