Publication Mentor Program

Publication Mentor Program Ground Rules   Mentee: new author. Mentor: experience author helping a new author.   Mentee and mentor engage voluntarily. There is no right or duty to interact. The project can be paused or terminated by either party at any time. There is no guaranteed outcome of the interaction.   Prospective mentees can seek guidance from any mentor for a particular project. Occasionally, it may be best to involve more than one mentor.   Authorship: By default, the mentee is the author. This presumes that the vast majority of the intellectual content and the writing is contributed by the mentee. The mentor provides guidance, but is not a ghost writer. If either the intellectual contribution and/or writing would be primarily carried out by the mentor, authorship (joint: as mentee & mentor or mentor & mentee) is discussed as early as possible. Mentors are of sufficient senior writer status that they can be generous in giving credit to the mentee. Mentees acknowledge in the final article the assistance received by mentor.   Mentoring may be provided at a series of levels: - A finished article is checked for minor issues, aka pre-submission review. - A still a bit rough article is shaped into publishable form. - An outline is fleshed out. - An idea for an article is guided through outline to finished manuscript. - Assistance with concepts, direction, relevance, and/or information sources is provided. - Feedback on a suitability for publication for a topic is discussed with potential guidance towards a finished manuscript. - Select special expertise is provided by a mentor.   New authors should be cognizant that writing takes time. It may require several iterations for a manuscript to become publishable. There are certain objective writing rules such as the Orchids Writer’s Style Guide (https://www.aos.org/orchids/orchids-magazine-overview/style-guide-for-aos-publications), but typically also more than one pathways for tackling a topic. Mentors will provide clear guidance on objective matters, while offering choices for subjective options.