Publish Research in Physiopedia
Physiopedia now offers an open opportunity for you to publish your research.
The open and collaborative nature of Physiopedia offers an ideal opportunity for the publication of physiotherapy and physical therapy research, including work that might otherwise not get published. We are happy for you to publish your original research in Physiopedia, include a summary of your research prior to publication in a peer reviewed journal or to publish your student dissertation.
This is a great way of publicising student work, supporting new researchers and bridging the gap between completing research and publication. We welcome all types of research to be published in Physiopedia including randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and case studies.
As a wiki which can be edited by physiotherapists and physical therapists from all over the world, Physiopedia lends itself as a good solution to open peer review of research. Each piece of research in Physiopedia has it’s own page, at the bottom of this page is a section for Physiopedia users to make comments and discuss the research.
Things to do in the new research section of Physiopedia:
Read Research in Physiopedia
The research section in Physiopedia is similar to that seen on journal websites to maintain a recognisable format. When research is added it will be included under the year/date at the time of inclusion.
See the Physiopedia Research – Table of Contents
Submit Research to Physiopedia
There are two ways in which you can add your research to Physiopedia:
All submissions should be submitted in the requested format. See submission guidelines.
Peer Review Research in Physiopedia
To review a piece of research that has been published in Physiopedia you should: go to the page for the piece of research that you wish to review, find the review section at the bottom of this page and add your comments as new bullets points in this section. All we ask is that when you make comments on other peoples research please respect their work and only provide critical reviews that are constructive. The review section of each research article will be moderated by our quality assurance and peer review team.
See how to peer review an article
If you would like to join the Physiopedia research peer review team, let us know.
We hope that this new feature offers an great opportunity to publish all types of physiotherapy and physical therapy research and that the community will collaborate to peer review the published research.
New social features in Physiopedia
Physiopedia has finally had a social face lift. This is the first part of a scheme to make Physiopedia a more social experience where our users will be able to connect with us and with each other. On the left we have added icons to the sidebar to enable you to quickly sign up for email alerts and RSS feeds and also to connect with us in Twiitter and Facebook. On the right we have added a button that allows you to easily save the current page as a bookmark or to share it with your friends via various applications, including Facebook and Twitter. We hope you find these additions useful.
Wondering what to do in Physiopedia?
Once you have had your Physiopedia account activated you might be left wondering what to do? As you will have noticed, having an account in Physiopedia does not give you access to any more materials or information. That is because Physiopedia is an Open Educational Resource giving free access to all the information on the site to anyone that is interested enough to have a read. However, as a registered user what you do gain is the opportunity to edit pages on the site. The idea being that if we all contribute a little (or a lot!) of our knowledge to the site, between us we will create an invaluable and constantly evolving resource for the physiotherapy and physical therapy profession. This international collaboration will contribute to a global understanding within the profession and also the promotion of our profession to clients and colleagues within health care.
So what should you do now?
If you need help have a look at our help tutorials which will guide you through any of the above actions, plus many more!
If your wondering why you should become involved in this project and spend your valuable time creating resources for other people, take a little look at these reasons:
- It is a great CPD activity that can contribute to your CPD portfolio.
- By researching the topic and creating pages, you will learn and develop your own knowledge.
- Feel good by knowing that you will be helping someone else to learn and develop their knowledge.
- Know that you will contribute to a global knowledge base and understanding.
- Build an on-0line profile. The more you contribute to Physiopedia the more links there will be to your profile, which can contain links to your research, work and business.
WCPT support of Physiopedia in open access information for all
The support that Physiopedia has received recently from the World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT) have been so very gratefully received. Following a couple of great conversations recently with Tracy Bury and Simon Crompton regarding open access and social media in the physiotherapy profession I have enjoyed sharing ideas and been enthused to discuss our shared interest in providing open resources for physiotherapists and physical therapists and also to discuss the merits of using social media in healthcare. The resulting article in this months WCPT news is a great testament to our shared goals and has provided me with a dose of motivation to continue in the Physiopedia quest for open access information for all, along with my other projects. This is the article from the WCPT news written by Simon (which I’m sure, in an open way, he won’t mind me reproducing here!)….
Are physical therapists making the most of the opportunities technology presents for sharing professional information around the globe? British physiotherapist Rachael Lowe has launched an ambitious web-based information-sharing project, and thinks that the future lies in free-access resources, tweeting, mobile phones and online learning.
Last January, Rachael launched Physiopedia (www.physio-pedia.com), an online encyclopaedia compiled by physical therapists for physical therapists much along the lines of Wikipedia. She describes it as an evidence-based resource that includes clinically relevant information for all aspects of physical therapy practice.
Already it includes several hundred pages of information, although it will take time to build up as more and more physical therapists around the world contribute articles, and make suggestions and edits on existing articles. She has also launched Physiospot (www.physiospot.com), a website where physical therapists and other health care professionals can easily keep up to date with current affairs related to health care and the physical therapy profession.
Like WCPT, she believes that as much professional and clinical information as possible should be available free of charge and membership constraints to physical therapists around the world.
“The whole idea is to get the profession to have more open resources,” she says. “Everyone seems to be working for themselves, or within geographical boundaries, and it’s so much better if we could work together globally. The technology available today gives us the opportunity to work together, come to a global understanding of what we do, and promote the profession as a whole.”
Rachael, a qualified physiotherapist who has worked as a clinician in the UK and Australia, runs an e-learning company with her husband in Yorkshire, England. She started Physiospot as a means to help her, and other physiotherapists, keep up with continuing professional development opportunities. Then in 2008 she decided to set up a physical therapy version of Wikipedia in her spare time. She worked with an American physical therapist to try and ensure the material was truly international.
“When we launched Physiopedia last year, I was expecting everyone to be excited and for the information to grow wildly. It hasn’t. But in some ways, what has happened is even more exciting: educational institutions in the United States, South Africa and Ireland have got involved. Their students are creating new content and being assessed on it as part of their course. The students love it because it’s an opportunity to use technology to create something lasting that benefits the profession.”
A “wiki”, like Physiopedia, is a collection of web pages that can be collaboratively edited with no specialist tools and little technical know-how. Although all of the content of Physiopedia can be viewed by anyone, those who edit or contribute to Physiopedia need to be qualified or student physical therapists. Editors and writers need to log on to add or change text. Rachael Lowe keeps a close eye on every edit and addition made. But the idea is that the profession itself polices the content for quality.
“It’s going to take a long time to fulfil its potential. I don’t expect it to be a physiotherapy Bible, but a point of reference.”
As a free access source of information, the project is unlikely to ever yield Rachael or anyone else, a profit. She’s aware that some national professional organisations might feel an uneasiness about such open-access resources becoming available, feeling they might challenge the services they offer to their members – often in a members-only part of their website. “But we’re not challenging anyone. We just think it’s a great opportunity for collaboration, and for people in developing countries to have access to the information that people in developed countries do.”
Now Rachael Lowe is looking to set up mentoring programmes, networks and continuing professional development programmes through Physiopedia. “Potentially, the project is massive. But there’s no long-term plan. It’s going where physical therapists want it to go – it’s in their hands.”
She’s also interested in further technology-based projects that might help knowledge-sharing – particularly using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and live blogging. “Their real potential lies in conferences,” says Rachael. “If you have a live blog, for example, it enables people who can’t attend the conference to become involved and follow what’s going on.”
“It doesn’t take much effort to set up. You need a website, and people who will help you with the writing during the conference. Facebook and Twitter also give something extra to people who are attending the conference – they can get short updates, for example. When I was at a conference in the UK recently, I got a tweet from an American who was following me, who asked me to put my hand up and ask a question!”
WCPT is investigating the potential of these kinds of networking ideas for its congress in Amsterdam next year.
This April Physiopedia is running a World Focus campaign, encouraging physical therapists from all over the world to contribute one page. This is in an attempt to contribute to the HIFA2015 goal (see www.wcpt.org/node/33001) that every person worldwide will have access to an informed healthcare provider. For more details go to www.physio-pedia.com.
