Abstract
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This editorial presents the year-long tale of the G4HJ Student Committee from conceptualization and formation to current activities and finally, to future “stories” the student committee hopes to tell. Therefore, enjoy this Tale of a Curious Student's Wish and consider answering the committee's call for review mentors.
Conceptualization and Formation
The committee's tale began with an international call to G4HJ readership searching for students to apply to the committee. The call included a brief description of the committee's proposed aims. Interested applicants worldwide submitted a 200-word introduction along with their CV. Approximately 30 competitive applications were received and reviewed by the founding student and G4HJ editor-in-chief, and 15 applicants were selected. The founding committee members represented the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Approximately half of the committee was female, and students ranged in age from 25 to 36 years.
At the time of founding, all students were enrolled in doctoral programs, though the committee solicited and welcomed applications from students across all graduate levels. Their areas of study included human factors and cognitive psychology, physical activity and nutritional epidemiology, physiotherapy, exercise science, rehabilitation sciences, media and communication, vision science, medicine, and nursing. Notably, these doctoral students ranged from 2nd to 6th year and had a variety of research interests including synthetic learning environments, healthcare behavior, wearable technology, virtual environments, exergaming, and visual psychophysics.
During the committee's first meeting, the purpose (the preface of this tale) was drafted, reflecting the students' desire to become better evaluators of academic work and improve their ability to disseminate research observations. Yet, genies rarely grant wishes without expectations. In return, the committee had to become focused and productive. Thus, the purpose of this intrepid committee reads as follows: “The G4HJ Student Committee intends to help prepare student researchers currently conducting game- and/or technology-based research with skills valuable in academia or industry. Specifically, the Committee will serve to improve future researchers' ability to effectively (1) disseminate research observations for the greatest real-world impact and (2) provide thorough and well-informed reviews of research studies which serve to ensure that research published and disseminated is of the highest quality.”
With the preface to their tale now written, the G4HJ Student Committee then began dreaming of the next chapters in this tale and formed two subcommittees: (1) the Twitter© Subcommittee and (2) the Review Mentor Subcommittee.
Current Activities
Twitter Subcommittee
The first of the two chapters drafted in this tale is the Twitter Subcommittee. This subcommittee was developed to encourage effective distribution and translation of scientific research on games for health—an objective aligned with G4HJ. Given its popularity among academic communities focused on using games- and/or technology-based health promotion approaches, the subcommittee chose the social media platform Twitter to broadcast publications in G4HJ. Recently, the subcommittee created a Twitter handle for G4HJ. You can follow the journal @gamesforhealthj.
The focus of the Twitter group is to promote dialogue regarding (1) the articles published within G4HJ, (2) availability of new issues, (3) mentorship and review opportunities for students, and (4) the tweeting/retweeting of information on relevant conferences or calls for proposals, deadlines, and associated research publications. With the fast-paced nature of published research, particularly within games for health, Twitter will be an important platform to disseminate G4HJ articles, relevant content, and ensure the continued vitality of the G4HJ Student Committee.
Student Reviewer/Review Mentor Subcommittee
The Student Reviewer/Review Mentor Subcommittee was formed with the objective to pair student reviewers with established researchers (i.e., review mentors) in the games for health (G4H) community to ensure future researchers in the field are prepared to evaluate and advocate for the highest quality of research to be published. Notably, the process developed by this subcommittee requires student reviewers to review a recently submitted article to G4HJ—providing feedback to study authors just as any other reviewer would do. Yet, here is where the plot twist lies! Each student reviewer's article will be reviewed by a review mentor who evaluates the same article.
To guide the review mentor, the Student Reviewer/Review Mentor Subcommittee developed a quick, four-question feedback form to assess the student reviewer's performance on (1) whether the major strengths/limitations of the article (the study's rationale, the validity of the methodology used, the clarity of the results, the thoroughness of the discussion, etc.) were identified; (2) whether the student reviewer identified aspects of the article that could be improved during further revision regardless of the decision rendered on the article; (3) whether, according to the review mentor, the student reviewer came to the correct decision regarding the article's worthiness of further consideration for publication; and (4) further feedback to guide the student.
Yet, the pairing of student reviewers and review mentors on the same article presents a challenge in this subcommittee's story arc. Presently, the subcommittee is evaluating several e.boards (e.g., EasyChair©) to serve as a real-time platform where student reviewers and review mentors can be paired up on the same article and upon which the review mentor can evaluate the student reviewer's article review. This subcommittee hopes to have the next step in this tale written soon.
Coordinating an international team
Presently, the student committee uses creative means to engage members from lands near and far away. Several free applications have provided means to communicate and coordinate efforts. Meetings have been planned monthly using the event planning platform Doodle©—a tool, which automatically converts meeting times into the student committee members' local time zone. Doodle has been critical in scheduling meetings given the international membership of the student committee.
To host meetings, the online video and teleconferencing application, Discord©, has been successfully utilized as a hub for meetings, document sharing, and video tutorials. Furthermore, asynchronous collaborative tools provided by Google Drive© have also been used to post/draft (1) meeting notes and action items, (2) the Twitter Style Guide for the G4HJ Twitter account, (3) student reviewer evaluation form, and (4) conference and grant resources. In fact, even this tale was crafted on the Google Drive platform. Incorporating these applications has significantly reduced the barriers of international collaboration and increased member involvement.
Future “Stories” to Be Written
What is next in this “Tale of a Curious Student's Wish”? Well, as with any good story, only time will tell how the plot plays out. The next chapter in this blossoming tale involves planning for succession in the committee membership through recruitment of new and talented student researchers and increasing faculty involvement, a critical piece in the tale's continued success. The committee plans to send out an international recruitment call in July 2018 for graduate students to replace graduating members. The committee will be seeking a diverse pool of students with a wide range of research interests, reflecting the diversity within the G4H community.
In early October 2018, the committee's leadership will review the applications received using the established evaluation criteria, which was initially used when evaluating the applications of the current committee members, with the accepted members notified in late October 2018 of their acceptance. The first meeting to include new membership will take place in early November 2018.
Lastly, the student committee is aware that the next chapter in this tale is not possible without the involvement of faculty committed to training the future generation of researchers. The committee understands students' desire for more professional service tasks (e.g., disseminating research and reviewing submitted articles), as these tasks will become significant in their future careers. Thus, not only is faculty involvement important for formal mentorship purposes (e.g., the Student Reviewer/Review Mentor Program) but it is also to ensure that the committee is able to provide students with greater access to established scholars willing to share their experience as reviewers. Perhaps ironically, this “Tale of a Curious Student's Wish” concludes with a call for faculty involvement.
Therefore, experienced researchers interested in assisting the G4HJ Student Committee in drafting the future chapters in this tale are urged to contact the editor-in-chief for G4HJ at (Thomas.Baranowski@bcm.edu).
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Bethan Shipway, our “curious student,” who had the innovative idea to start this committee, her countless hours building this group are invaluable to our success. They also thank Dr. Thomas Baranowski, our “genie,” and the Games for Health Journal for granting Beth's wish and making this group possible.
Author Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.