Coached Peer Review: Developing the Next Generation of Authors

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Academic Publishing
• Digital Health

Background:

• Learners face challenges in traditional academic publishing, with harsh peer review processes.
• Academic blogs offer alternative publishing avenues but often lack quality control.
• CanadiEM, an emergency medicine educational blog, sought to address these issues for learner-authors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe and evaluate a novel "coached peer review" process implemented on the CanadiEM blog.
• To facilitate the publication of high-quality academic materials by medical learners.
• To provide constructive feedback for developing academic writing skills.

Main Methods:

• A survey was conducted from February to June 2015.
• Participants included learner-authors and external expert reviewers involved in the coached peer review process.
• Reactions to the coached peer review process were collected and analyzed.

Main Results:

• Participants reported a positive perception of the coached peer review process.
• The process was described as friendly, easy, efficient, and transparent compared to traditional methods.
• Learner-authors experienced increased confidence in their published work.

Conclusions:

• The "coached peer review" model successfully met its goals for learner-authors.
• CanadiEM's approach enhances the quality of online educational resources.
• Promoting this model can inspire more high-quality academic writing from learners.