Across disciplines, one tradition seems to unite all academics: the journal club. In a journal club, we gather together to discuss papers in academic journals. Typically, one person reads the paper in depth in advance, and comes prepared with a short presentation, then everyone else asks questions. Everywhere I’ve worked has either had, or aspired to have, a journal club, and every academic I’ve talked to recognizes the concept.

Beyond that universal skeleton, though, are a lot of variable details. Each place seems to interpret journal clubs just a bit differently. Sometimes a lot differently.

For example, who participates in journal clubs? In some places, journal clubs are a student thing, organized by PhD or Master’s students to get more experience with their new field. Some even have journal clubs as formal courses, for credit and everything. In other places, journal clubs are for everyone, from students up through the older professors.

What kind of papers? Some read old classic papers, knowing that without an excuse we’d never take the time to read them and would miss valuable insights. Some instead focus on the latest results, as a way to keep up with progress in the field.

Some variation is less intentional. Academics are busy, so it can be hard to find a volunteer to prepare a presentation on a paper every week. This leads journal clubs to cut corners, in once again a variety of ways. A journal club focused on the latest papers can sometimes only find volunteers interested in presenting their own work (which we usually already have a presentation prepared for). Sometimes this goes a step further, and the journal club becomes a kind of weekly seminar: a venue for younger visitors to talk about their work that’s less formal than a normal talk. Sometimes, instead of topic, the corner cut is preparation: people still discuss new papers, but instead of preparing a presentation they just come and discuss on the fly. This gets dangerous, because after a certain point people may stop reading the papers altogether, hoping that someone else will come having read it to explain it!

Journal clubs are tricky. Academics are curious, but we’re also busy and lazy. We know it would be good for us to discuss, to keep up with new papers or read the old classics… but actually getting organized, that’s another matter!