Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-14-2023
Abstract
Purpose: Although medical research dissemination is intended to benefit members of society, few members of society actually participate in the process of publishing findings. This study shares findings from community members’ (including patients and the public) experiences being trained as medical journal reviewers. Methods: We analyzed findings from two focus group interviews of community reviewers (N = 29) to identify themes in their experiences with the training program. Results: Community members trained as journal reviewers appreciated learning the context under which manuscript development and review occur from authors and funders, the value of the community member perspectives to science, and strengthened their critical thinking skills. A range of training tools and strategies included glossaries of research terms, creating review guides, practicing reviews, being trained by a supportive team, and working with and learning collaboratively. Conclusions: Training as a journal reviewer has a positive impact on participating community members. Programs training community members as journal reviewers should incorporate guest speakers well-versed in community engaged research, group activities, a variety of training tools and materials, and highly supportive training teams.
Keywords
case study, community engaged research, medical research, patient and public involvement, research dissemination
Language
English
Publication Title
Research Involvement and Engagement
Grant
U54 MD002265
Rights
© 2023 The Author(s). This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Collins, C.C., Hood, E., Jewett-Tennant, J. et al. Community members’ experiences training as medical journal reviewers. Res Involv Engagem 9, 66 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-023-00482-x
Manuscript Version
Final Publisher Version