The staff member that is joining the meeting, will select an article for you to discuss. This will be an article in his/her research field. I will send this article to the chair(wo)men at least one week prior to the journal club via e-mail and put it in the Meetings table on the website.
See the order of rounds during the discussion and what is expected from you as a chairman or participant.
Preparations for the meeting (as chair)
When discussing an article at the Journal Club meeting you will be taking on the role as chairman of the group. As chairman you will open and close the meeting and are an ‘expert’ on the article.
Write down critical questions about the article, the research, setup, material and methods and so on. Answer the following questions to help you prepare:
· What did you like about the article?
· What did you not like about the article?
· Did you notice anything strange or remarkable? What was it?
· Was everything clear to you? And if not, what was unclear?
· Do you have any suggestions on how the research can be improved?
· Do you agree with the conclusions the authors draw from their results?
· Do you have suggestions for future studies? And how would you do this?
Tasks of the chairman during the Journal Club
Round 1) Give a short summary of the article using PowerPoint (using your own words; 5 minutes)
Round 2) Break-out session: students (and staff) discuss their questions/points of improvement in small groups (25 minutes). You can set a timer on the board so the groups know how much time they have left to discuss.
Round 3) Plenary session: each subgroup submits their discussion points and other groups can respond (15 minutes).
As chairman you lead the discussion: ask additional questions, stimulate others to contribute to the discussion, give the floor to students & repeat answers or conclusions. After discussing a question with the group, you may give a short summary in between (if necessary) and continue with the next group and question. Keep the time and pace. You can make notes of what is discussed on the board. When all student-groups have taken their turn and there is still time left, you can submit the questions/topics you have left.
Round 4) To round off the meeting, summarize what was discussed and give the most important conclusions. End with the question what would you do with this article as a reviewer: accept as it is, request minor revisions, request major revisions or reject (2 minutes).
As a participant you prepare for a Journal Club meeting by reading the article. Write down all the questions you have (e.g. on the research, methods, conclusions, hypothesis, things that were unclear). During the JC you can ask your questions/raise points of improvement to the group and discuss them. The chairman will be in charge of leading the discussion.
Prepare at least two points of improvement and submit them, including argumentation, via this short online survey: https://survey.uu.nl/jfe/form/SV_0oHU89urYUs3yHI.
Research proposal (8-10 minutes)
Students discuss their questions in duos (5 minutes)
Start of group discussion. (20-30 minutes)
In this presentation the theoretical framework, hypothesis, expectations and research questions (introduction) plus the material and method of the research (as far as possible) is explained. Make sure you have discussed the contents of your proposal with your supervisor and invite your supervisor to the meeting (if possible).