SUMMARY – AJPP 2013 – Accra, Ghana - J Royall
Disclaimer: this is not a replacement for Tom’s fabulous meeting minutes. It is a not a recap of ppts (which will be posted at ajpp-online) or an attempt to capture everything – forgive any omissions which occurred when I was out of the room with interviews. The summary is a way to remind people of some of the meeting points and impressions, and to celebrate our time together.
We gathered
For the first time in the Motherland
After all, we’re all out of Africa
David hosts – now a saint
John, Siaka, Jean-Marie – We miss you!
10 Years – and 5 new African journals in MEDLINE – research in African countries available to the world - a benchmark to be proud of
New faces – great to see female faces - two new African journal partners – Welcome
New journals –
Lots of lacks but we smile – we know this will change - it validates what we do
USE this group – they are the best collaborators and support group you will have.
New collaborations – active outreach and inclusion of
Librarians
MEPI PIs
Old journals mentoring new journals
Interdisciplinary interaction – even engineers, the armed forces
We speak English and French in addition to our local languages
We also speak skype
We share our medals and scars.
We include different disciplines
AJPP is Catalytic – it is an enzyme
AND LIBRARIANS
from disembodied voices from afar at NLM in 2011, to Christine at the table last year, to 3 librarians adding their perspectives this year
These folks are critical to your process: DOI – a persistent link/unique, DBs, websites, mobile apps, Google analytics, social media, plagiarism, reference management, effective searching
“I have come in on Sunday instead of going to church to help a doctor with references for a paper due on Monday. When I’m sick, I’m not even standing in a queue. . . Are we able to commit to future generations in Africa having guaranteed permanent access to this digital content?”
MEPI –
A program for strengthening medical education to improve health systems and the health of countries.
Some specific AJPP-MEPI interfaces are in motion:
James has a students writers club – 7:00-8:00 in the morning
Christine is converting dissertations to manuscripts
Grace is leading workshops on how to write
Abraham has learned lessons from site visits
Tom asks - Might AJPP have a project within a MEPI grant?
INTERNS
mentoring models
seniors mentor juniors
CME
10 points for publication in Malawi
might people pay for this?
XML
We also are learning to speak XML – so we can Go Local
VISIONS
6 journals/year
Birth to baby journals in different specialties and engaging more people in publishing process – published in response to communities
Website are great – if still have disease of food, shame on you – why don’t we use our journals?
Website – are websites like airlines – proliferation – do we want to create dinosaurs or a million eyes?
Demystifying research
Journal as an educational platform to improve the community’s health – the PUBLIC’S HEALTH
How do we use elearning?
AJPP brand
Resources –
Time – only 24 hours a day – person sitting in village and Annette in JAMA
only have 24 hours – we are not utilizing
Human resources – young people – 80 M in Ehtiopia – what are you doing with 80 M?
100K students in 30 universities in Uganda
exploit spirit of volunteerism
And the numbers keep going up
Impact factor
No zero sum game, free or full price - those who can pay, should
SUCCESSES
Over 1M/mo – James – we should be aiming for millions
We are small journal in a small building but … we have no bureaucracy!
Foreign funding – NORAD in Ethopia
CHALLENGES
Training peer reviewers, the gold standard – workshop – they can understand how a journal operates.
Carrots and sticks….– don’t give CME credit to peer reviewers until their review is in
Website – 10,000 hits in a week in Zambia – why not millions?
Visibility – link to one another’s journals
Power is here in Africa – muzungus are here to collaborate on what you want to do
Sign up for AJPP Facebook – it’s an exclusive club
COMMERCIAL PARTNERS
Keep helping us as we learn how to do these things ourselves, tweak the product so it works better, be prepared in case it goes away. We are grateful to you, but also want to be prepared if you should have to leave.
Ovid – how one strong platform can perform a variety of functions – point of care, books, metrics – negotiate fee and tweaking
SPi-XML
ScholarOne – we want comments separately from track changes. We can guide the reviewers.
Cara – via skype – epublishing issues and individual site reviews
The more you link to others, the higher Google will place you in search results.
REGIONAL WORKSHOPS
Regional international workshop topic possibilities
Journal management and business plans
Interdisciplinary research and publication – folklore and African traditional med
Publication standards – when is the paper retracted? How do you find the authentic version
Visibility, reaching audiences, social media
PRIORITIES
Reviewers – how to train, how to motivate
Internet access – work with private sector, govt (find out about fiber optic backbone)
Mobile visibility – central AJPP place where people can search across multiple journals)
Technology skills needed
Funding – business model
Human resources
Ten year retrospective – Envisioning!!
Sustainability: curating what has already been published – quality control and availability for the future
Where we are and how we got here
Could we have gotten here more efficiently? What do we change for new journals?
Mentorship – to what extent do we get feedback from our partners when we meet?
Three way partnerships
Going through issues together –sharing and bouncing ideas off of each other re practical matters
Reach of dissemination
Focus on professionals typically neglected – ex midwives
Vision for future –
What it is
How we use
Moving forward as individuals, as a group, or both as appropriate
SPECIFICALLY 2013
International workshop on business plans with everyone leaving with a skeletal plan
Update old financial forms as part of this.
Abraham hosts in Ethiopia
Next AJPP meeting 2014 – CSE – San Antonio
Following year 2015 – Addis?
Proposal for mobile visibility - David, Abraham, Grace, chaired by Christine.
Contract with NLM– Tom and Annette
Interns
Managing editor
Hosting website
Local training
New h/sw
2 new journals per year
2 international workshops per year
NIH and CSE may have guidance
Web-based blended learning
Other funds can also be routed to CSE
FINALLY Listening to the people –
A quick story from a senior Ghanaian scientist I spoke with two days ago:
Said the village chief to the well-intentioned malaria researcher: we know you are interested in malaria, but our problem is teenage pregnancy
To dream our heads off
a call for action
to use the mighty pen