This "virtual classroom" course has been developed from the successful face-to-face course run annually since 2006. It will provide both the content of the the face-to-face course, and allow for interaction between participants by using virtual break-out groups for discussion. By keeping the numbers low, all participants will have opportunities to talk, discuss, and contribute: it will definitely not be an event where participants sit back and listen to lengthy lectures. I have used my experience of organizing and running many online workshops and meetings to ensure that the value of meeting other editors is retained.

Course focus

The focus of the course is how to improve the success of the journal. It considers what editors can change and influence, and how they can improve the quality of what they publish and the impact that their journal makes. It is therefore not a “how to” course, but is rather a “why not” course – making editors aware of the strategic options they have and asking them to consider which would best serve their journal. All elements of the course are presented in the context of good practice, and international ethical standards which are embedded into all modules.

By the end of the short course editors will know where they can make changes, and they will have ideas for large and small adjustments that will improve the impact and quality of their journals.

The three workshops

The online course will be presented in three, 3-hour workshops:

Workshop 1: Publishing better content: working with authors

By the end of this workshop participants will :

• Understand author motivations and how to influence them,
• Know how to identify and manage authorship problems, and
• Be able to implement strategies that will obtain the best articles from the best authors.

Workshop 2: Publishing better content: peer review

By the end of this workshop participants will :

• Have a good understanding of the varieties of peer review and of what review should deliver,
• Be able to select and introduce optimum reviewing models,
• Understand how to influence speed and quality of review, and
• Know how to anticipate, identify and respond to ethical review problems.

Workshop 3: Increasing visibility and impact

By the end of this workshop participants will :

• Understand the different measures of impact, their meaning and their limitations,
• Have a greater understanding of reader habits and how to entice them to read the journal,
• Be more aware of how journal and article structure influences its impact on readers,
• Know how to increase the likelihood of text being discovered, read and understood, and
• Be able to develop and implement techniques to raise the visibility of the journal with its audience.