Trustee Editorial Guidelines

  1. Who reads Trustee magazine?
    Trustee’s approximately 25,000 readers fall into the following categories:
    • 50 percent are hospital or health system governing board presidents, governing board chairs, board vice presidents or vice chairs, board treasurers or board secretaries
    • 40 percent are other board members and executive staff
    • 10 percent are from other health care-related businesses
  2. How can my article best serve Trustee’s readers?
    Trustees are citizens with diverse professional backgrounds who volunteer to guide our communities’ most important institutions. Trustee magazine serves these readers by providing resources to help them understand the most pressing issues in health care and governance and then hold executive leadership accountable to the organization’s mission of serving the community. Trustee typically publishes two types of articles:
    1. Pieces that educate trustees about health care issues and trends, such as physician integration, quality and patient safety, finance, delivery system transformation and information technology. Because trustees are not involved in the daily management of the health care enterprise, these articles should offer a high-level look at these issues.
    2. Pieces on governance that address specific board tasks, such as creating effective agendas, succession planning or other matters such as resolving board conflicts, meeting legal/fiduciary responsibilities and succession planning.
  3. What types of articles are published?
    1. Featured Stories: 2,000 words
    2. Practical Matters: shorter features that offer actionable steps for addressing a specific governance or health care concern. Ideal for how-to or step-oriented articles (1,100 words)
    3. Viewpoint: an editorial (700-1,100 words)
  4. What is the submission process?
    1. Step 1: E-mail senior editor Rick Hill (rhill@healthforum.com) to propose a story or submit an abstract (approximately 4 to 5 sentences about the idea). This is an essential step and will help you avoid writing an article that may not be accepted because we either have a similar piece in-house or ran something on the same topic recently.
    2. Step 2: Develop an outline for editorial review. If your article idea is accepted, we will ask for a written outline (usually an extended paragraph and bullet points on what the piece will cover). The outline ensures that the author covers all the bases expected in the submission and helps avoid significant rewrites or major changes to the submission. We will also assign a word count and a deadline.
    3. Step 3: Submit the article by the deadline. The text for the article and a brief author bio (name, title, organization, e-mail address) should be submitted electronically, ideally in Microsoft Word.

    No article will be offcially accepted for publication until after the editors have reviewed the finished manuscript.

  5. What else do I need to know?
    • When possible, use real or hypothetical examples to illustrate points.
    • Choose narrow topics with which you have a lot of experience.
    • Take time to read recent articles on Trustee’s Web site, www.trusteemag.com, to become familiar with the magazine’s focus and tone.
    • References should be incorporated into the article body. As a nonacademic publication, Trustee does not publish endnotes, footnotes or reference lists except by prior arrangement with the editors.
    • Tables, figures and illustrations should be simple. Please place them at the end of the electronic document.
    • Do not submit manuscripts that are being considered elsewhere for publication or that already have been published.
    • Do not submit manuscripts longer than 2000 words.
    • Articles should be strictly for educational, not advertising or promotional purposes.

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