Editorial Fellowships
BJGP Open offers editorial fellowships to students, researchers, or clinicians who have an interest in medical publishing. Fellows will join our team and be involved in medical editing, peer review, and journal production. They usually develop a personalised project during their time with us which can range from setting up a new blog, social media initiatives, projects to recruit reviewers, or research into aspects of publication science. Previous fellows have published their research projects in peer review journals and presented work at international conferences. Our past and current fellows are listed below.
Editorial Fellow — Current
Dr Emma Linton
GP trainee and Academic Clinical Fellow, University of Sheffield
Emma is an academic GP trainee with an interest in health inequalities and women’s health. She is enthusiastic about the importance of inclusive and accessible research. Her current project involves working with community researchers to explore views about contraception amongst women from ethnic minority groups. Alongside her Editorial Fellowship, Emma is studying for a MSc in Clinical Research.
During her BJGP Open Fellowship, Emma will review submitted manuscripts, manage peer review processes, and make recommendations to the Editor.
Editorial Fellow — Past
Dr Alex Burrell
GP trainee and Academic Clinical Fellow, University of Bristol
Alex is an academic GP trainee in Bristol interested in urgent and unscheduled care. His research is currently focused on GP roles in emergency medical services.
At BJGP Open, Alex is involved in publication decisions on submitted manuscripts, reviewing incoming articles, and making recommendations to the Editor. At the BJGP Research Conference 2023, he helped to facilitate a workshop on how to maximise chances of publication when submitting to journals. Alongside a wider BJGP Open team, he has published a study exploring the relationship between Altmetric scores and citations in the primary care literature.
Editorial Fellowship Project
There is some evidence that Altmetric scores correlate with citations in medical research, but this is not consistent across different specialties. No previous studies have examined the association between Altmetric score and citation amongst primary care research journals. Using correlation coefficients and log–log linear regression modelling, this study (available in full and open access) found a relationship between Altmetric score and citations. A 10% increase in Altmetric score was associated with a 1.68% (95% CI = 0.87% to 2.50%) increase in citations. This may have implications for how authors, academic institutions, and primary care journal editors approach promotion and dissemination of published articles.
Editorial Fellow — Past
Dr Daniel Butler
GP Trainee and Research Fellow with the Northern Ireland Clinical Research Network
Daniel is part of the Northern Ireland General Practice Academic Research Training Scheme, and during his BJGP and BJGP Open Editorial Fellowship was undertaking an Out Of Programme Research Fellowship with the Northern Ireland Clinical Research Network. To date, he has spent time researching the medical teaching and training gaps in areas of socioeconomic deprivation, as well as GP experiences working in the most deprived areas, and most recently has worked on the UK-wide Panoramic Trial, investigating novel antivirals for COVID-19 in the community.
During the editorial fellowship, Daniel developed skills as an associate editor for BJGP Open, learning about the editorial, peer review, and publication process. He also joined Dr Alex Burrell on a project looking at the relationship between Altmetric scores and traditional citations within primary care publications.
Editorial Fellowship Project
There is some evidence that Altmetric scores correlate with citations in medical research, but this is not consistent across different specialties. No previous studies have examined the association between Altmetric score and citation amongst primary care research journals. Using correlation coefficients and log–log linear regression modelling, this study (available in full and open access) found a relationship between Altmetric score and citations. A 10% increase in Altmetric score was associated with a 1.68% (95% CI = 0.87% to 2.50%) increase in citations. This may have implications for how authors, academic institutions, and primary care journal editors approach promotion and dissemination of published articles.
Editorial Fellow — Past
Dr Felicity Knights
GP trainee and Academic Clinical Fellow, St George’s, University of London
Felicity is an academic GP trainee, with an MPH and a keen interest in health inequity and quality improvement. She undertook her fellowship towards the end of her clinical training, alongside a role as Liaison to the European Society for Quality and Safety in Family Practice on behalf of the European Young Family Doctors’ Movement. Her research to date has focused upon the health needs of vulnerable groups, particularly migrants and those at the end of life.
Whilst at BJGP Open, Felicity enjoyed learning about the publication process and developing her skills in peer review and editing, alongside working with Dr Chris Wilcox to carry out a national survey of GPs and GP trainees to identify how the dissemination of primary care research might be improved.
Editorial Fellow — Past
Dr Christopher Wilcox
GP trainee and Academic Clinical Fellow, University of Southampton
Chris is an academic GP trainee in Wessex, with a particular interest in infectious diseases and paediatrics. His research focuses on improving antibiotic stewardship and assessing the impact of point-of-care testing in primary care.
Whilst at BJGP Open, Chris focused on peer review and making recommendations on acceptance, rejection, and revision for consideration by the Editor. His editorial fellowship project involved working with Dr Felicity Knights to undertake a national survey of GPs and GP trainees in order to identify how the dissemination of primary care research might be improved.
Editorial Fellow — Past
Dr Sophie Lumley
GP Trainee and Academic Clinical Fellow, Keele University, UK
@Sophie_lumley
Sophie is an Academic GP Trainee in Shropshire. She has a keen interest in Medical Leadership having completed a National Medical Directors Clinical Fellowship at NHS England, and she is currently Chair of the RCGP West Midlands Faculty AIT Committee. She was awarded an Academic Clinical Fellowship at Keele University during her final year of GP Training.
Whilst at BJGP Open, Sophie got stuck into exploring and helping with all aspects of journal activities, alongside conducting research into the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the activities and mental health of academic researchers.
Editorial Fellow — Past
Dr Umar Chaudhry
General Practitioner and Clinical Teaching Fellow
Umar is a GP in South London and a clinical teaching fellow at St George's, University of London. He completed the GP academic clinical fellowship in August 2019, during which he also finished an MSc in Clinical Education. His interests lie in population health research, medical technology and clinical education. His fellowship involved becoming more familiar with all aspects of medical publishing including the journey a submission goes through during the peer review process. He is enthusiastic about understanding and developing the role of audio abstracts in communicating research across various online platforms.
Social Media Fellow — Past
Jessica Xie
Medical Student, University College London
@jessicayxie
Jessica is a final-year medical student at University College London. She has an iBSc in Medical Sciences with Primary Health Care and her research interests are medical education and nutrition. She completed an internship with the National Institute of Health Research School of Primary Care Research (NIHR SPCR), working closely with the UCL Primary Health Care Team to develop a Culinary Medicine course for undergraduate medical students — the first of its kind in Europe.
Her role at BJGP Open involved managing the social media accounts and gaining more experience in academic publishing.
Honorary Fellow — Past
Dr Joy Ngai
Caledonian (Moray) GP Training Programme, NHS Education for Scotland, UK
Joy is a GP trainee in the North of Scotland. She has a background in general surgery, clinical leadership and public health, with a particular interest in the use of technology and digital media in healthcare.
Her role at BJGP Open involved introducing and developing the use of visual abstracts at the journal, and working with authors to share their research outputs in an accessible way with primary care colleagues and the public.
Editorial Fellow — Past
Dr Patrick Redmond
School of Population Health & Environmental Science, King's College London, UK
@PatrickNRedmond
About
Patrick is a GP in South Cambridgeshire and an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer at King’s College London. He graduated in Ireland and then completed a PhD as part of the Health Research Board PhD Scholars Programme. He worked at The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute, University of Cambridge and at the School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care at the University of Western Australia. In addition to gaining experience in all aspect of journal activities, Patrick completed a study examining the reporting quality of highly disseminated articles in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Editorial Fellowship Project
One of Learned Publishing's most downloaded articles 2021
The pandemic has led to an unprecedented surge in the pace of scientific publishing – termed an infodemic by the WHO – with an ‘overabundance of information – some accurate and some not’. Patrick, working with colleagues at the journal and King’s College London conducted a bibliographic study examining the reporting quality and risk of bias of the most highly disseminated COVID-19 articles. He found that 55% of articles could be considered at risk of bias, with only 11% adhering to good standards of reporting, and that there was no correlation between the impact factor of the journal and the quality of the reported study. The review (available in full and open access) concluded that there was a preponderance of low quality case series with few research articles adhering to good standards of reporting. Its findings emphasize the need for cautious interpretation of research and the increasingly vital responsibility that journals have in ensuring high quality publications.