EDITORIAL |
Publication of dissertations
One of the objectives of the Society of Occupational Medicine, set out in the constitution, is ‘... the promotion and stimulation of research ... in particular by the publication of such research’. The existence of the society's own journal aims to serve this objective, but to fully embrace the ideal, Occupational Medicine seeks to be more than a passive recipient of submissions from established academics.The faculty's training programme in occupational medicine currently includes the requirement to undertake a dissertation before membership is conferred. This means that a wealth of thought and effort goes into producing new pieces of research but despite this, few completed dissertations are submitted for publication, to this journal at least. The editorial team of Occupational Medicine would like to understand why this is and is committed to supporting those who wish to publish.
The editorial team has revisited this subject on a number of occasions; we see Membership of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (MFOM) dissertations as a potentially fruitful area for publishing new research, introducing new authors and fulfilling our commitment to practical research from practising occupational physicians. We therefore sought the views of 25 recently qualified members of the faculty through a questionnaire, asking about the dissertation and their thoughts about publication. The offer to discuss possible publication was also made.
Disappointingly and perhaps reflecting a degree of inertia that answers our original question, 14 people approached (56%) did not reply.
Of those who did, the following hurdles to publication were noted:
- (i) lack of time;
- (ii) new pressures of settling into a specialist post;
- (iii) perception that the MFOM dissertation was inadequate for publication and
- (iv) daunting amount of work required to remodel the work into a format suitable for submission.
- (ii) new pressures of settling into a specialist post;
The response from Occupational Medicine is that the editorial team is willing to offer advice and help and to point people in the right direction. At least two of the respondents to the questionnaire were keen to talk to the editor about publication, so the will, in some cases, is out there. If other potential authors wish to receive advice on publication then please get in contact with Occupational Medicine.
There are a number of ways that Occupational Medicine might be able to put into print an article based on a dissertation. Firstly, as an original paper, but also the short report format might work well for some, particularly if this saved time for authors in writing up a submission.
Alternatively, Occupational Medicine will consider short submissions that can be published in the ‘white space’ between other articles. These might include short accounts of experiences learnt during the dissertation process. For example, authors may wish to recount how a research question was posed and developed; how a difficult problem with selection bias was overcome; how a research approach failed and how the situation was rescued.
Hence, a few paragraphs from which we can all learn may find space, even in the absence of a full submission.
For those who are starting out with their dissertations, it would be advantageous to consider writing it up in a way that makes it easier to adapt for publication.
In fact, it would be sensible for candidates to do this anyway, as the faculty's MFOM Regulations state that the dissertation should be written in a similar fashion to a scientific paper.
Occupational Medicine publishes a guide for authors and following this from the very start of the dissertation process will automatically help to shape the dissertation into a piece of work suitable for submission. Also it will help the trainee to write up his/her dissertation in a way that will impress upon their assessors a methodical approach and a style of presentation that is standard and in keeping with faculty guidelines.
Even so, it is recognized that preparing a dissertation for publication will require a fair amount of work. Ultimately, motivation and time pressures seem to be the biggest hurdles. One might suspect that many are not sufficiently motivated to continue to focus on a piece of work that loomed large for much of their 4 years in training. The questionnaire responses reveal some negative experiences of the whole dissertation process and the low response rate to the questionnaire survey overall may indicate a simple lack of interest.
However, successful publication must be an attractive reward for all the time and energy invested in the dissertation process and the concern is that some would-be authors have negative misconceptions about the possibility of publication. If Occupational Medicine can help to dispel such misconceptions and pave the way to publication, the readership only stands to benefit from this source of collective knowledge that to date remains poorly disseminated.
e-mail: PRESTONJ{at}BUPA.com
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||