It is with great pleasure that to announce the applications open for various positions in the Journal of Asian Medical Students’ Association (J-AMSA).This year, it is great that AMSA International has proposed and will be opening an online journal for medical students. The following are applications for J-AMSA and thier description.

Application for the Journal of Asian Medical Students’ Association (J-AMSA)

Editor in Chief: Position 1.

This person is generally responsible for the content of the publication. The chief editor sets the publication standards for performance, as well as for motivating and developing the staff. Editor in Chief will assign all the associate editors and section editors under him specific tasks required for preparation of an article for the manuscript.

Requirements: Editor in Chief is primarily a leader, and must have experience with leadership and evidence of being an effective leader. Prior Editorial Experience (preferably in a senior position) in a biomedical journal is required.  Research Experience is mandatory. Commitment of at least 10 hours a week.

Associate Editor: Positions 2

The Associate Editors will directly assist the Chief Editor in all sorts of activities primarily aimed at setting high publication standards. Associate chief editors are more than editors: they must be leaders who actively guide their teamAll communication is via internet or phone, so no geographical constraints exist – Editors may live anywhere in the world. However, all editors  are required to check their email daily and respond promptly.

Requirements: Leadership experience or evidence of being an effective leader. Research Experience is mandatory. Prior Editorial Experience as a senior editor in a biomedical journal. . This position requires an average commitment of 5-10 hours per week.

Section Editors: Positions 15, 3 in each section

The following will be the five sections of the journal: Original Articles, Review Articles, Case Reports, Letter to the editor, and Special section (this includes book reviews, Elective experiences, Conference proceedings, Interviews, perspectives etc.)

Under each of these sections, 3 section editors will be appointed. These section editors will receive the manuscript pertaining to their section, get feedbacks from the peer reviewers, and make the final decision of whether or not the article will be published based on the reviewers comments as well as their own judgement. Section Editors will work under the leadership of Chief Editor or Associate Chief Editors and have to work as directed by them.

Requirements: Section Editors will require an average commitment of 5 hours per week. Prior research experience is required. Prior editorial experience is recommended as well. Section Editors are supposed to check their emails daily.

Student Reviewers: Positions: Multiple. At least 2 from each member chapter.

Our Student Reviewers are interested medical students from AMSA member chapters and abroad, willing to peer-review the articles for JAMSA. Students with prior research experience will be preferred. All correspondence with peer reviewers will be done by email and hence peer reviewers are required to check their emails regularly and promptly reply them.

Each of the student reviewers are required to have a faculty advisor with them. This faculty advisor will be an experienced researcher himself and will guide the reviewer in peer-reviewing the manuscript. This will make sure that our student reviewers learn the methodological steps in peer reviewing the article. Since the editorial team of JAMSA changes each year, our student reviewers may be considered for editorial positions for the subsequent editorial boards.

Advisory Board: Positions: at least 1 from each member chapter (Preferably).

The Advisory panel will consist of renowned health professionals from the AMSA member chapters with strong research experience. We would like to have at least 1 expert professional from each of our member chapters into the advisory board of JAMSA. The advisory panel will guide the editors and staffs of the journal in case of difficulties.

It will be the responsibility of editorial board/staffs to find out potential members of Advisory Board in their respective chapters.

Website/page manager: 1

The website/page manager of the JAMSA will be the IT secretary of AMSA International. He/She will be responsible for designing the webpage, putting new information as well as maintaining a sound database of the articles published in JAMSA.

It is reminded here that all articles for JAMSA will have to be submitted online.

Chapter Ambassadors:

1 student from each chapter will be selected as the ambassador for JAMSA. Student Ambassadors must come up with a concrete proposal for popularizing the journal in the respective AMSA chapters. It will be the duty of Chapter Ambassadors to encourage medical students to write up for the journal as well as recruit potential student reviewers.

Requirements: Anyone interested. Applicant should apply with clear plans for popularizing the journal in the respective chapter.

How to apply:

Interested applicants for each of these positions are requested to submit a letter of interest, a description of the plan of action (in 200 words) and an updated curriculum vitae pertaining to the requirements as mentioned above.

All completed applications from AMSA Malaysia members should be submitted to RC Wong Yi Lian (rcmalaysia@amsa-international.org).

The deadline for Application is June 13^th, 2011.

The final selection will be done by a selection committee formed by the Overall Chairperson, Vice Chairpersons (Internal and External) and the Secretary of Academics of AMSA-International at the pre-ECM on 24^th June, 2011 at Joint Conference, Hong Kong.

Proposal for Journal of Asian Medical Student’s Society (J-AMSA)