I'm starting a PhD a week tomorrow, and have heard about journal clubs - I think I have a vague idea of what these are, but could you give me more of an idea of what they are, how they work, etc etc? Thanks! :-)

Hey. A journal club is where one person (the 'chair') chooses one or two recent papers/articles from a journal that is relevant to a particular theme. The paper is distributed to various people within the research group/school/faculty to give everyone a chance to read it. Then everyone meets to discuss the paper.

They are usually informal discussions over lunch, and hardly anyone ever reads the papers!

ofcourse, no one explained any of this to me when i started, so when i had to lead a journal club a few months ago, i made a powerpoint presentation explaining the details of a study INSTEAD of distributing the paper to everyone...i made a royal tit of myself, twas highly embarassing!

'Journal Clubs'??? ... Oh Dear!!! ... I suggest you spend the time more constructively doing either 1. Getting on with working on your own PhD or 2. Getting out and having a social life (something that those in 'journal clubs' probably seriously lack!).

Most large research groups have 'journal club' meetings - it not something 'nerdy' that only a few of the socially inept do! It's a good way of a group keeping up-to-date with progress in the field and helps with group dynamics as it's social event (all be it, work related) where the profs, post-docs and students all get together.

Hi Ann,

My comment was being made slightly 'tongue in cheek' (probably doesn't translate very well via email).

Having said that, I have noticed (in my experience) that the majority of PhD students who attend these things, 'give the talk' but never actually produce any 'solid' work (i.e. get anything written). I'm in the social sciences though, so I'm assuming it's different for 'proper' science based subjects.

hi there BB was wondering what social science based field u are researching in

I have to attend two - being part of two research groups. The first takes place monthly and one person (using a rota) will select a paper, not neccesarily in the area of your phd (more different = better) and read around a bit and then do a power point presentation for about 40 mins. The last 20 mins are for discussion among the group about the paper/results.

The second takes place monthly as well. About 5 people (again rota based - you only present every other month) chose a paper in the area and do a quick presentation - about 10 mins with 5 power point slides - say what the paper is about and what you think of it.

Pretty useful in terms of getting to know other parts of your area and coming across different science. Also get a lot a of practise in presenting and answering questions.

Also to BB's comment about students who attend these have less results - it's compulsory to attend these for my groups. So maybe it is different for pure sciences.

I really enjoy journal clubs, it's a good place to meet other students and it also really helps with understanding papers. Sometimes I think I have understood a paper but when I go to the session I realise I haven't! We usually all read the paper and then discuss it with one of the PI's leading the conversation.