An international survey and modified Delphi process revealed editors' perceptions, training needs, and ratings of competency-related statements for the development of core competencies for scientific editors of biomedical journals.

Galipeau, James, Cobey, Kelly D, Barbour, Virginia, Baskin, Patricia, Bell-Syer, Sally, Deeks, Jonathan, Garner, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0607-6941, Shamseer, Larissa, Sharon, Straus, Tugwell, Peter, Winker, Margaret and Moher, David (2017) 'An international survey and modified Delphi process revealed editors' perceptions, training needs, and ratings of competency-related statements for the development of core competencies for scientific editors of biomedical journals.'. F1000Research, Vol 6, p. 1634.

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Abstract

Background: Scientific editors (i.e., those who make decisions on the content and policies of a journal) have a central role in the editorial process at biomedical journals. However, very little is known about the training needs of these editors or what competencies are required to perform effectively in this role. Methods: We conducted a survey of perceptions and training needs among scientific editors from major editorial organizations around the world, followed by a modified Delphi process in which we invited the same scientific editors to rate the importance of competency-related statements obtained from a previous scoping review. Results: A total of 148 participants completed the survey of perceptions and training needs. At least 80% of participants agreed on six of the 38 skill and expertise-related statements presented to them as being important or very important to their role as scientific editors. At least 80% agreed on three of the 38 statements as necessary skills they perceived themselves as possessing (well or very well).  The top five items on participants' list of top training needs were training in statistics, research methods, publication ethics, recruiting and dealing with peer reviewers, and indexing of journals. The three rounds of the Delphi were completed by 83, 83, and 73 participants, respectively, which ultimately produced a list of 23 "highly rated" competency-related statements and another 86 "included" items. Conclusion: Both the survey and the modified Delphi process will be critical for understanding knowledge and training gaps among scientific editors when designing curriculum around core competencies in the future.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Delphi, biomedical, core competencies, journal, scientific editor, training needs
Subjects:	W General Medicine. Health Professions > W 1-28 Reference works WA Public Health > Statistics. Surveys > WA 950 Theory or methods of medical statistics. Epidemiologic methods WZ History of Medicine. Medical Miscellany > Miscellany Relating to Medicine > WZ 345 Medical writing and publishing. Historiography
Faculty: Department:	Clinical Sciences & International Health > Clinical Sciences Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.12400.1
SWORD Depositor:	JISC Pubrouter
Depositing User:	Stacy Murtagh
Date Deposited:	24 Oct 2017 10:56
Last Modified:	06 Sep 2019 10:16
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/7693

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