Fostering Scholarship in Medical Education: Resources for Authors and Reviewers

Below you’ll find a curated set of resources to advance your work as a health professions education researcher, writer, and reviewer. All resources are available to access and download for free unless otherwise noted.

This list is but a sample of the resources available to support scholars in their work. If you use other (free) resources, we want to know! Email academicmedicine@aamc.org with a link to the resource and a brief description of it and why it’s helpful to you. We’ll update this page periodically with new and newly uncovered resources. 

Getting Started

Sometimes figuring out where to start can seem impossible. These resources will guide you before, during, and after conducting research. They’re the perfect place to begin for those new or newly returned to health professions education scholarship.

• The Conducting Research in Health Professions Education: From Idea to Publication eBook is a collection of one-page infographics offering guidance on each step of the process of conducting and publishing research in health professions education from writing good research questions to analyzing quantitative and qualitative data to responding to reviewer feedback to promoting your published work.

• This article, Writing for Academia: Getting Your Research Into Print: AMEE Guide No. 74, presents strategies for writing for publication, including how to choose a topic, write up your work, decide where to submit your paper, and successfully navigate the review process.

• The International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Toolkit for Explorers in Medical Sciences Educational Scholarship: From Ideas to Dissemination is a map for educators looking to conduct and publish their medical sciences education scholarship. It includes strategies for identifying a mentor, defining and conducting a scholarly project, identifying funding sources, working with the IRB, and preparing and publishing a manuscript. 

• The Research in Medical Education: A Primer for Medical Students includes an overview of medical education research as well as strategies and recommendations for getting started. 

Writing Up Your Work

Writing up your work can take time, and there is an art to communicating your argument and findings. These resources will help you improve your writing, no matter the type of publication.

• The Handbook for Academic Medicine Writing Workshop is a handbook with annotated examples of successful manuscripts published in Academic Medicine. It includes a variety of article types.

• The Writer’s Craft section in the journal Perspectives on Medical Education offers simple tips to improve your writing. These articles are meant to be accessible and instructive and cover grammar, writing persuasively, giving feedback on others’ writing, and more.  

Submitting Your Work

Once your work is written up, it’s time to submit it for publication. These resources guide you through the submission process.

• The Annotated Bibliography of Journals for Educational Scholarship includes information about the manuscript types, topics, and audience for more than 75 journals that publish educational scholarship.

• The Academic Medicine For Authors webpage is a “hub” for information about Academic Medicine, its submission types, and writing and editing in general.

• The MedEdPORTAL Author Center webpage is a “hub” for information about preparing and submitting to MedEdPORTAL. 

Professional Development Opportunities

The AAMC also offers workshops, certificate programs, and in-person learning opportunities. These trainings will help you grow your skillset and advance your career as a scholar.

• The Scholarly Publishing Webinar Series, co-sponsored by Academic Medicine and MedEdPORTAL, covers the importance of publishing your education scholarship and practical suggestions for how to do so successfully. Sessions include interactive exercises to practice what you have learned and time for Q&A with the featured speakers. All are invited to attend.  

• The Medical Education Research Certificate (MERC) Program is intended to help participants understand the purposes and processes of medical education research, become informed consumers of the medical education literature, and be effective collaborators in research projects. Six three-hour workshops are needed to complete the program. Workshops and program completion have a fee.

• The Medical Education Scholarship Research and Evaluation (MESRE) Section of the Group on Educational Affairs (GEA) is focused on enhancing the quality of medical education research and promoting its application to education practice.

• The MedEdPORTAL Author Development Program (formerly known as the Faculty Mentor Program) equips aspiring medical education scholars with the skills and resources needed to excel in scholarly publishing. This free program empowers authors to refine their educational content, navigate the submission process, and increase their chances of successful publication in MedEdPORTAL.
• The AM Last Page “Hit the Ground Running: Engaging Early-Career Medical Educators in Scholarly Activity” offers strategies for educators to engage in scholarly work early in their career.

Voices from the Community

These blog posts and podcasts share insights from leading scholars on their work and the field of health professions education research.

Blog Posts

• Q&As feature past and present members of the Academic Medicine editorial team discussing their responsibilities with the journal, their other work in the field, and their first medical education and other publications. 

Podcasts

• In the Ask the Editors series of the Academic Medicine Podcast, the journal's editors share their advice for authors navigating the publication process and conducting and writing up qualitative research and quantitative research. The editors also describe what they look for when they’re reviewing submissions. This advice applies to all types of medical education scholarship, to scholarly publishing in other disciplines, and to submissions to other journals and publications.  
• The PAPERs podcast aims to keep you up to date on the latest research in health professions education with rigorous yet accessible and lighthearted discussions about the key points of a recent article. 

• In the How to Flex your MedEd Scholarship Muscles episode of the Curbsiders Teach podcast, Bernice Ruo, MD, joins hosts Era Kryzhanovskaya, MD, and Molly Heublein, MD, to discuss practical advice for becoming a medical education scholar. 

• The 'Ask 5' about research podcast series from the Institute of Health Sciences Education at McGill University examines what it really means to be a researcher and shines a spotlight on the essential skills, knowledge, and lessons that every great researcher needs.

Reviewing Resources

These resources will help you improve your work as a peer reviewer. They also give authors a glimpse into what reviewers are looking for when they evaluate a submission.

• The Review Criteria for Research Manuscripts, Second Edition is a manual for reviewing research manuscripts and includes a helpful one-page checklist of reviewer criteria.

• The Academic Medicine For Reviewers webpage is a “hub” for the journal's reviewer instructions, guidelines, and additional resources. 
• The MedEdPORTAL Reviewer Center is a "hub" for information about MedEdPORTAL's review process and reviewing for the journal.

• The Practice Review Exercise is a self-guided exercise that allows you to review an actual Academic Medicine manuscript. It includes the original submission, the peer reviews, the authors’ response to the reviewers, and the revised submission.

• The MedEdPORTAL publication "A Systematic Approach to Provide Feedback to Presenters at Virtual and Face-to-Face Professional Meetings" offers a framework and resources to provide formative and summative feedback to faculty, administrators, and/or learners delivering an oral presentation at a health professions education meeting. 

• The Tips and Tricks for Reviewing Conference Abstracts module offers guidance to new reviewers based on the GEA's expectations and criteria for innovation and research abstracts. This module, created by the GEA's MESRE section, concludes with a sample abstract review exercise along with expert feedback for those who want to practice prior to conducting an official review.