Journal Club

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Journal Club Information

Welcome to the Scalpel Journal Club!

 

What is a journal club? 

A journal club has been defined as an educational meeting in which a group of individuals discuss current articles, providing a forum for a collective effort to keep up with the literature.

 

Why should I be involved? 

There are many advantages of participating in a journal club, including keeping abreast of new knowledge, promoting awareness of current research findings, learning to critique and appraise research, becoming familiar with the best current clinical research, and encouraging research utilization. As a student, being involved in a journal club is a selling point on a surgical CV and provides an opportunity to network with like-minded students and doctors to discuss relevant issues in surgical practice and education.

 

Why critique research? 

The overall goal of a research critique is to formulate a general evaluation of the merits of a study and to evaluate its applicability to clinical practice. A research critique goes beyond a review or summary of a study and carefully appraises a study’s strengths and limitations. The critique should reflect an objective assessment of a study’s validity and significance. A research study can be evaluated by its component parts and a thorough research critique examines all aspects of a research study.

 

How will the journal club run?

Each month the Scalpel committee will select a topical surgical research paper to be discussed. The paper will be available to access and read via the University of Manchester library and will be advertised on the Scalpel Facebook page and website at least a week in advance of the meeting. The meeting discussion will be facilitated by a qualified surgeon or doctor with an interest in research. The meeting will be hosted on our website and will last approximately 45 – 60 minutes, during which time we will discuss and critique the paper considering some of the common questions asked when critiquing a paper.