“Please keep it going, even if we have to clone David”
In 2011, we published our first knowledge mobilization journal club post to help make knowledge mobilization research more accessible to knowledge mobilization practitioners. Since then we have published 55 journal club posts, approximately one each month. The evaluation was conducted using an on line survey disseminated in June 2016. The results help us to understand what readers like about the journal club and how we might improve it.
There were 37 respondents to the online survey that was posted on the journal club and disseminated on twitter and using list serves.
- Majority identified as a knowledge broker
- Employer: 10/37 non-profit; 9/37 academic; 7/37 public sector; 6/37 self employed
- Majority had been in their current role and in the field of knowledge mobilization between 1-5 years
Quantitative results
How often do you read a journal club post?
- Vast majority read the journal club monthly, very few more frequently
How many of the 55 posts have you read
- Few have accessed all the journal club posts, many less than half, although the qualitative comments (see below) suggest the posts, when read, are valued by the reader
How much of each post did you read?
- 32% dip in and out, 32% skim it all and 24% read the whole post so it is getting read
Length:
- Majority of respondents would like to see the length cut in half (to about 450 words).
Original article:
- Some respondents never read the original article, some always do with many answering that they open the original article about half the time – posting a link to the original article (when available) is useful at least for some respondents
Utility:
- Most used for individual reading, a few for group discussion and others as references for their own articles and grant applications
Open access articles:
- Very mixed response ranging from “it’s not important” to “only review open access articles” with the majority of respondents landing in the middle not feeling strongly one way or the other
Route of access:
Qualitative results
Respondents were asked two questions:
- What does the journal club provide that is of value or important to you?
- Do you have any additional comments or feedback about the journal club?
See the word cloud (attached to this post) for the frequency of words used in responses. Some key words that stick out are: helpful, good, access, keep, important, useful. A sample of responses is below:
- An honest review of the utility of an article from a trusted source
- David is good at picking articles that I also find interesting/useful among all the chaff, so I like the journal club because it keeps me current without me having to do all the work to sift through everything that is out there.
- Sometimes I first learn of an important publication through the club. Great summaries. Useful questions for consideration/discussion.
- linking to articles that I haven’t read in depth as yet and framing them in a very helpful way
- saving me considerable effort
- This is extremely important for beginners in the field to get their feet wet and read what the pros are reading.
- it allows me to get exposure to the research done in this field, and learn things that can help me directly in my role
- Love David’s insightful thoughts and critical thinking/questioning of the article. It gives you something to think about. And, he always has very good points that resonate with me because they make sense.
- It might be good to also have some kind of scheduled live chat about the article – would encourage me to read it
- Please continue! This is great and so helpful. I’m working hard to try to set time aside to be able to read it more often and more thoroughly.
And the following comment is perfect, “helps bring evidence into practice”. This is exactly why we started the journal club in the first place to make evidence on knowledge mobilization accessible to knowledge mobilization practitioners.
So what now? Considering the quantitative and qualitative responses we will undertake the following actions:
- Length: will experiment with shorter post
- Open Access: will prioritize open access but will review an article if is important to our practice
- Live chat: will explore a tweet chat on a post especially if the author is available to join
- Access: will maintain the email distribution
Thanks to the 37 respondents who helped inform these actions. Thanks to everyone else for reading and commenting on the journal club posts. Look for the next journal club post early August.