Linda Ohler, MSN, RN, CCTC, FAAN
Editor-in-Chief, Progress in Transplantation (Since 1/1/94)
Editorial Board: Nurse Author & Editor, (Since 1998)
Prior Editor’s Position: Editorial Board, Focus on Critical Care (1990-1993)
First Year of Editorial Career: 1994
Years in INANE: Since 1994
Other Position: Director of Quality and Compliance, Transplant Institute, Georgetown University
Which editing accomplishment is the one about which you feel most proud? The Journal was just 3 years old when I became editor. Since then we have become indexed in all the major indices and will have an impact factor this year. Also pleased with the series I am writing as Letter from the Editor called Courage and Character, Leaders and Legends where I am capturing interviews with some of our most amazing pioneers: physicians and nurses. Also very pleased to have surrounded the Journal with the excellent editorial board members who are experts in qualitative and quantitative research methods to help with the quality of papers published in our Journal. Adding three statisticians has also helped to increase our quality.
What is the best thing about being an Editor?
Mentoring new authors, reaching new heights for this quarterly publication in terms of the quality of papers to enhance our practice.
What is the worst thing about being an Editor?
Having to reject papers when you know how much work has gone into the process...research papers are the most difficult because of the work that led up to the attempts to publish. Just cannot publish when the methods are so poor. That is painful
Share an amusing story about editing.
We receive a lot of international papers from authors where English is a second languange. One physician from Italy was describing the results from an ultrasound and said that "due to the immense amount of meteorism, the pancreas and other organs could not be visulized" I asked the author to clarify the word meteorism and she insisted that was the correct word. I asked three physicians on the Editorial board if they could help determine what word the author was trying to translate into English. I asked physicians who had English as a second language thinking they would be able to think of what the author was trying to say. One Japanese Editorial Board member simply stated "They need an interpreter". Finally one physician realized the author was describing gas in the abdomen! Meteors are gas...why didn't I think of that??? Knowing that the publisher and copy editors are English majors and have little knowledge of medical terminology, I try to edit our international papers before sending them....However, sometimes I struggle with trying to clarify these terms.
Which three words would your colleagues use to describe you?
Tireless, organized, creative
What is the strangest request a potential author has ever made of you?
Author sent slides from a presentation he had done and told me to write the paper!
How do you relax?
Listening to Mozart while writing