Effects of a virtual writing club in a college of pharmacy

BackgroundA Writing Club was established to provide internal peer review before external submission of written documents, such as manuscripts and abstracts. The Writing Club initially met face-to-face once a month for two hours to review submitted documents. It was labor-intensive to organize, and submissions could only occur once a month and therefore participation was inconsistent. Because of these limitations, the Writing Club was replaced by the Virtual Writing Club (VWC) as a more efficient, email-based service and has been offered since May 2006.ObjectiveTo describe and assess the outcomes of the VWC.MethodsA retrospective review of all the VWC submissions (May 2006 to March 2009) was conducted. The following information was collected from the VWC database: type of submission, category of author(s), and outcome of submission. In addition, investigators surveyed all registered VWC reviewers (n = 20).ResultsNearly half (48%) of the 54 VWC submissions were manuscripts. Of these, a majority of submissions (73.1%) were accepted for publication or were in the process of review at the time of analysis. All abstract submissions were accepted. A 70% response rate (n = 14) was achieved for the survey. The majority of respondents (n = 9, 64.3%) indicated that participation in the VWC as a reviewer has improved their personal writing skills.ConclusionA noncompetitive peer-review group, such as the VWC, may be an effective way to involve an entire department in the stimulation and facilitation of scholarship.