GAP Blog Guidelines

AGAIN, BEFORE WRITING, FIRST TAKE A LOOK AT GAP BLOGS ALREADY POSTED at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/group-the-advancement-psychiatry

Feel free to submit an idea even in partial form—we will give feedback

Simple word documents (no business or personal stationery) with track changes abilities are preferred, not google docs, please

  • Word Count: 400 to 1300 words in final product (not counting key point, references and resources)

  • Stay focused; making too many points in a short blog post is difficult for reader to follow. Decide what the main point is and work around that.

  • Title: The title has a 60 character limit and the subtitle has an 80 character limit

  • Byline: Provide a byline after the title with author(s) name(s) and Committee—please embed the link to your committee at the GAP website; if you have a website, feel free to embed a link to your name in the byline

  • Key Points: Tease out 3-4 key points that might summarize at the beginning what is in the blog—best to write those after you’ve written the blog—each key point has a 110 character limit

  • Keywords: Provide at least 5 keywords to make the blog more searchable on the internet

  • Vignette: If appropriate, use a clinical vignette or summarize a recent news story outlining an issue/problem—if you are writing a blog offering suggestions to the reader, it is helpful to start with the clinical problem and then end with a coda to the vignette that shows how the suggestions offered were helpful

  • Embedded Links:

Link the blog to any research that supports your opinions or any assertion of fact—embed one link per assertion;

  • Throughout the blog you can embed as many links as you think are helpful;

  • Choose reputable sites for embedded links: PubMed, University Websites, Government Agencies, Publisher Websites—this is a subtle way to educate the public about reliable sources of information;

  • If you don’t know how to embed links, provide them in your draft and we will help you with that;

  • Avoid Wikipedia links as they are not considered reliable by scholarly journals.

  • Do not use footnotes, instead embed a link to the reference in the body of the blog.

  • Bullet Points: If and when appropriate, you should use bullet point to outline problems and solutions to the issue being addressed, particularly if there are more than 2 of either

  • Resources: Provide a list of resources at the end of the blog that a reader might find helpful regarding the issue raised; resources are not additional references, but links to sites where people can get more information or assistance.

  • References: List up to three references after the resources (if any)—pick the top 3 that support your post; if you have more than 3, embed the rest in the appropriate reference within the blog’s text

  • Avoid First and Second Person Usage: When writing, minimize the use of first and second person (“I,” “we,” ‘my”,” “our,” “you,” “your”: “we think that you”) approaches—doing so makes unwarranted assumptions about who your reader(s) is (are) or what they are thinking

  • Jargon: Avoid medical jargon, if possible—the blog is mostly for a nonmedical audience; if you need to use jargon, define the term and embed a link to help the reader understand what the jargon means. However, it is perfectly acceptable to write a wonky blog post for policy makers, just include links for a general audience.

  • If what you are saying is not specific to psychiatry, use “psychiatrists and other mental health professionals”

  • Tone: Be persuasive rather than polemical or didactic

Blog Authorship

  • Individual committee members can write blogs but ideally the blogs should be reviewed by the committee(s) before submitting for publications board review. Psychology Today prefers that we limit authorship to no more than 3 people at a time. All authors are listed as members of a GAP Committee. Again, feel free to include an embedded link to author’s personal or professional website if so desired.