Editorial

Abstract

Getting an issue of the Africa Journal of Nursing and Midwifery (AJNM) ready for submission to the printers poses numerous challenges. Most of these challenges are attributable to its three divergent objectives which the AJNM strives to accomplish, namely: to provide publication opportunities for healthcare researchers from the 52 countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) Afro region, and to share information with the nurses and midwives from these countries, while retaining its academic accreditation with the Department of Higher Education and Training of South Africa. The last objective requires adherence to non-negotiable academic and editorial standards while the other two objectives require coaching and mentoring of many novice writers, from different countries and from different academic backgrounds, to present their information in academic terms that will be understood by non-English speaking readers from 52 African countries. This is an extremely time-consuming practice as many manuscripts undergo five or more revisions before they become acceptable for publication. However, the joy and pride of the published authors, and the feedback from some readers, make this investment worthwhile.