Improving a Manuscript's Readability and Likelihood of Publication.

This note discusses several ways to make journal articles more readable. It discusses the incentives of editors to publish “good,” readable papers, and some common misconceptions about publishing articles. Some suggestions for Improving a paper's likelihood of publication and its impact on the profession once published include writing the paper for the largest possible target audience; circulating the paper to colleagues before submission; summarizing the paper's major findings early and clearly; limiting the number of footnotes, acronyms, and mays; and making the tables' titles and legends descriptive.