If the decision-making in scholarly publishing has ever seemed like an opaque process on par with the operation of a social media algorithm, the medical journals of the JAMA Network™ offer fellowship opportunities for early-career physicians to find out how and why the world’s leading peer-reviewed journals select—and reject—manuscripts. The positions also help physicians who’ve recently completed training gain invaluable experience and launch themselves into an academic medicine career.
“The fellowship is really an immersive experience where you get an unprecedented ability to see how a manuscript goes from submission to publication,” said Michael Mensah, MD, MHS, MPH, a forensic psychiatrist and PhD candidate at Yale University who is also a former JAMA® editorial fellow and a current assistant editor at JAMA Network Open™.
JAMA, JAMA Network Open and the JAMA Network specialty journals have many editorial fellowship positions, many newly created but also some long-established. The fellowships vary by journal in length of program and depth of responsibilities. Most are virtual and all are part-time. All fellowship positions require an MD, DO, PhD or equivalent degree, and are for those within five to 10 years of completing their postdoctoral, residency or fellowship training, though exact requirements vary by role.
Deadlines for some of the positions are approaching.
Applications will be accepted for the one-year, in-person JAMA Morris Fishbein Fellowship in Medical Editing through Jan. 5. For that fellowship, an MD or DO degree is required, as is completion of residency training in any specialty.
Starting in early January, applications will be accepted for the JAMA Internal Medicine editorial fellowship. Applicants for that role must be within 10 years of completing medical training.
Pulling back the curtain
The path from submission to publication in a journal includes many steps in which most would-be authors are not involved. Dr. Mensah, who is also an AMA member, said that lack of transparency can lead to frustration among those who aren’t privy to the reasons behind the rejection of an author’s manuscript, which invariably required a great deal of time and effort to produce.
“People like me who are early career have perceptions of journal publishing that are going to range from reverence to cynicism,” Dr. Mensah said. “They're going to either see these high-level journals as big behemoths of genius that they aspire to publish in one day or they might attempt and write a lot of articles and then get rejected often—because JAMA rejects a lot of articles.”
Either way, he said, “that view is not based on direct observation.”
Having the chance to see the care and attention that every submission receives can not only dull the sting of that rejection, but it can also aid researchers in honing their skills for future work.
“The JAMA fellowship helped humanize the experience and make it more concrete and detailed such that now I'm much better able to understand” the process, Dr. Mensah said, adding that it shows how editors and other reviewers “are making collaborative decisions about what would be best for the journal, what would be best for medical science and what would be best for patients to publish. Those opinions come together and collaborate in a way I think you can't estimate unless you see it happen.”
AMA members can explore a range of peer-reviewed research and clinical information published by the JAMA Network™, which brings JAMA® together with JAMA Network Open and 11 specialty journals. Published continuously since 1883, JAMA is one of the most widely circulated, peer-reviewed, general medical journals in the world. If you are an AMA member or interested in becoming one, learn how to access these educational materials and innovative tools.
Reciprocal benefits
Much of the fellowship time is organized around the journals’ regularly held manuscript meetings, where JAMA Network editors present manuscripts that will be considered for publication. Fellows get the chance to take part in reviewing and commenting on the work.
“Being able to see the priorities that are discussed during a meeting about a paper is enlightening, and it makes a rejection letter less condemning,” Dr. Mensah said. “In other words, it's not always a matter of pure quality that your article didn't fit into JAMA.”
And as there are benefits to the fellows for their participation in the programs, so do early-career researchers offer contributions.
“For the journal, there's a huge incentive to get more early-career people involved, not only to get their ideas—which are fresh and new—but also to have them understand how an article would be taken by a new generation of physicians and scientists,” said Dr. Mensah, who, along with the other inaugural class of fellows, wrote a JAMA editorial that was published in September about the experience.
In the editorial, Dr. Mensah and his co-authors cited a research article written by several JAMA Internal Medicine editorial fellows that found the editors at high-impact journals such as JAMA are more likely to be full professors than their counterparts in other parts of medicine.
“Being relatively early in our careers allows us to bring uninitiated eyes to examine journal structure, while JAMA gets a close look at promising researchers,” they wrote. “This social symbiosis accelerates the journal’s interdisciplinary collaboration.”
Physician job seekers should explore the JAMA Career Center®, which presents physician career opportunities, news and information relevant to the full spectrum of medical practice. Search for physician jobs by specialty and location or browse all of the physician jobs by specialty.
