Creating an Accessible Medical Journal: Op-Med
There is a slowly disheartening feeling which accompanies trying to publish an article in a scientific journal. Once the initial excitement of taking on an academic project wears off, the realities of publication hit: endless formatting, scrambling for funding to cover the costs, and the perpetual cycle of revisions and feedback. By the end of this process, I often forget why I decided to pour my time and energy into a piece of writing I no longer feel connected to.
It is easy to lose sight of just how interesting medicine can be. Exam preparation often takes priority over exploring our interests as students; service provision takes priority over teaching and learning opportunities as doctors. In my fifth year of medical school I had the idea of creating a free-to-access, free-to-publish journal for interdisciplinary medicine. This eventually took shape in the form of Op-Med – an online journal which aims to widen access to academic writing and provide a space where authors can explore any idea related to medicine that they’re passionate about. The website design and publication process is intentionally simple. Authors contribute relatively short articles and are encouraged to design their own artwork, with the aim to review and publish within one month. Readers are able to subscribe to a periodic newsletter and leave comments and feedback under articles. Already on the site are a diverse number of articles on topics such as improving sound design in hospital environments, the influence of early anatomists on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the role of anaesthetics in human consciousness studies.
The process of setting up a journal has had its challenges. Op-Med only became a reality after I submitted a proposal on a whim to the Mind the Bleep Award in Medical Education in 2023. To my surprise, their founder, Akash Doshi, decided to support the project by providing server space and a fresh WordPress site, along with plenty of encouragement despite my minimal experience. Clearly defining the scope of the project was a valuable lesson. During our initial meetings, we found ourselves entertaining how the project could expand through podcasts and social media channels, before it had even begun. I struggled to focus on the more important foundational aspects of the project such as getting the first articles on the site, recruiting interested authors and slowly building readership.
This experience has helped me realise how I wanted to develop Op-Med. This year, we are offering academic writing for the journal as a remote student selected component (SSC) for UK based medical schools. We try to remind authors how much we value their time, as well as emphasising the many benefits from publishing: CV building, contributing points at specialty applications, and developing critical writing and research skills within a supportive environment. I believe that empowering medics early in their career to write creatively on subjects of their choice positively impacts confidence in academic writing and may help shape future career choices. Because of this, we ask prospective authors to fill out a questionnaire before submitting an article to identify their level of experience, motivation for contributing and the barriers they have previously encountered to academic writing. Following publication, authors complete a final questionnaire to assess changes in their confidence and provide feedback.
In hindsight, there was no need to obsess over how the project would grow and maintain momentum. All the journal needs to be is a space where interesting ideas around medicine can be shared by those who are interested in sharing it.
Jordan Theodoropoulos
F2, Scotland Foundation School
All our published articles on Op-Med can be found on our journal website, www.opmed.co.uk. If you’d like to contribute an article to the site please complete this short 10 question pre-submission questionnaire and we’ll get back in touch with you as soon as we can.