Twelve tips for conducting a medical education journal club.

BACKGROUND: Journal clubs are active at many universities and they involve many specialties and subspecialties. There is a surprising dearth of journal clubs which deal with articles related to the science of medical education.

AIMS: In an effort to expose medical educators to the outstanding benefits of medical education journal clubs we have devised a set of twelve tips to success for such clubs.

METHODS: We conducted a survey of journal club directors at the nine Canadian medical schools known to conduct education journal clubs. We also conducted interviews with all members of the McGill University Centre for Medical Education.

RESULTS: Combining the results from these two information sources allowed us to develop an approach to assuring success in medical education journal clubs.