JGME Enters Adolescence: Our First 10 Years

The Journal of Graduate Medical Education's (JGME's) transformation over the past decade at times seems as dramatic as the emergence of an unrecognizable teenager from a small child. From 250 submissions in 2010 to over 1100 submissions in 2018, 10 inaugural to 35 current editors, and 4 to 6 issues per year, the journal has expanded in content and complexity. As we celebrate the journal's 10th year, we may derive insights from where we started, key events along the way, and our current status in the burgeoning world of medical education journals.

Birth

JGME grew out of the former Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Bulletin, published 3 to 4 times per year for sharing ideas, experiences, and innovations from residency and fellowship programs. With ACGME's transition to competency-based medical education in 2003, seismic changes in graduate medical education (GME) were on the horizon. GME institutions and training programs needed a venue in which to publish their work and learn about new approaches. ACGME leaders understood the importance of disseminating evidence that would support or refute new GME teaching and assessment strategies. With strong leadership from Ingrid Philibert, PhD, Executive Managing Editor, and guest editors, the first issue was launched in September 2009. ACGME Board and Committee members with expertise in medical education and publication were recruited to form the Journal Oversight Committee (JOC), for oversight of journal mission, scope, and expansions. In 2010, the JOC recruited an editor-in-chief, who in turn recruited associate editors with GME teaching experience and educational research skills from a variety of specialties, geographic locales, and seniority levels. The inaugural editors were “teachers in the trenches” who brought enthusiasm as well as questioning attitudes, and understood the need for scholarly evidence to inform educators' practice. The first editors also shared an explorer mentality, necessary for creating an entirely new journal. Reviewers were recruited, article categories created and defined, and a lively conversation around GME commenced—a conversation that continues today.

Growth Chart

As the JGME Editorial Board increased in size and diversity, the practical teaching orientation of the independent editorial board became increasingly clear (Table 1). A 2-page “Rip Out” article category for how-to strategies pertinent to educators and researchers emerged in 2011. From 2011 onward, JGME sponsored numerous educational sessions at national and international meetings with the goal of educating and inspiring authors, reviewers, and, most important, readers (Box 1). Venues for these sessions included annual meetings of the ACGME, International Conference on Residency Education (ICRE), Association of Medical Educators of Europe (AMEE), Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Association of Independent Academic Medical Centers (AIAMC), Association of Program Directors in Surgery/Association of Surgical Educators, American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM), and other groups.

Table 1.

Most Frequently Downloaded JGME Articles (2009–2019)

No. of Downloads	Article Title	Authors	Issue	Article DOI
44043	Analyzing and Interpreting Data From Likert-Type Scales	Sullivan, Artino	December 2013	10.4300/JGME-5-4-18
19806	Nuts and Bolts of Entrustable Professional Activities	ten Cate	February 2013	10.4300/JGME-D-12-00380.1
17488	Using Effect Size—or Why the P Value Is Not Enough	Sullivan, Feinn	September 2012	10.4300/JGME-D-12-00156.1
12564	More Than Likes and Tweets: Creating Social Media Portfolios for Academic Promotion and Tenure	Jordan et al	August 2017	10.4300/JGME-D-17-00171.1
12080	How to Write Up Your Quality Improvement Initiatives for Publication	Wong, Sullivan	May 2016	10.4300/JGME-D-16-00086.1
11634	Viewpoint From a Program Director: They Can't All Walk on Water	Puscas	July 2016	10.4300/JGME-D-16-00237.1
11771	Qualitative Research Part II: Participants, Analysis, and Quality Assurance	Sargeant	February 2012	10.4300/JGME-D-11-00307.1
10259	Bring Yourself to Work	Sgro	April 2018	10.4300/JGME-D-17-00608.1
9937	Well-Being in Residency: A Systematic Review	Raj	December 2016	10.4300/JGME-D-15-00764.1
9899	University-Versus Community-Based Residency Programs: Does the Distinction Matter?	Chen et al	August 2017	10.4300/JGME-D-16-00579.1
9772	Burnout During Residency Training: A Literature Review	Mandili et al	December 2009	10.4300/JGME-D-09-00054.1
9647	Design: Selection of Data Collection Methods	O'Brien et al	May 2016	10.4300/JGME-D-16-00098.1
9645	Choosing a Qualitative Research Approach	Teherani et al	December 2015	10.4300/JGME-D-15-00414.1
9558	A Practical Guide to the ACGME Self-Study	Philibert, Lieh-Lai	September 2014	10.4300/JGME-06-03-55
9497	The Literature Review: A Foundation for High-Quality Medical Education Research	Sewell et al	July 2016	10.4300/JGME-D-16-00175.1

Box 1 Journal of Graduate Medical Education Sponsored Educational Sessions at National and International Meetings (2010–2019)

• Crafting and Writing Medical Education Projects for Publication

• The Personal Trainer Approach to Medical Education Research: Ready, Set, Go!

• Defining Quality in Medical Education Research: A Consensus-Building Discussion

• Exploring Systemic Barriers That Limit Education Researcher Productivity: A Consensus-Building Discussion

• Principles of Survey Design in Health Professions Education

• Moving Beyond Surveys

• Reporting Your Assessment and Quality Improvement Activities as Scholarly Publications

• Group Reviewer Bootcamp: A Train the Trainer Workshop for Your Home Institution

• Best Surgical Papers of 2016

• What JGME Editors Are Reading: Medical Education Literature in 2017

• Is There A Paper in Your Poster? Getting to the Paper, After the Poster or Abstract

• Hot Topics in Med Ed: Cool Papers from 2018

• Unpacking Peer Review Together: Using Group Peer Review to Improve Scholarship and Foster Community

• Behind the Scenes: Your Paper from Submission to Publication

• JGME Editors' Favorite 2018 Medical Education Papers and Strategies for Curating the Literature

• A Conversation Among Readers, Editors, & Authors About the Medical Education Literature

To highlight the work of promising education scholars, in 2013, the journal created the video series Spotlight on Authors for each issue, in which lead authors of articles discussed their work. The following year we added a social media presence on Twitter (@JournalofGME) and LinkedIn and an annual short category for novel interventions that had been implemented successfully—New Ideas—which continues to draw a large number of submissions (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Journal of Graduate Medical Education Accepted Papers by Article Type (2010–2018)

As JGME grew, it became clear that we needed space for collections of special articles of strong interest to GME institutions and faculty. In 2013, the journal produced the first supplement, which comprised articles describing the development of and evidence supporting the first specialty milestones in the ACGME's Next Accreditation System. Five supplement collections have followed this initial effort, which provide critical data to GME leaders and educators (Box 2). Overall, we are delighted to see that the JGME's most downloaded articles include those from early issues as well as all submission categories (Table 1 and provided as online supplemental material).

Box 2 Journal of Graduate Medical Education Supplement Issues

• 2013: Milestones Supplement (NAS Phase 1 Specialties)

• 2014: Milestones Supplement (NAS Phase 2 Specialties)

• 2016: CLER National Report of Findings 2016

• 2017: Envisioning The Sponsoring Institution of the Future: Report of the SI2025 Task Force

• 2018: CLER National Report of Findings 2018

• 2019: International Supplement: A Look Into GME Around the World (ACGME-I 10th anniversary)

With increasing numbers of submissions and issues per year (Figure 2), deputy editor positions were created in 2014. Editorial board expansion included the addition of resident editors in 2012, who have contributed greatly to the mix of perspectives, priorities, and personalities that form our independent editorial board. This board remains an activist board, in which editors invite reviewers, adjudicate reviewer feedback, render decisions, and participate in all content and policy decisions (Table 2).

Figure 2.

JGME Number of Submissions and Acceptance Rate (2010–2019)

Table 2.

Growth Chart: Journal of Graduate Medical Education

Year	Notable Events
2009	Guest editors, first issue September 2009
2010	Editor-in-chief and 10 associate editors recruited; 4 issues per year
2011	New article categories created: Educational Innovation, Brief Report, Perspectives, On Teaching, Rip Out
2012	Resident editors recruited; joint award for best research paper at International Conference on Residency Educationa
2013	Spotlight on Authors video series, 1 per issue; first supplement
2014	New Ideas annual short article category; joint award for best paper, with the Association of Independent Academic Medical Centers; 3 deputy editor positions created
2015	PubMed indexed
2016	Increase to 5 issues per year
2017	Increase to 6 issues per year
2018	Journal sponsors 4 @MedEdChats Twitter discussions each year; Going Green initiative enacted
2019	Training collaboration with American Pediatric Association Educational Scholars Program

^aAward given jointly by JGME and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Current Status

To celebrate and enhance the understanding of JGME's next 10 years, each issue published in the coming year will feature articles peering into the future of GME, medical education research, and dissemination of new evidence through publication and other venues. The journal will highlight these topics in podcasts to further stimulate creative ideas from readers and listeners. The journal's New Ideas category this year will feature potential “futurist” innovations that might, possibly, become part of educators' playbooks over time. We hope you find these topics inspiring and enlightening, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts. Happy Birthday, Journal of Graduate Medical Education!