Start an Online Journal Club

Starting such an online journal club is now incredibly easy.

Here’s a breakdown of the steps:

1. Make a list of interesting people who have posted stuff in public forums on the topic you are interested in. Don’t bother asking anyone who aren't active on public forums because in my experience, even though they might think your online journal group is great, for whatever reason, they won't work up the energy to contribute.

2. Send them an invitational email, e.g.

   Hey guys,

   Here’s an idea I’ve been playing around with.

   I want to start a specialized MD journal club, using my article commenting website http://annotatr.appspot.com.

   If you commit to it then, once every fortnight or so, you

   1. get a paper to read in 4 days.
   2. adding 1 or more comment on the annotatr.appspot.com website

   The comment can be anything from, “kinda boring” to a treatise on their method.

   Are you guys in?

   Bosco

   ps. anybody else you can think of?

3. Pick a paper, either current or a classic, I started with Atomic-Level Characterization of the Structural Dynamics of Proteins (2010) by David E. Shaw and friends.

4. Find the relevant abstract here on annotatr.appspot.com using the search bar:

5. Send an email to all those who have accepted with the paper details and the annotatr link, e.g.

   Hi Gang,

   Following from the last round, Dr. H has spotted this juicy little paper for us to discuss:

   “Can we trust docking results? Evaluation of seven commonly used programs on PDBbind database”

   [some link]

   Remember 3 days to read, then 3 days to comment. Do it here:

   http://annotatr.appspot.com/citeulike/article/7802517

   Your MD gang leader,

   Bosco

6. Discuss away

7. Register your journal club here in the comments

8. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Written by Bosco Ho and Mark Reid.