The Fellow-in-Training (FIT)/Faculty Reviewer Program

The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), JACI: In Practice, and JACI: Global have partnered with the AAAAI Program Directors Assembly to co-sponsor the FIT/Faculty Reviewer Program. This program is intended to facilitate faculty mentorship to assist FITs in learning how to review for scientific journals.

Purposes
1.    To provide specific training to FITs in reviewing manuscripts.
2.    To provide additional opportunities for mentoring interaction between FITs and faculty.
3.    To provide additional "scholarly activities" for faculty that fulfill medical school requirements.
4.    To increase the quantity and quality of the reviewer pool available to the AAAAI journals.

Functional Aspects
•    Eligible articles will be Original Articles, Brief Reports, and Clinical Communications. Review articles will not be included in the program at this time.
•    For each article sent to the faculty member, the faculty member determines if he or she wishes to work with a FIT on that review. If the faculty member does not wish to work with a FIT on the review of the current article, it is completed and submitted in the usual manner. If the faculty member wishes to work with a FIT on the review, the faculty member identifies a FIT to work with.
•   FITs will take the online “How to Provide Optimal Journal Reviews" course (see below) prior to submitting their first FIT/faculty review. Additionally, they can view this webinar that reviews useful strategies in reviewing an article.

If you are interested in participating:

FITs: Identify a faculty member at your institution who would be willing to mentor you and communicate with that person.

Faculty: Upon receipt of an invitation to review an article, decide whether you would like to include a FIT. If so, you would follow these steps:
1.    Check to see that the FIT has taken the online "How to Provide Optimal Journal Reviews" course (see below). 
2.    Review the manuscript with the designated FIT.
3.    When you are ready to submit the review, log in as a reviewer to the appropriate journal’s editorial manager website under your own registration.
4.    Answer the question regarding whether the review was completed with a Fellow in the positive and provide the Fellow’s name and email address.

“How to Provide Optimal Journal Reviews” Online Course

Our “How to Provide Optimal Journal Reviews” is a CME-eligible course offered by Zuhair K. Ballas, MD, FAAAAI; David B. Peden, MD, MS, FAAAAI; and Michael Schatz, MD, MS, FAAAAI, the Editors-in-Chief of JACI, JACI: In Practice, and JACI: Global respectively. The course outlines a step-by-step approach to providing a quality peer review, including general aspects of manuscript evaluation, what to look for in each specific section of the manuscript and how to write an optimal peer review report.

By viewing this course, learners will gain the following skills or reinforce existing skills: 
•    Appreciating the value of optimal peer review.
•    Understanding the general aspects of what to look for in a manuscript. 
•    Gain insight from the AAAAI Journals’ editors on how to evaluate the quality of each specific section of the manuscript. 
•    Strengthen your ability to write a clear and constructive review that will be helpful to both the editors and the authors. 

This course offers 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ and is free for all AAAAI members.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the editorial office (jaci@aaaai.org; InPractice@aaaai.org; JACIGlobal@aaaai.org)