Editorial Processes in Free Open Access Medical Educational (FOAM) Resources

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Digital Health
• Information Science

Background:

• Skepticism towards online educational resources (OERs) in emergency medicine (EM) arises from low publishing barriers and perceived lack of rigor.
• Learners and educators struggle with consistent appraisal of OERs, highlighting a need for better evaluation tools.
• Disclosure of editorial process is a key quality indicator for OERs, yet its prevalence and integration into appraisal tools for online EM resources remain understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the presence and description of editorial processes in top online emergency medicine and critical care resources.
• To evaluate the inter-rater reliability of assessing the mention and description of editorial processes.
• To determine if academic affiliation influences the disclosure of editorial processes in OERs.

Main Methods:

• Two reviewers assessed 100 top EM and critical care OERs for editorial process disclosure and affiliations.
• Sites were contacted for clarification regarding their editorial processes.
• Inter-rater reliability was measured using Cohen's kappa; the association between academic affiliation and editorial process disclosure was analyzed using odds ratios.

Main Results:

• Only 11 out of 92 accessible OERs mentioned an editorial process, with 10 providing a description.
• Inter-rater agreement for identifying and describing editorial processes was excellent (κ=0.90 for mention, κ=1.00 for description).
• OERs with academic affiliations were more likely to disclose their editorial process (OR=5.3) compared to those without.

Conclusions:

• Editorial processes are present in online emergency medicine resources, though transparency is often limited.
• The reliable assessment of editorial process disclosure supports its inclusion in critical appraisal tools for OERs.
• Academic affiliation is associated with a higher likelihood of disclosing editorial processes, suggesting a potential quality marker.