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Publish or perish: can a ‘Write Club’ help junior faculty be more productive?

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 52, pages 489–490 (2017)Cite this article

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In academic medicine, publication of scholarly work is one metric of success and productivity. Even for positions that are primarily clinical, publication of original research, review articles, educational materials or other academic communications is still required for promotion in a Clinician-Scholar/Clinician-Teacher track. Promotion is based on clinical reputation and productivity, scholarly work and teaching, without a requirement for independent grant funding. Junior faculty in clinical tracks may struggle to publish because of multiple competing demands, including heavy clinical schedules, family responsibilities and the long delay to clinical research results.1 To try to address these challenges, we formed the ‘Write Club’ at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The goal of the Write Club for participants was to complete at least one written product for peer review within 6 months.

The Write Club was held monthly for six consecutive months from January 2016 to June 2016, moderated by two senior faculty members. Participation was voluntary. The meetings were held from 1700 to 1800 h on Monday evenings to try to avoid scheduling conflicts. Eight junior faculty at the Assistant Professor/Assistant Member level participated. The two men and six women were all on the Clinician-Scholar academic track in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The faculty were jointly appointed at the University of Washington School of Medicine in the Department of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology and Pulmonary Divisions) on the Clinician-Teacher track or the Department of Pathology, which has a single academic track. Five of the faculty had their primary clinical responsibilities on the hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) service, and all eight have their predominant research interest in HCT/hematologic malignancies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    S J Lee, G-S Cheng, T S Hyun, R B Salit, E T Loggers, D Egan, M Shadman, L Connelly-Smith, E F Krakow & M E Flowers

  2. Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Washington, DC, USA

    S J Lee, G-S Cheng, R B Salit, E T Loggers, D Egan, M Shadman, L Connelly-Smith, E F Krakow & M E Flowers

  3. Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Washington, DC, USA

    T S Hyun

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  1. S J Lee
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  2. G-S Cheng
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Correspondence to S J Lee.

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Lee, S., Cheng, GS., Hyun, T. et al. Publish or perish: can a ‘Write Club’ help junior faculty be more productive?. Bone Marrow Transplant 52, 489–490 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2016.314

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