Mentoring the next generation of academic child neurologists.

As health care advances over the next decades, it is important for the specialty of Child Neurology to remain at the forefront of investigations related to the understanding of disease processes that affect the nervous system of infants, children, and adolescents and to the development of improved evidencebased treatment options. Key to this process is the dissemination of new knowledge not just to other child neurologists but also to clinicians in the various other specialties and subspecialties that provide healthcare for children. To that end, publication of scientifically valid articles in widely disseminated peer-review medical journals is imperative. In most academic institutions, one important requirement for career advancement is that individuals produce as many high-quality published articles as possible: a mandate that has jokingly been referred to as a ‘‘publish or perish’’ mentality. Unfortunately, the many scandals related to articles published in highly regarded medical and scientific journals indicates a need for constant vigilance and better training for those scientists and clinicians conducting investigations as well as for those providing the journal peer reviews. Mentoring of aspiring junior faculty members to foster critical thinking and ethical behavior has become a goal of many academic institutions. To mentor young neurologists, the American Academy of Neurology journal Neurology has developed a ‘‘Resident and Fellow Section’’ in which trainees at various levels can publish up to 1500-word articles in an online-only journal section developed by a group of neurology resident trainees. The Journal of Child Neurology has decided to approach the mentoring of the next generation of academic child neurologists by establishing a Resident/Fellow Section of the journal Editorial Board and appointing an academic child neurologist, Audrey Foster-Barber, MD, PhD, to be the Associate Editor for this Section. She will be assisted with the Resident/Fellow Section by 2 other academic child neurologists, Yasmin Khakoo, MD, and Kara Stuart Lewis, MD, who are also Journal of Child Neurology Associate Editors, serving in their roles of Social Media Editors. Each year a group of child neurology trainees will be selected to serve 2-year renewable terms on this Resident/Fellow Section of the Editorial Board. The members of this Section will provide input related to the journal direction, just like other members of the Editorial Board, and assist with the burgeoning use of electronic media to disseminate article information. They will also be called upon to perform peer reviews for submitted manuscripts, but in doing so, will be mentored by Drs. Foster-Barber, Khakoo, and Lewis or by other designated members of the Editorial Board. This training will hone their skills both as investigators and as clinicians, making them better academic child neurologists to carry the specialty into the future. It is also possible that 1 or more of these Section members could become editors of journals or books important to the field of child neurology in their own right The profiles of the 10 individuals selected (out of 40 stellar candidates) to serve on the inaugural Resident/Fellow Section of the Journal of Child Neurology Editorial Board are listed below: