How to Design and Write Your Quality Improvement Study for Publication: Pearls and Pitfalls

Anup D Patel; Laurice Yang; Kathryn Kvam; Christine Baca; Lyell K Jones

doi:10.1212/CPJ.0000000000200419

How to Design and Write Your Quality Improvement Study for Publication: Pearls and Pitfalls

Neurol Clin Pract. 2025 Feb;15(1):e200419. doi: 10.1212/CPJ.0000000000200419. Epub 2024 Dec 11.

Authors

Anup D Patel¹, Laurice Yang¹, Kathryn Kvam¹, Christine Baca¹, Lyell K Jones¹

Affiliation

¹ Division of Neurology and Center of Clinical Excellence (ADP), Nationwide Children's Hospital, OH; Department of Pediatrics (ADP), The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus; Department of Neurology (LY, KK), Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA; Department of Neurology (CB), Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond; and Department of Neurology (LKJ), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.

PMID: 39678224
PMCID: PMC11637468 (available on 2026-02-01)
DOI: 10.1212/CPJ.0000000000200419

Abstract

Objective: To describe a pragmatic process for translating quality improvement (QI) projects into published manuscripts.

Scope: Types of QI work that are generalizable and have broad relevance (to journals and readers), design principles that are important for publishable QI work, how QI manuscript organization might differ from biomedical manuscripts, how to use and not to use Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence and other guidelines, pitfalls, and how to avoid/repair them.