Journal club guidelines

General info

Journal Club is a couple-times-a-semester meeting where lab members discuss an academic journal article they've all read. At each meeting, 1-3 students are "discussion leaders"; they read the article more closely before the meeting. Each student should be a discussion leader for one meeting per semester. Students who aren't leading are still expected to read the paper and be ready to discuss.

Normally there are two "sections" of journal club that meet at different days and times. Only go to one section's meeting.

If you aren't able to attend any journal club meetings (and therefore can't ever be a discussion leader), talk to your professor. They will make an appropriate alternative task.

See the Journal Club Schedule Google Sheet for info about meeting times, papers, and who you can ask for questions. A link is also in the KB left sidebar. Can't find something in the sheet? Ask the lab manager.

If you aren't used to reading academic journal articles, read these 10 simple rules. 

Notes template

We have a document called the Journal Club Notes Template. As you read each article, you will answer the questions from the notes template.

This fixed set of questions should be relevant for each article you read. We hope it will guide your learning by pointing out key relationships and important features. We hope it will also help you notice which parts of the paper you did and didn't understand.

Everyone attending journal club must respond to all the Check Your Understanding questions. You can do this at the same time you read the paper. You must also respond thoughtfully to at least one Reflect question. (Discussion Leaders: instead, respond to as many of the Reflect questions as you can before meeting with your aide). I've intentionally used the verb "respond" instead of "answer" -- your response can say that you didn't understand part of the paper. But, try to identify what was confusing, or which parts you did understand. 

For attendees (non-discussion leaders)

Read the article and complete the Notes Template using the instructions above.

For discussion leaders

Prep timeline

2+ weeks before club meeting

Start reading the paper. Fill out the Journal Club Notes Template as you go. You may share notes with the other discussion leaders, but you must take your own notes as well.

1-2 weeks before club meeting

Finish reading the paper for the first time.

Meet with the other discussion leaders. Talk about the paper. Decide a time to meet with your journal club aide. 

You must meet with your aide at least one week before the meeting. Your aide will answer questions and help you understand the paper. You must send your notes to your journal club aide before the meeting. That means you must have finished reading the paper and taking notes by then, too.

1 week before club meeting

Update notes after meeting with your aide.

2 days before club meeting

If your presentation includes anything except screenshots of figures from the paper, send it to your aide for review.

Any time before the meeting, you can Slack your aide about questions.

Recommended structure for club meeting

Talk about each question on the note template one at a time. Plan to start the discussion for each question. 

1. 1. For each Check Your Understanding question, say how you responded. Ask if people want clarification. You'll be the one who read the article most closely, so try your best to answer questions.
   2. Point out parts of the article you found confusing. Explain how you made sense of them.
   3. Talk about each Reflect question from the notes template. Ask what other people think. If conversation is slow, say how you responded. Then ask other people to respond.

Presentation slides

An ideal powerpoint for journal club would only have screenshots of the figures from the paper, with potentially some arrows or boxes to single out certain parts of the figures. In general, text should be avoided. Avoid having slides that define key terms or list bulleted info from the background. 

Other tips to presenters

There is often a figure in the paper which shows the methods. When you are describing the methods, if you have a powerpoint, put the methods figure on-screen while discussing it.

Avoid jargon, unless it's actually necessary or helpful.

For specific info like the methods, or introducing the results figures, you can just say the information. Not everything needs to be posed as a question to the group.

Try to say things in your own words. If you do read sentences word-for-word from the article, for example when pointing out the hypothesis, you should then restate it in your own words.

Follow the thread of conversation. If someone brings up an interesting idea, it's okay to get side-tracked. You can deviate from the notes template. 

When you pose questions to the group, try not to be too narrow or too broad. Fewer people respond when a question is dead obvious or could be answered in a hundred ways.

• [too broad] What did the authors know about this topic?
• [broad, but focused on a single topic] The intro talks about a previous study with limb movement. What was that study about?
• [narrow, but focused on the topic and specific enough to have a "right" answer] In the limb movement study in the intro, they wanted to know if right-handed and left-handed participants adapted more. What did they find?
• [too narrow; could just be said by presenter instead of being asked as a quiz-like question] In the study with limb movement, participants did two types of motions. One was where they did a sweeping arc. What was the other one?

• [too broad] What were the methods for the paper?
• [specific and good] How did they change the participant's formants in the hold phase of the experiment?
• [specific and good] What happened in the ramp phase of the experiment?
• [too specific/obvious] What were the different phases of the experiment? (when looking at a figure that says baseline/ramp/hold/washout)

• [multiple questions] What were the two groups in this study, and what were the different tasks that they did?
• [asking in sequence] What were the two groups in this study? (answers) And then what were the different tasks that they did?
• [self correcting] What were the two groups in this study, and what were the different tasks that they did? Or, just starting with the first question, what were the two groups?