Journalology (also known as publication science) is the scholarly study of all aspects of the academic publishing process. [1] [2] The field seeks to improve the quality of scholarly research by implementing evidence-based practices in academic publishing. [3] The term "journalology" was coined by Stephen Lock, the former editor-in-chief of the BMJ . The first Peer Review Congress, held in 1989 in Chicago, Illinois, is considered a pivotal moment in the founding of journalology as a distinct field. [3] The field of journalology has been influential in pushing for study pre-registration in science, particularly in clinical trials. Clinical trial registration is now expected in most countries. [3] Journalology researchers also work to reform the peer review process.
The earliest scientific journals were founded in the seventeenth century. While most early journals used peer review, peer review did not become common practice in medical journals until after World War II. [4] The scholarly publishing process (including peer review) did not arise by scientific means and still suffers from problems with reliability (consistency and dependability), [5] such as a lack of uniform standards and validity (well-founded, efficacious). [6] [7] Attempts to reform the academic publishing practice began to gain traction in the late twentieth century. [8] The field of journalology was formally established in 1989. [3]
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work. It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are used to maintain quality standards, improve performance, and provide credibility. In academia, scholarly peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication. Peer review can be categorized by the type of activity and by the field or profession in which the activity occurs, e.g., medical peer review. It can also be used as a teaching tool to help students improve writing assignments.
Cochrane is a British international charitable organisation formed to synthesize medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professionals, patients and policy makers. It includes 53 review groups that are based at research institutions worldwide. Cochrane has over 37,000 volunteer experts from around the world.
In a blind or blinded experiment, information which may influence the participants of the experiment is withheld until after the experiment is complete. Good blinding can reduce or eliminate experimental biases that arise from a participants' expectations, observer's effect on the participants, observer bias, confirmation bias, and other sources. A blind can be imposed on any participant of an experiment, including subjects, researchers, technicians, data analysts, and evaluators. In some cases, while blinding would be useful, it is impossible or unethical. For example, it is not possible to blind a patient to their treatment in a physical therapy intervention. A good clinical protocol ensures that blinding is as effective as possible within ethical and practical constraints.
The BMJ is a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Group, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). The BMJ has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Previously called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988, and then changed to The BMJ in 2014. The journal is published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, a subsidiary of the British Medical Association (BMA). The current editor-in-chief of The BMJ is Kamran Abbasi, who was appointed in January 2022.
A systematic review is a scholarly synthesis of the evidence on a clearly presented topic using critical methods to identify, define and assess research on the topic. A systematic review extracts and interprets data from published studies on the topic, then analyzes, describes, critically appraises and summarizes interpretations into a refined evidence-based conclusion. For example, a systematic review of randomized controlled trials is a way of summarizing and implementing evidence-based medicine.
In medicine, a case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports may contain a demographic profile of the patient, but usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence. Some case reports also contain a literature review of other reported cases. Case reports are professional narratives that provide feedback on clinical practice guidelines and offer a framework for early signals of effectiveness, adverse events, and cost. They can be shared for medical, scientific, or educational purposes.
Asim Kurjak is the President of International Academy of Perinatal Medicine and director of Ian Donald Inter-University School of Medical Ultrasound. He is a regular fellow of World Academy of Art and Science, European Academy of Sciences and Art, International Academy for Human Reproduction, Italian Academy of Science and Art of Reggio Puglia, Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia; honorary member of American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology; regular member of Russian Academy of Science and Art.
John P. A. Ioannidis is a Greek-American physician-scientist, writer and Stanford University professor who has made contributions to evidence-based medicine, epidemiology, and clinical research. Ioannidis studies scientific research itself - in other words, meta-research - primarily in clinical medicine and the social sciences.
The Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of health research Network is an international initiative aimed at promoting transparent and accurate reporting of health research studies to enhance the value and reliability of medical research literature. The EQUATOR Network is hosted by the University of Oxford, and was established with the goals of raising awareness of the importance of good reporting of research, assisting in the development, dissemination and implementation of reporting guidelines for different types of study designs, monitoring the status of the quality of reporting of research studies in the health sciences literature, and conducting research relating to issues that impact the quality of reporting of health research studies. The Network acts as an "umbrella" organisation, bringing together developers of reporting guidelines, medical journal editors and peer reviewers, research funding bodies, and other key stakeholders with a mutual interest in improving the quality of research publications and research itself. The EQUATOR Network comprises five centres at the University of Oxford, Bond University, Paris Descartes University, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and Hong Kong Baptiste University.
A medical journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that communicates medical information to physicians, other health professionals. Journals that cover many medical specialties are sometimes called general medical journals.
PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items aimed at helping scientific authors to report a wide array of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, primarily used to assess the benefits and harms of a health care intervention. PRISMA focuses on ways in which authors can ensure a transparent and complete reporting of this type of research. The PRISMA standard superseded the earlier QUOROM standard. It offers the replicability of a systematic literature review. Researchers have to figure out research objectives that answer the research question, states the keywords, a set of exclusion and inclusion criteria. In the review stage, relevant articles were searched, irrelevant ones are removed. Articles are analyzed according to some pre-defined categories.
Metascience is the use of scientific methodology to study science itself. Metascience seeks to increase the quality of scientific research while reducing inefficiency. It is also known as "research on research" and "the science of science", as it uses research methods to study how research is done and find where improvements can be made. Metascience concerns itself with all fields of research and has been described as "a bird's eye view of science". In the words of John Ioannidis, "Science is the best thing that has happened to human beings ... but we can do it better."
Allegiance bias in behavioral sciences is a bias resulted from the investigator's or researcher's allegiance to a specific school of thought. Researchers/investigators have been exposed to many types of branches of psychology or schools of thought. Naturally they adopt a school or branch that fits with their paradigm of thinking. More specifically, allegiance bias is when this leads therapists, researchers, etc. believing that their school of thought or treatment is superior to others. Their superior belief to these certain schools of thought can bias their research in effective treatments trials or investigative situations leading to allegiance bias. Reason being is that they may have devoted their thinking to certain treatments they have seen work in their past experiences. This can lead to errors in interpreting the results of their research. Their “pledge” to stay within their own paradigm of thinking may affect their ability to find more effective treatments to help the patient or situation they are investigating.
Joseph Gavin Collier is a British retired clinical pharmacologist and emeritus professor of medicines policy at St George's Hospital and Medical School in London, whose early research included establishing the effect of aspirin on human prostaglandins and looking at the role of nitric oxide and angiotensin converting enzyme in controlling blood vessel tone and blood pressure. Later, in his national policy work, he helped change the way drugs are priced and bought by the NHS, and ensured that members of governmental advisory committees published their conflicts of interest.
Jacobs Publishers is a publisher of various international journals based in Hyderabad, India. Jacobs Publishers has been included on Beall's List of predatory open-access publishers and has faced other criticisms of its publishing practices.
In academic publishing, a sister journal or companion journal is a newer academic journal affiliated with an established journal in the same field. These journals sometimes follow the "cascade or transfer model," whereby they publish academic papers rejected by the older, more prestigious journal in the publisher's portfolio. While the original journal often requires a subscription to read, these journals tend to be open access. This business model allows publishers to recoup the editorial costs expended in the peer review process undergone at the original journal that ultimately resulted in a rejection and monetise the scholar's work by means of an article processing charge. Scholars, in turn, benefit, as they must only undergo one peer review process. A sister journal is not to be confused with a mirror journal, which is an open access journal that runs parallel to an established subscription journal, with which it often shares a similar name and largely identical editorial team.
BMJ USA: Primary Care Medicine for the American Physician was a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the BMJ Group as a sister journal to the BMJ. It was intended to publish material specifically relevant to readers in the United States. It was established in 2001 and was discontinued permanently in 2005.
The World Association of Medical Editors is an international, virtual organization of editors of medical journals. It was originally founded in 1995 by a group of members of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), who had grown concerned that the ICMJE had become "too small, self-serving, and exclusive". It was launched on March 16, 1995 in Bellagio, Lombardy, Italy, after a three-day conference was held to discuss ways to enable greater international cooperation between editors of medical journals. The conference was attended by twenty-two editors from thirteen countries, all funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. One of those in attendance was Iain Chalmers. Any editor of a peer-reviewed biomedical journal is eligible to join WAME.
Virginia M. Barbour is a professor at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and serves as the Director of the Australasian Open Access Strategy Group. She is best known for being one of the three founding editors of PLOS Medicine, and her various roles in championing the open access movement.
Stephen Penford Lock is an English haematologist and editor who served from 1975 to 1991 as editor-in-chief of the UK medical journal, the British Medical Journal, known since 1988 as the BMJ. A prominent scholar of the peer review process, he coined the term "journalology" to refer to the scientific study of the academic publishing process. In 1990, Eugene Garfield described him as "an elder statesman of biomedical editing".
validity, n. ... 2. The quality of being well-founded on fact, or established on sound principles, and thoroughly applicable to the case or circumstances; soundness and strength (of argument, proof, authority, etc.) ... 4. Value or worth; efficacy. Merging into sense 2, from which in some instances it is hardly distinguishable.