Effects of a virtual writing club in a college of pharmacy

Abstract

Background A Writing Club was established to provide internal peer review before external submission of written documents, such as manuscripts and abstracts. The Writing Club initially met face-to-face once a month for two hours to review submitted documents. It was labor-intensive to organize, and submissions could only occur once a month and therefore participation was inconsistent. Because of these limitations, the Writing Club was replaced by the Virtual Writing Club (VWC) as a more efficient, email-based service and has been offered since May 2006. Objective To describe and assess the outcomes of the VWC. Methods A retrospective review of all the VWC submissions (May 2006 to March 2009) was conducted. The following information was collected from the VWC database: type of submission, category of author(s), and outcome of submission. In addition, investigators surveyed all registered VWC reviewers ( n = 20). Results Nearly half (48%) of the 54 VWC submissions were manuscripts. Of these, a majority of submissions (73.1%) were accepted for publication or were in the process of review at the time of analysis. All abstract submissions were accepted. A 70% response rate ( n = 14) was achieved for the survey. The majority of respondents ( n = 9, 64.3%) indicated that participation in the VWC as a reviewer has improved their personal writing skills. Conclusion A noncompetitive peer-review group, such as the VWC, may be an effective way to involve an entire department in the stimulation and facilitation of scholarship.