How to present a Journal Club in the department

1. HOW TO PRESENT A
JOURNAL CLUB

2. OUTLINES
What is Journal Club?
How to start a Journal Club
Journal Club Session
Journal Club Presentation
Paper Selection
How to start reading the
article
Common mistakes in
leading a journal club
How to be a good
participant
Guidelines, Conclusion &
References

3. WHAT IS JOURNAL CLUB
A journal club is a group of individuals who meet
regularly to critically evaluate recent articles in
scientific literature
It is also a part of postgraduate medical education
aimed at improving the skills of critically appraising the
journal articles

4. AIM OF JOURNAL CLUB
1) The primary aim was to provide its members with
up-to-date medical literature
2) Recently it has become a forum for teaching and
learning critical appraisal techniques

5. HOW TO START A JOURNAL CLUB
1. Select a director
2. Define the goals
3. Optimize attendance
4. Generate participant interest
5. Preparation for journal clubs with critical analysis

6. JOURNAL CLUB SESSION
The participants should ideally be seated in a horse
shoe shape pattern
This promotes eye contact and helps better
interaction within the group
The presenter initiates and leads the discussion

7. The moderator ask for comments from the
participants to stimulate discussion when they are
not forthcoming
The director directs the whole session

8. JOURNAL CLUB PRESENTATION
A journal club can be presented with the help of
chalk and talk, overhead projectors, power point
presentations
Power point presentations are most commonly used

9. But power-point presentation will end up lecturing
instead of leading a discussion
So its better to provide a print copy so that
everyone has a copy of the paper in front of them

10. Send everyone a PDF of the paper or a print few
days before the journal club, so that they have time
to read it
Read the paper thoroughly several times
If there is time, one should go through other similar
papers

11. PAPER SELECTION
Choose papers that present an important concept in
a clear manner
Many excellent papers are published but the data
does not lend itself well to a clear presentation, so
its better to avoid such papers

12. Choose a recently published article, dealing with
the problems commonly encountered or if one is
interested in
Select article from a journal with a good impact
factor, peer reviewed and indexed
Discuss with the moderator

13. HOW TO START READING THE
ARTICLE
Start with the title of the article, authors and their
affiliated institutions
Mention any outstanding features of the article (e.g.
first study of its kind), well-known author(s) or
affiliated institutions

14. Journal presence: Impact factor, SCImago journal
ranking, Cite score
Circulation of journal: Regional, National or
International
Readership of the journal: Who are the readers the
journal aims at?

15. Ask inputs from members present in the journal
club
Read the abstract and introduction of the article
Review whether they included the scientific
background and rationale

16. Give a good summary of the methods
Think carefully about any shortcomings
Ask for if any inputs needed

17. If there is something not understood, tell the
audience about it and ask the audience if they have
understood it
This will either help you to learn something, or will
uncover a flaw in the paper

18. Talk to the members thoroughly each figure and
table
Summarize the author’s conclusions
Say whether or not the paper is convincing

19. Encourage as many people in the audience to contribute
to the discussion as much possible
Try to keep the discussion on the topic of the paper, and
especially its methods and the interpretation of its
results
Use ordinary or familiar language understood by all
members

20. COMMON MISTAKES IN
LEADING A JOURNAL CLUB
Spending too long on background context is
unnecessary
Never give a broad overview, always go through
the paper in a linear fashion, reading out sentences
from it

21. Defending a paper to the very limit even though it has
obvious flaws
Being too negative about a paper because of few
weaknesses in it, as all papers have weaknesses
Just focusing on the introduction and conclusions will
reduce the time to discuss and will not be able to
critique the paper

22. HOW TO BE A GOOD PARTICIPANT
IN A JOURNAL CLUB DISCUSSION
Read the paper
Make sure all the tables and figures are understood
Ask for comments about the papers methodology and
its interpretation of results
Focus on the paper and ask for inputs
Be open about what you don't understand

23. GUIDELINES FOR CRITICAL
ANALYSIS OF AN ARTICLE

34. CONCLUSION
Journal clubs can be used as a powerful tool for
promoting knowledge and also skills for critical analysis
A journal club is an integral part of doctors continuing
medical education and an important step towards
evidence based practice

35. REFERENCES
1. Ankola A, Hebbal M, Ratika. Journal Club: A Step
towards Evidence Based Practice. Journal of the
Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry;
2011(17): 84-87.
2. Buggs R. How to lead a journal club meeting,
November 27, 2020. Available from: https://how-to-
lead-a-journal-club-meeting. Accessed on 24th
February, 2020

36. THANK YOU