Fifth International Congress on Peer Review in Biomedical Publication  - Travel scholarship report

Isabel Cruz

The travel fellowship offered by the Congress on Peer Review (Figure 1) offered an oportunity for developing an editor career. This scholarship enable the OBJN´s editor to study the organization of a scientific journal and to look at new techniques for publishing. This unique opportunity consolidated the Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing¹ in the international arena of Biomedical Editors.

Personal details

As the editor of Online Brazilian Journal of Journal, I have been selected for the Sponsored Scholars Program to participate in the Fifth International Congress on Peer Review (CPR) in Biomedical Publication and the PreCongress Short Course for Editors, September 14-18, 2005, in Chicago, Illinois. 

Details of the scholarship awarding body

As a Sponsored Scholar I was entitled to receive financial assistance for my travel to and from Chicago and my hotel accommodations. I was alowed to participate in the Fifth International Congress on Peer Review in Biomedical Publication and in the PreCongress Short Course for Editors.

Academic details of the hosts 

JAMA (JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION)
www.jama.com . JAMA is a weekly, international, peer-reviewed, general medical journal with a print circulation of 360,000 in more than 150 countries, a much wider online reach, and 12 international editions in 11 languages. JAMA's mission is to promote the science and art of medicine and the betterment of public health. The editors and publishers of JAMA also publish 9 Archives Journals. JAMA, which is editorially independent of the American Medical Association, was founded in 1883 and has been published consecutively for 122 years.

BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP - www.bmjpg.com . The BMJ Publishing Group produces a wide range of journals, Web sites, and support for doctors, including the weekly BMJ, over 20 specialty journals, Clinical Evidence, and several local editions of the BMJ that are published overseas. The BMJ Publishing Group is owned by the British Medical Association (BMA), the professional association for doctors in the UK. The BMJ was founded in 1840 and has been published continuously ever since. 

CPR Sponsors: 

ELSEVIER - www.elsevier.com. WOLTERS KLUWER HEALTH - www.lww.com . AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION - www.americanheart.org . AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION - www.ama-assn.org. NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE - www.nejm.org . ANNALS OF INTERNAL MEDICINE - www.annals.org . THE COMMONWEALTH FUND - www.cmwf.org . THE JOSIAH MACY, JR FOUNDATION - www.josiahmacyfoundation.org . THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY PRESS - www.rockefeller.edu/rupress . UNICEF / UNDP / WORLD BANK / WHO SPECIAL PROGRAMME FOR RESEARCH AND TRAINING IN TROPICAL DISEASES www.who.int/tdr . NEDERLANDS TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR GENEESKUNDE (DUTCH JOURNAL OF MEDICINE) - www.ntvg.nl . And:

WORLD ASSOCIATION OF MEDICAL EDITORS (WAME) - www.wame.org . 
The World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) is a voluntary association of editors from many countries who seek to foster international cooperation among editors of peer-reviewed medical journals. With more than 1200 members representing 764 journals (OBJN is one of them) from 85 countries, WAME helps medical journal editors fulfill their responsibility to ensure that reports of medical research provide valid information in a form that is readily accessible by researchers, medical practitioners, and others by providing educational resources and a forum for discussion of issues in research publication. In particular, WAME aims to assist editors in developing countries and editors of small journals, who often face difficulties obtaining high-quality manuscripts, may lack formal training in editing, and have limited finances and access to publication expertise.

Exhibitors: 

 Allen Press, Inc. (ajester@allenpress.com), Aries Systems Corporation (sholmes@ariessys.com), Burg Translations Inc. (marketing@burgtranslation.com), Cadmus Communications (AndersonM@cadmus.com), Chalex Corp (gmurray@chalexcorp.com), Council of Science Editors (CSE) (CSE@CouncilScienceEditors.org), eJournalPress (support@ejournalpress.com), Inera Inc. (lblake@inera.com), Mark Logic Corporation (traci.white@marklogic.com), NRC Research Press-National
Research Council Canada (jamie.gregoire@nrc.gc.ca), and ScholarOne, Incorporated (sue.cifelli@scholarone.com) 

The reasons for participating in the CPR and PreCongress Short Course for Editors

The CPR aims to improve the quality and credibility of biomedical peer review and publication and to help advance the efficiency, effectiveness, and equitability of the dissemination of biomedical information throughout the world. The OBJN has the same purpose and is struggling to improve its credibility as a scientific journal.

The Tim Albert´s Short Course for Medical Editors  (http://www.timalbert.co.uk/editors.htm) is a two-day course that looks at the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to run a successful publication. This course was offered for 20 editors from Asia, Africa, Europe, Central, and South America (Figure 2).

Information collected during the visit

The OBJN has the opportunity to learn and discuss about the history and meaning (and nonsense) of the Journal Impact Factor with its creator: Dr. Eugene Garfield.

Dr. Drummond Rennie (Figure 3), congress director,  runs a very interesting session related to Authorship and Contributorship. Other subject of interest was the session about the Effect of Indexing, Open Access, and Journal "Phenomena" on Submissions, Citations, and Impact Factors that was run by Annette Flanagin (Figure 4), my dear nurse colleague and congress coordinator.

In the CPR there were only 05 nursing editors. I met only 03: Margaret Freda (American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing), Molly Dougherty (Nursing Research), and Shirley Smoyak (Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services).

It is important to point out that as an editor I have learned a lot about Scientific Misconduct, Publication Bias and Journal Factors, Quality of Reporting of Trials, Conflict of Interest Policies, Blinded and/or Unblinded Peer Review, etc.

Saturday, September 17, from 5:15 PM - 7:15 PM, there was the World Association of Medical Editors Meeting. The OBJN was present. The meeting included a discussion (with audience participation) of some common, real-life ethical problems faced by editors, by panelists expert in editorial and publication ethics issues, as well as a business meeting.

Interpretation of the information collected

Although the OBJN has only 4 years of existence, the participation at the CPR showed that the OBJN is not so far from the excellent biomedical journals. I mean in its format and policies. Certainly, the OBJN is a scientific journal. So, after the CPR, the OBJN concluded that 1 thing is missing:

1- More authors. More nursing authors. An international journal can receive 7,000 submissions/year!

One possible solution to this problem is to have the nursing schools preparing the undergraduate and graduate students to write a journal article and get it published.

Applicability of the information to the OBJN and to medical editors generally

In this manuscript I can not summarize all the relevant information that is important to my work as an editor and should be used to improve the quality of the OBJN. But until the next CPR, the hosts and sponsors will be able to evaluate if the scholarship was well applicated. Many informations obtained in this 5th CPR were already incorporated to the OBJN policies.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the following individuals who contributed significantly to the planning and support of this travel: NUCS/UFF (the beautiful institutional gifts), Rosa Miranda, Kim Westman, Delia Rico,  Carole Felty, and Barbara Albert.

A special acknowledge to my roommate and new friend: Jackeline Alger, MD, PhD, from Honduras.

Reference

1- Cruz, ICF da A scientific evidence: the OBJN has more quantitative and qualitative links  Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing [Online], 3(2) Aug 2004 Available: http://www.uff.br/nepae/editorialv3n2.htm 

Fig 1- The OBJN was selected by the PRC Sponsored Scholars Program

Fig 2- OBJN at Short Course for Medical Editors

Fig 3- OBJN´s editor and Dr. Drummond Rennie, CPR director

Fig 4- OBJN´s editor and Annette Flanagin, RN, CPR coordinator