History of the Canadian Medical Education Journal

It is a pleasure to write on the “early history” of the Canadian Medical Education Journal on its tenth anniversary. In the editorial for the inaugural issue (March 2010), we wrote that we embarked on this adventure with some trepidation because of the many challenges of starting a new journal.1 These included establishing an editorial board, needing high quality submissions, seeking help from expert peer reviewers, and working hard for manuscript selection, preparation and distribution of our issues. At that time, while there was some interest and support for such an ambitious undertaking, it was hard to mobilize.

It is a pleasure to write on the "early history" of the Canadian Medical Education Journal on its tenth anniversary. In the editorial for the inaugural issue (March 2010), we wrote that we embarked on this adventure with some trepidation because of the many challenges of starting a new journal. 1 These included establishing an editorial board, needing high quality submissions, seeking help from expert peer reviewers, and working hard for manuscript selection, preparation and distribution of our issues. At that time, while there was some interest and support for such an ambitious undertaking, it was hard to mobilize.
By the fin de siècle (20 th century), we believed that Canadians were among the leaders in medical education and contributed substantially to the scholarly and research enterprise. Subsequent research has confirmed this: Canadians had and may still have the highest proportional publication productivity in medical education in the world. 2 It seemed peculiar, therefore, that there was not a uniquely Canadian forum (a journal) for this scholarly activity.
Medical education research expanded rapidly in Canada in the past several decades. For some time, there have been centres at McGill, Toronto, University of Ottawa, Queens, and McMaster, while more recent centres have been established at the Universities of British Columbia, Western Ontario, Alberta and Calgary. These centres undertake foundational research and engage in all forms of scholarship in medical education to produce high quality publications. Many of them train graduate students at the Masters and PhD levels. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] By 2007 my colleague, Dr. Tyrone Donnon, and I decided that we would lead the way to a new Canadian journal in medical education. We approached many of the major medical education organizations in Canada (the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, the Canadian Association for Medical Education, the College of Family Physicians Canada, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the Medical Council of Canada) and many of our colleagues at the major university centers. After about two years of meetings, discussions, business plans, vision and mission statements there were still some unresolved questions and we did not seem to be much closer to our goal. We took another approach: "If you build it, they will come." 11 We found some friendly, competent librarians at the University of Calgary who helped us to set up the platform for online publishing, guided us through the process of registering a URL, and provided some initial funding through the Library's support for publications. With Dr. Donnon as the Associate Editor, me as the Chief Editor, and one of our graduate assistants as a Managing Editor, we launched the CMEJ. We announced the new journal, put out a call for papers, received manuscripts and sent them for review, made editorial decisions, and published the first edition. Getting the next few issues out was very demanding as the three of us managed the whole process. Notwithstanding the formidable challenges of starting a new journal, we built it, recruited more valuable help, persisted, and made it a success.

Part 2: 2014-2019 (Marcel D'Eon, Chief Editor)
I remember the long phone conversation I had with Dr. Jocelyn Lockyer in February 2014. The founding editor, Dr. Violato, had just departed the University of Calgary to work in the US. The CMEJ needed an editor and there did not seem to be anyone readily available to pick it up. I had been an associate editor with the CMEJ for about a year and with the Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for maybe two. I had no idea how to run a journal (does anyone before they start?), but, as we talked, we realized that it would be easier to keep the CMEJ alive (even faintly) than to try to revive it once dormant (or dead). I volunteered. It was a brave but naïve move. With lots of help from Tina Voth, the manager, Dr. Lockyer, Senior Associate Dean at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, and with most of the associate editors that had been previously recruited, we continued the CMEJ adventure.
In those first few months, the associate editors embraced the challenge and I recruited others to help with our work. In December 2014, at the last possible opportunity, we managed to publish one issue for 2014, (having published two each year since 2010). We then published two issues in 2015, three in 2016 and then four in each of 2017, 2018, and 2019. We went from about 90 pages per year to now over 400 pages per year. In the spring of 2017, we began to publish images with each issue, a beautiful addition to adorn our web pages. Most of these images are from Canadian artists having been displayed at White Coat, Warm (He)Art at CCME.
Tina Voth retired, so we hired our own local talent. We were very fortunate that Dr. Jennifer O'Brien was interested and available to do some part time work for us. She became our Managing Editor in 2014 and has been a force on the CMEJ ever since. We hired a copyeditor and then a support person to help us keep track of the flow of submissions and peer reviews. We improved our processing speed from an average of over 200 days to the first decision following peer review to well under 100 days. We cut in half the average number of days to publication from just under 300 to about 150. We accomplished this even as we grew from an average of 25 submissions per year to over 150-a six-fold increase.
The CMEJ is indebted to our funders. Without their material support we would not have been able to accomplish what we did and may have had to shut down our presses. The University of Calgary helped us out in 2014 with about $10,000 as we transitioned our operation to the University of Saskatchewan which then awarded us a total of $14,000 in publication grants over the next four years. The CAME Foundation provided the CMEJ with over $12,000 in the span of two years. AFMC also generously provided $5000 to top up our operating funds. Finally, in March 2018, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council awarded the CMEJ about $87,000 over three years for operational expenses and special projects (translating abstracts and titles and celebrating our 10 th anniversary at CCME 2020). An additional "shout out" goes to the University of Saskatchewan that provided salary support for me in my role as Chief Editor that allowed me to edit the CMEJ "at work." We are so very grateful to the people and organizations who had faith in the CMEJ and continue to invest time and money in our future.
We re-organized our editorial board and recruited many new associate editors from across the country. They represent 12 Canadian medical schools at 13 universities. The associate editors are the people that help screen submissions, assign reviewers, recommend decisions to the Editor, and communicate with the authors. They are the engine that drives the CMEJ. We decided that they should have a role in shaping editorial policy. We therefore made them all members of the editorial advisory board and the editorial advisory board consists mostly of associate editors.
At first, the editorial board met a few times each year over the phone. These were important and helpful meetings. Our first face-to-face meeting took place over lunch in Winnipeg on Tuesday, the last day of the CCME 2016. Strictly BYOCC (Bring Your Own Credit Card), we have met at CCME each year since and will continue to do so. The face-to-face meetings are excellent for team cohesion and dealing with significant editorial issues.
Behind the obvious academic activity of peer reviewing and publishing articles (and some declining -sorry), a national consortium of medical education organizations was forming into what has become the CMEJ Management Board. Meetings followed by more meetings led to consultations and more consultations. Eventually a consensus emerged and a five-partner team with advisors and support from across the country came together to take a leadership role overseeing the business and financial aspects of the CMEJ. There are representatives from the Association of Faculties of Medicine Canada, the Canadian Association for Medical Education, the College of Family Physicians Canada, the Medical Council of Canada, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Canada. The co-chairs are affiliated with AFMC and CAME. We are excited that the five national partners that support and run CCME each year are also deeply involved with and supportive of the CMEJ.

Conclusion (Drs. Violato and D'Eon)
We saw the need for a new forum for the publication and distribution of work from researchers and scholars in Canada and internationally. We built it and as we had hoped, "they" did come. The CMEJ has grown a great deal since those early days. It has taken many people working hard, all of them integral to the journey, to bring us to this place over 10 years later. It will now take many more hands to propel us forward as we become a vital partner in medical education in Canada and then, naturally, across the globe.
D'autres remerciements vont à l'Université de la Saskatchewan, qui m'a permis de toucher un salaire comme de rédacteur en chef du RCÉM. Je suis aussi reconnaissant envers les personnes et les organismes qui ont fait confiance en la revue et qui continuent d'investir du temps et de l'argent dans son avenir.