Megalodon Meets Rejection

Transforming teaching into scholarship.  Turner T, Palazzi D, Ward M, Lorin M. Clin Teach 2012; 9: 363-367. Available online from the Baystate Health Sciences Library or from PubMed at your institution.

I got a paper rejected today. There are two possible reasons for this. A) The enormity of my awesomeness and unique perspective are too immense for this journal, and accepting the article would have been too overwhelming of an experience for the editors to handle, the equivalent of putting Megalodon into an aquarium. Or, B) I am a loathsome mess of failure in academic medicine (and life) whose never had an interesting thought or perspective on anything ever, and the world is collectively sighing now that someone has finally made me aware. 

Of course, it's possible there's a third option. Something in the middle: A 1/2) The feedback I got from the reviewers was good feedback and advice and that, if I take this advice, I can put together a better manuscript that has a solid chance of being published. Not at this journal, mind you, but at a lesser, lower impact journal whose editors are monkeys or people who write professional blogs. 

And this is somewhat comforting. In fact, mentors guide us to meet rejection with some kind of perseverance. But the initial get-up-and-go required for putting together and submitting your clinical teaching as scholarly work is an immense animal (Megalodon, perhaps) to be tamed even before the publication decision. And, if the rejection comes, what are some other considerations? 

This article by Turner and colleagues is a useful read; in a 5-page article (don't worry - there are at least two tables in there, only 9 references, and two photos of clinical teaching. Well, one photo of clinical teaching and one photo of a woman writing near a coffee, which must be clinical scholarship). 

The authors bring up many things that should form the backdrop for a clinical educator seeking to disseminate their good work: Boyer and Glassick and the scholarship of teaching, working collaboratively, peer review, outlets for scholarship, and the educator's portfolio. This article is brief - like being offered one bite of an entire Carnival Cruise buffet - but it still may be enough to figure out how hungry you are. And having this sense of the possibilities for educational scholarship is helpful for keeping your projects going (around A 1/2).   

Bottom Line:

Take ten minutes out of your day to read this article and make sure it's nothing new for you. This snapshot of educational scholarship could help frame your perspective so that the immense project taking up space on your To Do List won't die there.