Should I join an Editorial Review Board

[BronxBomber]

Hey guys,

Background: A medical student currently doing a full-time research fellowship. No advanced degrees. I have a couple published abstracts, an international oral presentation, and a paper in pre-print sent out for review. I'm on the editorial review board of my school's research journal (not pubmed indexed). Altogether, not impressive.

The situation: A journal I'd never heard of (probably predatory) sent me an email inviting me to join their editorial review board. All they want is a CV, bio, pic, and research interests. It seems pretty harmless since all that information is already publicly available via my LinkedIn and personal website. I went to the website and it looks like the journal is either brand new or non-existent. A few people at my institution (non-PIs) are on the editorial board already.

Should I join and add it to my resume for residency? I doubt they'll send me any papers and, if they do, all the better.

Will PDs care about this or research the journal at all?

Will it seem suspicious that someone without advanced degrees was on an editorial board and they'll immediately know its crap?

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[deleted343839]

Your instincts are right - I wouldn't do it. It's too early in your career to be serving on editorial boards (other than a school-based or undergraduate research journal, which is OK). If it makes any impression, it will not be a positive one.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

These "Editorial Board" invitations from no name, online only journals are junk. If it isn't PubMed indexed, don't bother.

 

[VCorp]

These "Editorial Board" invitations from no name, online only journals are junk. If it isn't PubMed indexed, don't bother.

Really? I plan on making an Orthopedic Surgery Video Journal and currently in talks with publishers such as Elsevier and SAGE. Anything you recommend so that my journal doesn't get categorized as "junk" besides being PubMed indexed. I know there are Ortho surg videos available on YouTube, but none of them are peer-reviewed. The few attendings I've spoken to thus far, are interested in being part of the EB.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

Really? I plan on making an Orthopedic Surgery Video Journal and currently in talks with publishers such as Elsevier and SAGE. Anything you recommend so that my journal doesn't get categorized as "junk" besides being PubMed indexed. I know there are Ortho surg videos available on YouTube, but none of them are peer-reviewed. The few attendings I've spoken to thus far, are interested in being part of the EB.

Well both Elsevier and SAGE are good publishing companies. I'm not sure what an Orthopedic Surgery Video Journal really means, but if it is peer-reviewed and Pubmed indexed (even if the IF is 0.0), I wouldn't necessarily count it as predatory or junk.