Organising an English journal club in the developing world
- National Center for STD Control, Nanjing, China
- Correspondence to: Dr Joseph Tucker National Center for STD Control, 12 Jiangwangmiao St, Nanjing, China 210042; Joseph_Tuckermed.unc.edu
English language journal clubs are fundamental for teaching and collaboration in developing areas
The medical journal club remains at the heart of evidence based medicine among teaching institutions. Previous reviews have analysed the importance of journal clubs in English speaking nations.1–3 A meta-analysis of postgraduate journal clubs using Cochrane-like criteria for selection of papers established that journal clubs broaden a postgraduate student’s sense of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, reading habits, and using medical literature in clinical situations.4 Previous analysis in this area has weighed heavily on the side of English speaking journal clubs in nations where English fluency is assumed. This commentary explores the role of the English journal club outside of areas where English is the mother tongue. Three central questions are discussed:
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Why do so few nations where English is the second language have English journal clubs?
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What are the relative advantages of promoting English journal clubs in these nations?
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How can you establish an English journal club in your hospital?
On a worldwide scale, approximately 325 million people use English as their mother tongue, and at least twice as many people speak English as a second or third language.
While English journal clubs are routinely a part of postgraduate medicine culture in developed countries, they are rare in developing world hospitals and medical training centres. Lack …
