Exec. Editor

Introduction

A common international model for medical education typically routes students directly to medical school following secondary education, often precluding research opportunities. Their student colleagues in the U.S. who are interested in neuroscience pursue many different majors and co-curricular opportunities prior to medical school that help extend their understanding of the scientific foundations of clinical practice. Serving as a reviewer for IMPULSE, a journal designed for undergraduates to publish and review neuroscience work, is an example of such an educational enhancement. Medical students from the University of the Free State (South Africa) have shown that it is possible for students in medical bachelor’s degree programs to join IMPULSE and benefit from that experience. Faculty there have been mentoring a team of neuropsychiatry-focused clinical students for the past six years, and they and individual medical students from around the world report that the opportunity to review original research papers and learn how to evaluate neuroscience manuscripts is a valuable addition to their neuro-related career plans. Data from an earlier survey (reported at SfN/FENS in 2013/2014) indicated that 85% of 46 respondents felt the experience improved their own writing skills. Over 75% felt it improved their literature research skills, while 99% felt it improved their article reading skills. Nearly 20% of these students were in M.D. or M.B. programs, while a further 25% were in Ph.D. programs after their IMPULSE time.

The journal IMPULSE was started in the spring of 2003, with the first issue posted in 2004. A a total of twelve issues have been archived, one per year. The current, 2016 issue, is the thirteenth. The journal has evolved from a once-per-year posting reviewed by students at a single institution, to rolling review and posting by students worldwide representing fourteen institutions. The first issue was reviewed by 14 students from three countries and two continents, with a single Faculty Advisor and Reviewer Training Site (RTS). The 2015 issue posted with over 100 student reviewers representing over 30 institutions in six countries and four continents. Many of these students were members of the 14 RTSs, one of which was in South Africa. The rest of the Reviewers were individuals who simply wished to have the experience and applied to join as independent reviewers. They were assigned to an RTS team and they sent their individual reviews to the Associate Editor from that RTS. Each RTS had its own Associate Editor, who compiled the team’s review, and a Faculty Advisor who oversaw and taught about the reviewing process. The most recent RTS to be added (2016) was from the University of North Carolina.

Editor-in-Chief

Associate Editors

The Premier Undergraduate Neuroscience Journal

Exec. Editor

impulse@appstate.edu http://impulse.appstate.edu

2005 issue

2006 issue

Publicity & Social Media Editors

2004 issue

2007 issue

Mng. Editor

ZoeKaplan

ElisabethMoore

Using IMPULSE in International Medical Undergraduate EducationSledge RA1, Moore EJ1, and Jones LS2

1The Honors College and 2Department of Biology, Appalachian State Univ., Boone, NC

2008 issue

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2010 issue

History of IMPULSE

2011 issue

SarahSnouse

IMPULSE Reviewer Training Sites:

StephanieShields

Exec. Assoc. Ed.

Rachel Sledge

HannahJohnson

MaraCowan

JackRutland

Site hosted atAppalachian State

University

2003: M. Wilkinson, A. Autry, L. Helmick, and S. Roudsari founded new journal with Dr. L.S. Jones; IMPULSE at 1st SYNAPSE meeting (James Madison U.) and SfN (Soc. Neur. Abs. 29:25.3, New Orleans).

2004: First issue posted online. IMPULSE at SfN (Soc. Neur. Abs. 31:20.19, Washington, D.C.).2006: Moved to rolling publication; IMPULSE at 2nd SYNAPSE (Davidson Col.) and SfN (Soc. Neur. Abs. 32:xxx, Atlanta); Publicity Editors

created; ISSN # assigned.2007: IMPULSE at 3rd SYNAPSE (Davidson Col.) , 7th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience in Melbourne, Australia, and SfN (Soc. Neur.

Abs. 33:26.4, San Diego). B. Goodlett became 3rd EiC. IMPULSE joins Directory of Open Access Journals; 2nd RTS at Middlebury College with Dr. K. Cronise.

2008: IMPULSE at 4th SYNAPSE (Col of Charleston), 6th FENS Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, and SfN (Soc. Neur. Abs. 34:224.5, Washington, D.C.). A. Walton became 4th EiC. The 3rd RTS opened at Appalachian State Univ. Honors College (L.S. Jones moved).

2009: IMPULSE at 5th SYNAPSE (Col of Charleston) and SfN (Soc. Neur. Abs. 35:23.9, Chicago). Dr. S. Sweitzer (U. South Carolina) stepped in as 3rd FA; Dr. S. Symington joined as FA for 4th RTS at Salve Regina Univ. Website moved to Appstate as host site.

2010: IMPULSE presented at 6th SYNAPSE (Wake Forest U), 7th FENS Forum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and SfN (Soc. Neur. Abs. 36:24.7, San Diego). K. McClellan became 5th EiC. Dr. K. Crisp joined as FA for 5th RTS, St. Olaf College, Dr. V. Turgeon as FA at 6th RTS, Furman Univ., Dr. Stephanie Smith as FA at 7th RTS, University of the Free State (South Africa).

2011: IMPULSE presented at 7th SYNAPSE (Wake Forest U) and 8th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience in Florence, Italy, and SfN 37:25.15S (Washington, D.C.); Kate Davison is 6th EiC. Social Media and Publicity Editor created.

2012: IMPULSE presented at 8th SYNAPSE (USC-Columbia), the 8th FENS (Barcelona), and SfN 38:23.07SA (New Orleans). The 8th RTS established at Roanoke College.

2013: A DECADE of IMPULSE! M. Cook installed as 7th EiC. The 9th RTS, and first in Europe, established at University of Barcelona, Spain (Dr. Juan Abolafia). The 10th (UC San Diego, Dr. Jaime Pineda) and 11th (Wake Forest Univ., Dr. Wayne Silver) RTSs came online. Presentations at 9th SYNAPSE (USC-Columbia) and SfN 39:22.08SA ( San Diego).

2014: IMPULSE presented at 10th SYNAPSE UNC-Asheville) and 9th FENS Forum in Milan, Italy, and SfN 40:24.05SA (Washington, D.C.). Dana Cobb installed as 8th EiC. Added Brown University as an RTS with FA Dr. Carlos Aizenman, and Carnegie Mellon University, with Dr. DJ Brasier as FA.

2015: IMPULSE presented at 11th SYNAPSE (UNC-Asheville), 9th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and 45th SfN Conference (Chicago); Kyle Sasser takes over as 9th EiC.

2016: IMPULSE presented at 12th SYNAPSE (Presbyterian College); Rachel Sledge takes over as 10th EiC.

2012 issue

QR codes for website and facebook

2013 issue

CourtneyQuick

Meghan Pavelka

Review Board (con’t)

Oberlin College (USA)Emma Hahn

Rice University (USA)Zara Khan

Roanoke College (USA)Alex Arey, Paige Arrington, Kelsey Collett, Victoria Godwin, Kati Hurt, Aldijana Mekic, Rebecca Ward

Jordan Hall Rutgers UniversityRahul Patel

Salgado de Oliveira University (Brazil)Hercules Rezende Freitas

Salve Regina University (USA) Wayne Bainter, Raymond Black, Hanna Cote, Kristen Dostie, Justin Gay, Craig Irving, Karl Varkey, Gina Varuzzo, Priscilla Villa

Skidmore College (USA) Jennifer Brown

St. Olaf College (USA) Amara Balhorn, Stuart Behling, Maia Erickson, Liz Grosse,Annika Lee, Pedro Monque, Roman Tyshynsky, Jacob Westerberg

Stony Brook University (USA)Andrew Lee

Tanta University (Egypt) Samar Morsy Khalil

Trinity College (USA) Isabella Dahilig

University of Alberta (Canada) Calvin Howard, Parikshit Chandra Mukerjee, JeeSu Suh

University of California Los Angeles (USA) Gal Daskal, Brett Neely, Vu Tran, Arielle Tripp

University of California, San Diego (USA)Wednesday Bushong, Sofia Campos, Katelyn Carmichael, Lala Forrest, Mary Graves, Sara Kimmich, Edward Nguyen, Nathan Olesen, Thuy-Iinh T Pham, Chris Shenton, Trisha Srivastava, Alan Truong, Jacob Valadez, Tyler Wishard

University of Colorado, Boulder (USA)Brandon Fields

University of Connecticut (USA)Margaret Rowland, Tiahna Spencer

University of the Free State (South Africa) Natalie Collis, Dakota Corett, Louise du Plessis, Julian Eloff, Johann Fourie, Alden Geldenhuys,

Karien Janse van Vuuren, Johan Klinck, Pierre Kriek, Corli Leonard, Sune Liebetrau, Bhavana Natayanan, Anelle Saaiman, Lisa Sibthorpe, Stefan Spamer, Nicki Steyn, Carl van Heerden, Lbe van Niekerk, Cornel Vermaak

University of Georgia (USA)Ayan Hussein

University of Greenwhich (UK)Steliana Yanakievs

University of Kentucky (USA)Allie Lonneman

University of Kentucky (USA)Allie Lonneman

University of South Carolina (USA) Rahoul Ahuja, Sonesh Amin, Nidhi Arashinagundi, Alexis Baker, David Berry, Zachary Blake, Syndey Bromfield, Shravya Budidi, Anna Capps, Celia Biyun Cui, Selina Chang, Pooja R. Choudhari, Purva R. Choudhari, Lauren Cole, Breana Carter, Darien Davda, Julio C. Diaz, Hassieb Din, Andrew Dippre, Sarah Erlandson, Tori Espensen-Sturges, Mohammad Fatani, Humna Fayyaz, April Galloway, Lauren Gee, Alexander Gex, Michael Goyda, Luke Havens, John He, Caroline Hendricks, Molly Higgins, Christine Hsieh, Polina Kopylova, Rachel LeMelfant, Courtney Marsh, Trevor Morris, Anjali Pathak, Kristen Polinski, Marcia Reeves, Tori Seigler, Alex Teshon, Allie Turgeon

Vanderbilt University (USA) Michael Cross, Lance Lehman, Stacy Yanofsky

Wake Forest University (USA) Virginia Catherine Cushing, Jordan Hall, Nanami Miyazaki, Eileen McNamara,  Hope Peterson, Ian Rosner, Caitlin Suire

Wayne State University (USA) Samantha Cloutier, Christopher Yoo

Wellesley College (USA) Paige Miranda

Review BoardAppalachian State University (USA) Hannah Johnson, Zoe Kaplan, Elisabeth Moore, Meghan Pavelka, Courtney Quick,Rachel Sledge, Cole Sloboda, Sarah Snouse

Brooklyn College (USA) Peter Lee

Brown University (USA) Hye Bin Shin, Dustin Hayden, Olena Kuksenko, Nicolas Ledru, Kurt Pianka, Ali Razaei, Alexandra Saali, Methma Udawatta

Carnegie Mellon University (USA) Ji Heon Han, Luke McDonald, Amira Millette, Mark Nicholas, Brandon Rogowski,

Meredith Schmehl, Erin Sipple, Theodore Teichman, Taisuke Yasuda Colgate University (USA) Kathryn Welp

College of Charleston (USA) Hanna Fields

Cornell University (USA) Jennifer Brown

Davidson College (USA) Charles Ford, Malcolm Moses-Hampton, Matthew De Niear, Garrett Smith

Dominican University (USA)Andrew Meissen

Drexel University (USA)Sravanthi Koduri

Duke University (USA) Jordan Hall

Emory University (USA) Jonathan Lin

Furman University (USA) Kate Brokaw, Kyle Duke, Stephanie Manceor, Nathan Moliterno, Jason Pecorella,Madison Ritter, Arianna Scricco

Lafayette College (USA) Sonia Bhala

Madras Medical College (India)Vishala Mishra

Middlebury College (USA)DanVal Braddick, Eliza Jaeger, Adam Glaser, Timothy Ogle, Anna Paritsky

National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan)Victor Daniel Lee Aplicano

New York University (USA)Laura Craciun, Themesap Khan

Nova Southeastern University (USA)Katie Dabrowski

2014 issue

MeredithSchmehl

USCKate

Brokaw

Rebecca Wood

JanaBadrani

Creating a Reviewer Training Site at any institution is easy and does not require any special application process. There are no costs, and the manner of involvement is flexible and up to each Faculty Advisor at each RTS. Some choose to offer a course for new Reviewers, some work with a campus neuroscience club, while others just focus on a group of students doing research in their laboratory. All that is needed to start an RTS at an institution is a faculty member willing to take on the role of the Faculty Advisor (see list at right of current FAs), and a few students willing to be reviewers, one of whom will become the Associate Editor for that RTS. The process works very fluidly, with submissions being forwarded by the Executive Associate Editor to all of the RTS Associate Editors, who then distribute the manuscript to their RTS Review Team for review. A compiled, single review from each RTS is returned to the EAE, and a final, unified compilation is created by the Executive Editor for return to the authors, usually within 4-5 weeks. The first pages of two articles on how IMPULSE can be used in classes and teaching are shown below (from the online Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education).

Ali Rezaei

Supported by The Honors College at Appalachian State Univ., The Dept of Psychology at Middlebury College, the Dept of Biology at Univ of South Carolina, the Dept of Biology at Salve Regina Univ, the Dept of Biology at Furman Univ, the Dept of Biology at St. Olaf College, the Dept of Basic Medical Sciences at the Univ of the Free State, the Dept of Psychology at Roanoke College, the Dept of Biology at Wake Forest Univ, the Dept of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, the Dept of Neuroscience at Brown University, the Dept of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon Univ, the Dept of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, and the Dept of Biology at Simpson College.

2015 issue

Faculty AdvisorsCarlos Aizenmann, Ph.D., Brown University (USA)DJ Brasier, Carnegie Mellon University (USA)Jacqueline Brittingham, Ph.D., Simpson College (USA)Kim Cronise, Ph.D., Middlebury College (USA)Annalize Landman, M.B.Ch.B., University of the Free State (South Africa)Jeremy Loebach, Ph.D., St. Olaf College (USA)Leslie Sargent Jones, Ph.D., Appalachian State University (USA) Founding FADavid Nichols, Ph.D., Roanoke College (USA)Marsha Penner, Ph.D., University of North Carolina (USA)Jaime Pineda, Ph.D., University of California San Diego, (USA)Deanna Smith, Ph.D., University of South Carolina (USA)Wayne Silver, Ph.D., Wake Forest University (USA)Steven Symington, Ph.D., Salve Regina University (USA)Victoria Turgeon, Ph.D., Furman University (USA)

MitchThomas Katarina

SwaimMicahWatson

BlakeBrownAnna

Paritsky

Reviewer Training Sites!

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