Time flies when you are having fun (and also sometimes when you aren’t).

A long time ago I had an idea for a way to make reading journal articles from HILJ more rewarding by encouraging discussion. You can read the back story up to the launch of hilj.club in an editorial I coauthored with Tom Roper (his blog still a good place to find him in retirement) or you can get a feel via the About page.

So – how has it gone?

Since the launch of the hilj.club website in August 2019 there have been some fairly distracting times (cough) which broke up the planned regular schedule of quarterly posts. Ignoring the hiatus from June 2020 to June 2021 we mostly got posts out. A total of 11 articles have been featured since the site was launched (following pilot posts on other platforms / venues) with a range of authors each bringing their own feel to proceedings. Most followed a reflective format but we also had a dialogue style post on a KM related article. Some tough questions have been set by the authors – not all of which got answered.

How are the numbers?

Not terrible – the web stats have risen pretty steadily (if you believe web stats). Interaction wise the idea was that people would comment on the posts or elsewhere if it suited them. Comments have never been huge and the last few posts have notably not drawn so many – perhaps a sign of the times. There is definitely evidence of impact in the downloaded article stats that are provided to the HILJ Editorial Advisory Board with a lift to articles that are featured in #HILJClub.

Is it worth it?

From my perspective #HILJClub is pretty low maintenance. I like writing the odd post and reading articles I might not otherwise off the back of peoples selections. The small team involved has stayed pretty small and chips in where they can. Authors have all had a nice little piece of CPD to log while frequently scratching an interest itch. At various times the posts have sparked debate, people have had local journal clubs off the back of them and some wrote blogposts in response to things that took their fancy. All this feels like a decent cost / benefit balance. The good news is that a number of posts are already assigned to authors so there should be another year of #HILJClub fun to follow.

Curious as to what people think might make it better / more interactive / worth their time? Answers in the comments box please (or on twitter!)