SCRIPting a Path to Scholarship: How Student Journals Reduce Barriers to Publication

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Scholarly Publishing
• Academic Medicine

Background:

• Early research engagement is linked to medical students' academic success and productivity.
• Barriers to publishing in mainstream journals can hinder student dissemination of scholarly work.
• Student journals offer a potential avenue to overcome these barriers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of the Scholarly Research in Progress (SCRIP) student journal.
• To assess effects on students' writing and publication experience, knowledge, and practice.
• To understand changes in writing apprehension and scholarly productivity.

Main Methods:

• A survey was administered to medical students at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.
• Qualtrics platform used for data collection on experience, motivation, and publication barriers.
• Analysis included descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations) for ranked survey questions.

Main Results:

• Students publishing in SCRIP reported higher confidence in manuscript writing, submission, and navigating the publication/peer-review process.
• SCRIP-published students valued research publication more in their careers.
• No significant difference in total PubMed-indexed publications between SCRIP-published and non-SCRIP-published students.

Conclusions:

• SCRIP positively influences students' attitudes toward future publication and boosts writing confidence.
• Student journal participation aids in developing scientific writing skills and confidence through feedback.
• SCRIP effectively supports students in refining research for publication.