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    Fostering Scholarship in Medical Education: Resources for Authors and Reviewers

    Scholarship drives the practice of medical education forward, affecting how we educate trainees and ourselves, what we know about each other and our institutions, and how we identify and close gaps in our understanding of important topics. The AAMC supports scholars and their work through its journals and professional development offerings and its role connecting people and convening groups from across the community.

    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 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. 

    • In the "Disseminating Your Educational Innovations Through Scholarship" webinar, Grace Huang, MD, reviews the principles of educational scholarship and how to frame and prepare scholarly teaching as potential submissions to medical education journals. Available are a recording of the session, the slides, and key takeaways

    • In the "Ready to Help! Partnering with Your Medical Librarian to Maximize Scholarly Success" webinar, Gary Atwood, MSLIS, MA, and Lee Crowther discuss practical strategies for successfully partnering with medical librarians to amplify the impact of your education scholarship. They also offer insights into the benefits and risks of using AI in research and explore how medical librarians can guide educators in navigating this evolving landscape. Available are a recording of the session, the slides, and key takeaways

    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. 

    • In the "What Editors Want: Tips for Good Scholarly Writing" webinar, Toni Gallo, MA, highlights best practices for writing clearly and concisely to increase the chances that your education scholarship will be accepted for publication. Available are a recording of the session, the slides, and key takeaways

    • In the "Writing Effective Titles and Abstracts: Making Your Scholarship Stand Out" webinar, Jennifer Campi and Toni Gallo, MA, provide an overview of what editors look for during the peer-review process. They discuss strategies for writing effective titles and abstracts for all types of scholarly publications and share published examples from Academic Medicine to illustrate these strategies. Available are a recording of the session, the slides, and key takeaways

    • In the "Using Inclusive Language in Scholarly Writing: A Roundtable Discussion" webinar, Monica Lypson, MD, MHPE, Jennifer Potter, MD, and Javeed Sukhera, MD, PhD, FRCPC, discuss the principles of using inclusive language across their roles as scholars, authors, reviewers, and editors and offer practical strategies for writing that aligns with inclusive language best practices and welcomes the diversity of all people and their identities. Available are a recording of the session and key takeaways

    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.

    • In the "A Roadmap for Publishing Health Professions Education Scholarship" webinar, Bridget O’Brien, PhD, and Lauren Maggio PhD, MS (LIS), introduce the evolving landscape of publishing in health professions education, provide examples of how to think through available publishing opportunities, and highlight resources authors can use to prepare their work for submission. Available is a recording of the session. 

    • 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

    • In the "Responding to Peer Review: Insights for Successfully Revising Your Manuscript" webinar, Constance Tucker, MA, PhD, and Krisztina Fischer, MD, PhD, MMSc, who are experienced in writing and revising manuscripts and in reviewing and making decisions about what gets published, share insights and provide guidance on best practices for receiving and responding to feedback from peer reviewers and editors. Available are a recording of the session, the slides, and key takeaways.

    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.

    • MedEdPORTAL Faculty Mentors serve as liaisons within their institutions and provide guidance to faculty who are interested in submitting to the journal. Find a Faculty Mentor at your institution or sign up to be one yourself on the Faculty Mentor webpage.

    • 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

    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. 

    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.