Excellence Everywhere - National University of Ireland, Galway

Journal club meetingsThese meetings are an integral part of trainingnew scientists, and can vary in frequency fromweekly to monthly, or as desired. The discussionof a scientific report serves to illustrate how to(and how not to) construct and test a hypothesis,what constitutes effective analysis, and how toreport scientific findings. A journal club meetingalso reinforces the idea that reading currentpapers is essential to keeping up with the field. Inaddition, these meetings provide an opportunityfor you to communicate your values about sciencewhen discussing other people’s work.Finding Good Papers for Journal ClubsOur journal club, which focuses on infectiousdiseases, has identified 10 leading journalsfrom which presenters are encouraged to selectarticles for presentation. Presenters do havethe freedom to occasionally select interestingor relevant articles from non-preferentialjournals.”Brian Eley, South AfricaHow to run a Journal CLubIn many research institutes, members of different labs will get together to discuss published articlesin a particular field or subject. The subject can be very specialized, such as “chromatin,” or broadin scope, such as “molecular biology.” Reading and discussing articles with others who share yourinterests and background will really help you and the people in your lab stay abreast of currentdevelopments. It will also help more junior scientists stay motivated about their own work and learnabout the elements of a sound scientific paper and study.There are many ways to hold a journal club, but in general, these meetings work best when:n The group meets regularly in the same location at the same time.n Responsibility for leading the discussion of articles is rotated among all of the regular participants.n Articles selected for reading and discussion are of interest to the majority of the group.n Everyone participates actively in the discussion of the articles.In some groups, everyone in the group reads the paper ahead of the meetings. In other journal clubsonly the person leading the discussion reads the paper ahead of time and the others learn about itthrough his or her presentation. Most journal clubs last about an hour, with a portion of the timeallotted to a presentation, followed by a question-and-answer or discussion period. Some journal clubstake place over lunch; others at other times of the day. Regardless, these meetings are more popularif some food and drinks are provided.Typically, the person leading the discussion of a particular article will review the background of thestudy, the rationale for doing it, the data presented, and will evaluate both the results and theirinterpretation. In the process, the discussion leader should address the following questions:n Is the paper clearly written?n What is the quality of the work described?n What is the quality of the materials, methods, and instrumentation used?n Is the analysis and interpretation of the data valid?n What are the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen experimental design?n Are there any errors that the authors may have missed?n What is the impact of these errors on the authors’ data, interpretations, and/or conclusions?n What is the overall significance of this work to a particular field of study?n Do the conclusions follow from the data?n Are there other, perhaps better interpretations of the data than those presented in the paper?58 excellence everywhere