Printer-friendly versionWe had our Editorial Board Meeting last week. Education for Primary Care is very lucky to have such an experienced and thoughtful Editorial Board, and unlike many journals, we like to put them to good use in thinking through our strategy. There is lots more work to do at the journal as the submissions are increasing exponentially.
Who are the guardians of the Green Journal?
Peter Cantillon, Professor of General Practice at the National University of Ireland in Galway, chaired this meeting. Aside from the editorial team (more on us next time), the other board members attending were Graham Easton (Acting Director of Primary Care Education at Imperial College, London) and Kay Mohanna (Director of Postgraduate Programmes at Keele). Also present were many of the experts from Radcliffe Publishing, and Electric Word plc, our owners. Sue Cross, John Salinsky and John Sandars were unable to be with us. This year we said good-bye to Steve Field who is no longer able to fit in this editorial board role alongside his new appointment as NHS National Deputy Medical Director, and to Dominic Faux, whose trenchant Journal Watch is so much missed as Dominic prepares for retirement. We elected three new GP members to the Board: Steve Holmes, who is on the Executive Committee for APCE; Luisa Pettigrew, RCGP International Committee WONCA representative and Vimmi Passi, who chairs the Education Committee for the Academy of Medical Educators. Their perspectives and expertise will greatly strengthen the board.
More than a talking shop
How often do you hear committee members complain of being underutilised? This lot did – they really want to make a difference to the journal that goes way beyond the support and challenge that they offer us at the annual meeting. Believe you me we get challenged, but never inappropriately, and each time new ideas come up, there are willing volunteers to help the journal team take them forward. We have decided to have quarterly phone conferences on specific topics so that board members can actively contribute. Likely topics for next year are:
- Raising our game- how to make sure that every peer reviewed original paper meets demanding academic standards
- Developing transparent quality criteria for early rejection of papers unlikely to succeed
- Impact factor, citations, and H factor – how to make the journal serve the needs of primary care academics.
- Personal papers, book reviews, and medical humanities – developing a bank of useful filler material
More on these topics to follow on the blog site, so please share your ideas.