Institutional Research Partnerships

The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) develops structured partnerships with universities, medical schools, teaching hospitals, academic departments, research programs, and other eligible institutions seeking to strengthen medical-student research, scholarly communication, publication readiness, and international research visibility.

Institutional Research Partnerships connect an institution's existing research and mentorship activities with educational, dissemination, and scholarly-publishing opportunities through the IJMS. Each partnership is tailored to the institution's objectives, research infrastructure, expected activities, and available resources.

Discuss a Partnership Supplements & Collections Partnering with IJMS

Contents

  1. What Is an Institutional Research Partnership?
  2. What a Partnership Can Include
  3. Institutional Research Channel
  4. Research-to-Publication Pathway
  5. Roles and Editorial Independence
  6. Partnership Structure
  7. Discuss a Partnership

What Is an Institutional Research Partnership?

An Institutional Research Partnership is a structured collaboration between the IJMS and an eligible academic or research institution. It is intended to strengthen the pathway from research participation to scientific communication while preserving independent journal evaluation.

Potential partners include medical schools, universities, teaching hospitals, academic medical centers, clinical departments, student research offices, scholarly concentration programs, research institutes, and multi-institution academic networks.

Institutional focus

Support the development, mentorship, presentation, and dissemination of student and early-career research within an existing academic program.

 Journal focus

Provide agreed scholarly-publishing, educational, and dissemination activities while retaining independent control of editorial and publication decisions.
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What a Partnership Can Include

Each institutional partnership is tailored to the partner's objectives and may include one or more of the following components.

Component What It Can Include
Institutional Research Channel A dedicated institutional scholarly presence connecting eligible research activity, educational initiatives, and published outputs associated with the partner institution.
Research-Day or Symposium Partnership Publication or dissemination of selected abstracts arising from an institutional research day, student symposium, scholarly concentration, or similar academic program.
Scholarly Collections Publication of approved institutional, research-program, or thematic collections through the IJMS. Detailed publication requirements are described on the Supplements & Scholarly Collections page.
Scientific-Writing Education Workshops or educational activities addressing manuscript preparation, abstracts, reporting standards, scientific argumentation, research integrity, and scholarly communication.
Peer-Review and Editorial Education Training in critical appraisal, constructive peer review, publication ethics, editorial assessment, and responsible management of the scholarly record.
Manuscript-Development Pathway A structured mechanism for identifying completed institutional projects that may be suitable for development into manuscripts for independent IJMS consideration.
Scholarly Reporting Where feasible, aggregate reporting on partnership activities, participation, submissions, publications, or other agreed scholarly outputs.
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Institutional Research Channel

An approved partnership may include an IJMS Institutional Research Channel: a dedicated framework for organizing and showcasing eligible scholarly activity associated with a partner institution.

  • institutional and research-program information;
  • links to eligible scholarly outputs published through the Journal;
  • research-day, symposium, or institutional collections;
  • scientific-writing and publication education; and
  • structured communication between institutional research leadership and the Journal.
  • a process for identifying potentially eligible manuscripts;
  • recognition of participating research programs or mentors when appropriate;
  • aggregate partnership reporting when operationally feasible;
  • additional approved educational or scholarly activities; and
  • a visible institutional presence within the IJMS partnership framework.
An Institutional Research Channel is not reserved publication space. It does not guarantee peer review, acceptance, publication, or a minimum number of published articles. Institution-associated manuscripts must satisfy the same applicable scientific, ethical, authorship, reporting, and editorial requirements as comparable submissions outside a partnership.

Educational and research-development activities do not constitute pre-approval of individual manuscripts or assurance that a manuscript is suitable for IJMS publication.

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Research-to-Publication Pathway

A partnership can create a clearer connection between local research activity and international scholarly communication.

1. Research → 2. Mentorship → 3. Presentation → 4. Manuscript Development → 5. Submission
IJMS editorial assessment → independent peer review when appropriate → possible publication

The institution supports research development and manuscript readiness before submission. Once submitted, the IJMS independently determines suitability for editorial consideration, external peer review, and possible publication.

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Roles and Editorial Independence

The partnership works only when institutional research support and Journal editorial authority remain clearly separated.

Area Partner Institution IJMS
Research development Provides local supervision, mentorship, methodological support, and applicable institutional research processes. May provide agreed education in scientific writing, peer review, publication, or scholarly communication.
Research ethics Ensures projects satisfy applicable ethics, consent, privacy, regulatory, and institutional requirements. Evaluates submitted work according to applicable Journal ethics and publication requirements.
Manuscript readiness May identify and support projects that appear suitable for manuscript development. Independently determines whether a submitted manuscript is suitable for editorial consideration or peer review.
Peer review and publication Does not select independent Journal reviewers or control editorial outcomes. Selects reviewers when appropriate and retains final authority over acceptance, rejection, publication, and post-publication actions.
Editorial independence: Institutional or financial participation does not purchase favorable review, acceptance, publication, expedited decisions, or influence over the scholarly record. Partnership continuation cannot be conditioned on particular editorial outcomes.

Review Ownership and Governance

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Partnership Structure

Institutional partnerships may be developed as a defined project, a pilot, or a recurring relationship.

Defined Project

A focused collaboration around a specific research day, educational activity, scholarly collection, or institutional initiative.

Pilot Partnership

A time-limited collaboration used to evaluate workflow, participation, scholarly outputs, administrative requirements, and value before a longer-term arrangement.

Recurring Partnership

An ongoing institutional relationship that may combine multiple educational, dissemination, Channel, or publication activities.
What an institutional agreement may define
  • participating institution and responsible representatives;
  • purpose, activities, services, and partnership period;
  • research or educational programs involved;
  • anticipated scholarly activity or operational capacity;
  • institutional and Journal responsibilities;
  • financial or in-kind contributions;
  • use of institutional names and logos;
  • conflict-of-interest, disclosure, and editorial-independence provisions;
  • reporting or evaluation arrangements; and
  • renewal, modification, or termination procedures.

Any anticipated number of manuscripts, abstracts, or scholarly outputs is used for operational planning only and does not represent a guaranteed number of accepted or published contributions.

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Discuss an Institutional Partnership

Institutions interested in exploring a partnership are encouraged to contact the IJMS before developing a detailed proposal.

What to include in an initial inquiry
Institution Full institutional name, country, website, and participating school, department, research office, or program.
Primary contact Name, role, academic affiliation, and institutional email address.
Research program Brief description of current medical-student or early-career research activities.
Partnership objectives The principal goals the institution would like the collaboration to address.
Potential activities Examples may include research-day publication, scientific-writing education, scholarly collections, manuscript-development pathways, peer-review education, or an Institutional Research Channel.
Expected activity Approximate number of participants, research projects, abstracts, manuscripts, or other outputs expected, when known.
Timeline Preferred start date and whether the institution is considering a defined project, pilot, or recurring partnership.
Institutional Partnership Inquiries
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