Dr. Janet Osuch, breast surgeon and Assistant Dean of Preclinical Curriculum at MSUCHM, spoke with MSRJ elective students about experience publishing research and handling difficult feedback.

On Wednesday January 22, 2014, Dr. Janet Osuch, breast surgeon and Assistant Dean of Preclinical Curriculum at MSU’s College of Human Medicine, sat down and spoke with students in the Medical Student Research Journal elective about the experiences she has had publishing her research and how she has handled difficult feedback along the way.

Retrospectively evaluating the process by which her research projects reached publication, Dr. Osuch shared many stories about feedback that she had received from peer reviews at the various journals to which she submitted her work. Having had to work through some extremely derogatory and unhelpful comments from her peer reviewers, Dr. Osuch discussed how “persistence and thick skin” are strong virtues for an author to possess. Her advice to the MSRJ students who are being trained to become peer reviewers – “Reviewers should not be afraid to actually give suggestions to the author. Do not just tell them to ‘fix this sentence.’” Providing this constructive criticism will help authors to deliver their message more effectively while also encouraging them to continue submitting their work to MSRJ.

Dr. Osuch also spoke with the students about how important it is that they spread the word about MSRJ, constantly working to improve the impact factor of the journal. “You need people to know more about MSRJ. You need people to reference the articles that are being published in your journal.”  This advice and encouragement will be helpful for the students in the MSRJ elective because many of them will continue on to become members of the editorial staff where they will take on the many responsibilities associated with maintaining and promoting a scientific journal.