Publication Scholarship: How to Become an Effective Manuscript Reviewer

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Publication Scholarship How to Become an
Effective Manuscript Reviewer

• Henry Cohen, BS, MS, PharmD, FCCM, BCPP, CGP
• Professor of Pharmacy Practice
• Arnold Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and
  Health Sciences of Long Island University
• and
• Chief Pharmacotherapy Officer
• Director of Pharmacy Residency Programs
• Departments of Pharmacy and Medicine
• Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center
• Brooklyn, New York

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Goals and Objectives

• Define Scholarship and describe the relevance of
  publication scholarship.
• Describe how to be appointed to become a peer
  reviewer.
• List the advantages of serving as a peer
  reviewer.
• Describe how to critically evaluate published
  drug therapy clinical trials and drug-induced
  case reports.
• Describe a publishers report, journal costs, and
  impact factors

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Scholarship Defined

• The creation, discovery, advancement, or
  transformation of knowledge
• Composed in a manner that is subject to peer
  review and effective communication
• Assessed for quality by peer review and made
  public
• If an activity cannot be evaluated using
  universally recognized criteria, it will not be
  universally valued

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Relevance of Publication Scholarship

• Pharmacy
• Requirement of a healthcare profession
• Advance and improve patient care societal
  contribution
• Clinical Pharmacists
• Establish improve relationships with medical
  nursing staff
• Funding opportunities for department and hospital
• Fellowships, new equipment, stipends
• Requirement for ASHP-accredited Residency
  Preceptors
• Enhance job satisfaction

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Relevance of Publication Scholarship

• Academicians
• Requirement for reappointment, promotion and
  tenure
• Tenure track faculty
• Nontenure track faculty
• Research positions
• Collaborative opportunities with other pharmacy
  disciplines
• Research and practice opportunities at
  university-based medical centers
• Teaching Opportunities
• Undergraduate and graduate

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Advantages of Serving as a Peer Reviewer for a
Journal

• Ensure robust, fair, non-bias, safe contributions
  to the literature
• Critique can enhance the manuscript and increase
  relevance
• Controversial publications
• Review cutting edge research
• Apply data to practice
• Provide ideas for research endeavors

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Advantages of Serving as a Peer Reviewer for a
Journal

• Scholarly activity
• Job requirement for reappointment promotion
• Professional notoriety
• Professional satisfaction
• Provides new opportunities
• Journal Editorial Board Member
• Journal Editor
• Publishing
• Educational

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What credentials do I need to be a Peer Reviewer?

• Training in area of expertise
• Pharm.D. or advanced degree
• Post-graduate training
• General Residency and/or Specialty Residency
• Practice in area of expertise
• Experience in area of expertise
• 3 5 Years minimum
• Research in area of expertise
• Fellowship
• Board Certified

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What credentials do I need to be a Peer Reviewer?

• Publish manuscripts
• Publish in peer reviewed journals
• Chapters in text books
• Web Chapters
• Lecture in area of expertise
• Invited presentations
• Board certification review courses
• Notoriety in area of expertise

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How to choose expert subjects for review

• List of Subjects
• Disease specific
• Organ specific
• Subject specific
• CNS
• Head Injury
• Cerebral Function
• Stroke
• Parkinsons Disease

• Pulmonary
• Pulmonary Edema
• Pulmonary Emboli
• Pulmonary Function Tests
• Hepatic
• Hepatic Failure
• Hepatic Drug Metabolism
• Hepatic Function Tests

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How can I be appointed to become a Peer Reviewer?

• Choose an area that you are competent
• Become an Abstract reviewer (do not be offensive)
• Answer Journal call for peer reviewers
• Ask the Journal Editor
• Ask Journal Editorial Board Members for
  recommendations
• After publishing an article ask if
  opportunities exist
• Respond to peer review in a timely fashion

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How to Critically Evaluate Published Drug Therapy
Drug-Induced Case Reports

• Introduction relevance and brief literature
  review
• Establish a temporal and causal relationship
• Detect confounding variables
• Medications, OTCs, CAM, recreational drugs
• Doses of concomitant medications
• Medication compliance measurements
• Drug serum levels and laboratory data
• Drug and food interactions
• Nutrition status and compliance
• Comorbid diseases

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How to Critically Evaluate Published Drug Therapy
Drug-Induced Case Reports

• Was a comprehensive literature review provided?
• Focus on similarities and differences to the case
  report
• Was a summary table with salient data provided?
• Was the case validated with established criteria
• Naranjos Algorithm
• Conclusion
• Is the conclusion valid based on the case report?
• How can I apply the data from the report to my
  practice?
• Provide a prospectus to answer unanswered
  questions

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How to write a patient case report

• Cohen H. American Journal of Health-System
  Pharmacists. 2006631888-92.
• Can be found on the AJHP Website
• Guidelines for writing patient case reports, with
  a focus on medication related reports.
• Comprehensive checklist for contents
• Abstract, Introduction, Patient Case, Discussion,
  Conclusion

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How to Critically Evaluate Published
Drug-Related Clinical Trials

• Hypothesis
• Objectives
• How many and are they attainable?
• Methodology
• Sample size was a power analysis completed?
• Blinding
• Length of study
• Exclusion criteria
• Medication source generic or brand
• Confounding variables (similar as with case
  reports)
• Compliance statistics

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How to Critically Evaluate Published
Drug-Related Clinical Trials

• Results Discussion
• Do the results answer the objectives
• Did the authors compare and contrast the results
  with similar trials, and provide explanations for
  the differences
• Conclusion
• Is the conclusion is based on study objectives
  and results?
• How can I apply the trial conclusions to my
  practice?
• Provide a prospectus to answer unanswered
  questions

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Reviewing Submitted Manuscripts as a Referee Vs
Reviewing Published Articles

• Minor flaws are acceptable
• Major flaws
• Fatal
• Recoverable
• Acceptable
• Uncontrollable
• Are the conclusions accurate?
• Do the conclusions have any value in advancing
  present practice?

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Correcting Diction, Grammar, and Spelling

• Diction
• Choice of words clear, correct and effective
• Grammar
• Syntax
• Spelling
• Reject based on poor diction, grammar, or
  spelling
• Choppy, lengthy, redundant, awkward sentencing
• Do not correct use of English
• Request medical writer to edit and rewrite

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Editorial Review Process

• Editor-In-Chief and/or Managing Editor
• Section Editor
• Reviewers
• 2 4 Reviewers
• Preferred Reviewers
• Section Editor
• Editor Final Decision

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Methods for Submitting Review

• Web-based programs
• Electronic copy submitted via mail, E-mail or fax
• Generally cannot write comments on the manuscript
• Not-blinded to editor
• Blinded to author
• Comments to editor and author
• Comments to editor that are not viewable by author

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Reviewers Guidelines

• Ensure ethical and humane study
• Ensure Institutional Review Board Approval
• Ensure HIPPA rules are followed
• Appropriate use of references
• Ensure that assays scoring systems are
  validated
• Recommend review for statistical analysis
• Recommend Editorial Reply by an expert
• Recommend experts to the editor

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Reviewers Guidelines

• Critically review the manuscript
• Focus on scientific merit and value
• Provide constructive criticism
• Aim is to improve the quality
• Do not be destructive
• Judge each manuscript on its own merits
• Avoid personal comments and opinions

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A Study of Patients with GI Bleeding Treated with
Endoscopy who Develop AMI

• List the different Forest Classes for GI Bleeding
• List the troponin and CPK levels that were noted
  in patients who did develop an acute coronary
  syndrome
• In the clinical course section, sentence 1,
  shorter duration of symptoms refers to MI or GI
  symptoms please clarify?
• What medications were used to treat patients with
  GI bleed? Did patients receive medications prior
  to endoscopy?
• When providing mortality data provide the
  number in addition to the percentage.
• What strength of epinephrine was used for
  endoscopic injection hemostasis?
• The tables are not referenced in the text.

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A Study of Patients with GI Bleeding Treated with
Endoscopy who Develop AMI

• Provide a legend for every table and figure.
• The figures are not consistent with data in the
  results.
• The results and tables are redundant.
• Make some preventative recommendations should
  beta blockers be considered at patients with CAD
  risk?
• Conclusions regarding the duration of endoscopic
  examination may be premature, the differences are
  small please clarify.
• The author concludes that the method of
  hemostasis did not differ between patients who
  had an MI and those who did not - there are too
  few patients in all groups to make this
  conclusion.

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Reviewers Guidelines The Final Decision

• Accept a manuscript
• Perfect manuscript
• Requires no changes
• Cannot accept but will reconsider if revisions
  are made
• Provide comments on scientific method
• Provide recommendations for substantive changes
• Reject
• Provide a paragraph describing the merits of your
  decision

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Reviewers Guidelines

• Choose only areas of expertise
• May ask a colleague to review
• Teaching tool for residents and new practitioners
• Inform editor that this is not your area of
  expertise
• Editors request 2 6 week deadlines
• Inform editor immediately when you cannot meet a
  deadline
• Review 2 6 manuscripts annually
• Estimated 20 50 hours per year
• Allow for busy-time, vacations
• Recommend an alternative reviewer

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Journal of Pharmacy PracticeA peer reviewed
journal dedicated to medication management and
pharmacy practice Indexed in Medline
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Journal of Pharmacy Practice Publishers Report
Performance Metric Totals
Total Circulation 10,000
Online Usage, Full Text Downloads 85,000
Subscribers US (45), Western Europe (17), South America (13), Asia (7), United Kingdom Middle East (5)
Site Visitors 200,000 (US 125,000)
Electronic TOC Alerts 2,500
Articles Received 200
Articles Published 80
Rejection rate 60
Total journal pages 576
Abstracts Published College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists NYSCHP Annual Assembly, NYSCHP Residency Program
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Pharmacy-Related Journal Subscription Costs
Journal Print Online Print Online Individual
JPP 1700 1550 1700 139
Annals of Pharmacotherapy 1200 1100 1200 217
Pharmacotherapy 550 550 650 165
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 1100 1340 425
Clinical Pharmacology 1115 Join ACCP
AJHP 3,000 5,000
Approximate 2015 Costs
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Pharmacy and Pharmacology Category 254
JournalsCited Items/Citable Items
Journal Impact Factor
Nature Reviews and Drug Discovery 28.7
Annual Review of Pharmacology Toxicology 19.2
Pharmacologic Reviews 18.6
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 7.7
Pharmacotherapy 2.6
AJHP 2.2
Annals of Pharmacotherapy 2.16
Journal of Pharmacy Practice 1.85
Journal of The American Pharmaceutical Association 1.34
New England Journal of Medicine 55
JAMA 30
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How does drug literature evaluation enhance the
skills necessary to publish case reports and
clinical trials?

• Developing excellent drug literature evaluation
  skills spawns similar applicability and strategy
  to preparing case reports, and designing research
  protocols
• Case reports are an excellent start for beginners
• Comprehensive evaluation of clinical trials is an
  advanced skill, and integral to success
• Repetition and experience is important to master
  this skill

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Teaching Journal Club to Pharmacy Students,
Residents, and Pharmacists

• Start with case reports, then research articles
• Provide goals objectives for evaluations
  grading
• Provide a checklist of plausible bias and
  confounding variables
• Each resident presents their own manuscript
• Require slides and a handout
• Teach a primer on basic presentation skills
• Encourage active participation from the audience
• Require the audience to read the article

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Teaching Journal Club

• Require residents to design an outline
• Faculty should review the outline BEFORE the
  resident proceeds with the preparation of the
  presentation
• Establish time limitations based on the outline
• Case reports 20 minutes 20 minutes of QA
• Research Trials 30 40 minutes 30 minutes of
  QA
• 1 or 2 presentations every 4 8 weeks of
  clerkship

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Journal Club Evaluation CriteriaResidents
Review of Article

• Review and master the subject and background
• Read the article at least twice
• Provide a background to the subject matter
• Accurately and concisely summarize
• Introduction, study hypothesis, methodology,
  major points of results and discussion
• Accurately present the authors conclusion of the
  study

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Journal Club Evaluation CriteriaResidents
Review of Article

• Elaborate on any minor or major attributes or
  deficiencies of the study
• Verify the authors statistics or references
• Provide data from other case reports or trials
  beyond the data from the article
• Provide a conclusion residents perspective
• Provide applicability to practice
• Answer questions, theorize and analyze

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Journal Club Evaluation CriteriaEvaluation with
faculty

• Ask presenter to perform self evaluation first
• Areas of strengths and weakness
• What strategy will they employ to improve their
  weaknesses?
• Consider a standard grading system
• Provide constructive criticism, and methods for
  improvement

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Conclusions

• The definition of a profession includes
  publication scholarship in peer reviewed journals
• Publication scholarship validates the role of the
  pharmacist and medication management
• Peer reviewers should have expertise and ensure
  robust, fair, non-bias, safe contributions to the
  literature
• Peer reviewers should offer extensive critique
  aimed at improving the manuscript and increasing
  relevance
• Teach journal club by beginning with case
  reports, and when mastered proceed to research
  review articles

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Questions
Questions
Thanks!