Editing Medical Journals, A Course in Oxford

Two weeks ago I went to a course about editing medical journals. You can read all about this course on the website of the firm of one of the excellent teachers: Pippa Smart (what’s in a name). The other instructor was Dr Domhnall MacAuley is the Clinical Editor (Primary Care) with the BMJ, and was previously the editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine. He’s an enthusiastic experienced teacher about medical journal editing.

What I’ve learned for the board of our journal?

• We should improve our contacts with reviewers and possible authors
• Redesign our website and lay out of the journal and integrate both
• We should encourage participation of younger editors
• We should publish accepted articles directly on our website and also have epub ahead
• Do a reader survey?

If you’re a medical editor do this course. It will teach you everything about medical editing. The course is mostly practical. You can bring your own Journal and discuss it with other participants. It’s not with formal lectures. Participation is encouraged. The course folder has extensive notes and background reading for use after the event.

It was not all work. We stayed another two days in Oxford and enjoyed ourselves as you can see from the video below.

Oxford, UK, 2009 from Dr Shock on Vimeo.