Blog – Journal Clubs: How can I set one up?

Journal Clubs are a great way to keep on top of new research evidence, come together and catch up with one another, and build knowledge and capacity. For the past few years, I’ve been running a journal club for our dementia research group here at the University of Liverpool. We meet once a month in person, with one of our members picking a recent paper and present and discussing this. The beauty of a journal club is that we can share our opinions about a paper and critically analyse it. And recently we have been joined by three public advisor researchers, Emma, Sue, and Annie, all of whom are unpaid carers for someone with dementia. Seeing how they are starting to critically analyse academic papers and make very detailed observations is fantastic to see.

So how to set up a journal club? Bearing in mind that they don’t have to be situated within a group/ department/ institute. They can also be topic-specific and allow workforce and those with direct experiences to join. Below are a few tips that should help you get started and hopefully maintain a journal club:

• Book your room well in advance (with good video equipment). I book our journal clubs several months in advance, always on the same day of the week, around lunch time. Everyone gets a calendar invite so they know in advance when it’s taking place, and I book the same room (or one alternative room) with the department administrators. Ideally, pick a room with a big TV screen so your presenter can show their slides properly. Talking about slides…

• Organise presenters in advance. Each presenter can pick a recent paper they think would be good to discuss. Of course, they can also pick a few and we discuss which one to choose together. It’s a great way for more junior researchers (or workforce or public advisor researchers) to build capacity and confidence in public speaking and in critically analysing evidence. We try and go around the group regarding who presents, or if one of us finds a paper that particularly fits a certain group member’s methodology, then we pass the paper to them. Once you get new researchers and PhD students in the journal club, they can soak up the journal club air a few times before they would present a paper. After all, we’re not cruel and don’t let them swim without acclimatising!

• Pick a recent paper. As I mentioned above, try and pick a paper that’s published say up to 18 months ago. This will allow everyone to try and keep on track with reading more recent evidence, or catch up with a paper that might be on their to-read pile. We’ve had various topics in dementia so far, including music and dancing, hearing loss, overarching inequalities research, electronic health record linkage, ethnicity, and falls in older adults. It’s a great way to learn more outside your immediate area of work also.

• Let the discussion flow. After the power point presentation (usually about 10-15 minutes, depending), we have an open for all discussion around the table and see where it takes us. That means discussing what we like and criticise around a paper (if there is something to criticise), reflecting on the methodology used, the potential impact the findings could have, and the topic more broadly. There is no hand raising like in Zoom. It’s an open table discussion where everyone contributes. Hopefully this encourages everyone to feel more confident in sharing their considered opinions also.

•  Invite people outside the group to join. Whilst our journal club is within our institute’s dementia research group, anyone with an interest in dementia is welcome to join us. We are now looking to be joined by Alzheimer’s Society representatives for example, as well as interns I’m working with for example at NW Ambulance Service. It’s a great way to get different opinions and experiences in the room, but also to ensure that the ivory tower is NOT an ivory tower and accessible for people who wish to join.

I hope these basic tips have given you an idea about setting up your own journal club. Once it’s established it’s not that much work organising it. It’s getting people interested in attending and joining on a regular basis that makes the journal club fun to attend. And if you would like to come along to one of our monthly journal clubs some time, just drop me an email.

If you like the idea of Journal Clubs but don’t have colleagues at your institution to join you, or don’t have the time to start your own…. take a look at the new Journal Clubs service that launches later this month in the Dementia Researcher Communities App – ⬇️

https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/virtual-journal-club-platform-for-dementia-researchers/

Dr Clarissa Giebel

Author

Dr Clarissa Giebel is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool and NIHR ARC North West Coast. Clarissa has been working in dementia care research for over 10 years focusing her research on helping people with dementia to live at home independently and well for longer, addressing inequalities that people with dementia and carers can face. Outside of her day work, Clarissa has also organised a local dementia network – the Liverpool Dementia & Ageing Research Forum, and has recently started her own podcast called the Ageing Scientist.

Follow @ClarissaGiebel