Unmasking the Healthcare Issues Slipping through the Cracks during the Pandemic

Over the last nine years, the International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) has been assisting medical students to seek excellence in research. From its conception, IJMS has been publishing tri-annually; however, due to the huge number of article submissions to the journal, IJMS is now publishing four issues every year. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rise in the incidence of crime and interpersonal violence, including sexual assault. Despite this, it has also been found that the number of such offences reported has decreased. In this editorial, we bring to light the under-recognized issue of sexual assault by highlighting an article regarding medical students' training in caring for assault victims that will be published in this issue. We also discuss other under-recognized healthcare problems in this editorial. This upcoming issue of IJMS is one that not only contains research and experience pieces about the COVID-19 pandemic's ramifications; beautifully recounted and inspiring experiences from medical students can also be found in this issue. Combined with the intriguing case reports and a letter-to-the-editor, we are sure that this upcoming issue will pique the curiosity of our worldwide readership. &nbsp

EXPRESS: As clear as glass: How figurativeness and familiarity impact simile processing in readers with and without dyslexia

For skilled readers, idiomatic language confers faster access to overall meaning compared with non-idiomatic language, with a processing advantage for figurative over literal interpretation. However, currently very little research exists to elucidate whether atypical readers – such as those with developmental dyslexia – show such a processing advantage for figurative interpretations of idioms, or whether their reading impairment implicates subtle differences in semantic access. We wanted to know whether an initial figurative interpretation of similes, for both typical and dyslexic readers, is dependent on familiarity. Here, we tracked typical and dyslexic readers’ eye movements as they read sentences containing similes (e.g. as cold as ice), orthogonally manipulated for novelty (e.g. familiar: as cold as ice, novel: as cold as snow) and figurativeness (e.g. literal: as cold as ice [low temperature], figurative: as cold as ice [emotionally distant]), with figurativeness being defined by the sentence context. Both participant groups exhibited a processing advantage for familiar and figurative similes over novel and literal similes. However, compared to typical readers, participants with dyslexia had greater difficulty processing similes both when they were unfamiliar, and when the context biased the simile meaning toward a literal rather than a figurative interpretation. Our findings suggest a semantic processing anomaly in dyslexic readers, which we discuss in light of recent literature on sentence-level semantic processing

Pre-Existing Social Conditions: A Call to Prevent the Perpetuation of Gender Inequalities in Research Production during COVID-19

The global COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for systematic studies on our changing society and medical students are responding accordingly. However, emerging evidence indicates that there are changing patterns in research production since the initial COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, with an exponential increase in the number of manuscripts submitted to academic journals for peer review, but with women producing significantly less research compared to men. In an effort to contemplate what academic journals’ responsibilities are to counteract these trends among medical students, we consider three “pre-existing social conditions” that have the potential to negatively affect female medical students’ careers long-term: 1) the unequal division of labor both at home and work; 2) women’s lower well-being compared to men’s; and 3) men’s greater representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. As a society, we need to offset these trends that threaten women’s careers, as we are at risk of reversing the diligent work achieved to improve gender equality in the fields of science and medicine. While “pre-existing conditions”—the social, economic, political, and historical forces discussed here— have led to, and exacerbated, gender disparities in research production during the pandemic, The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) is committed to acknowledging these gender inequalities and preventing their perpetuation among the next generation of future doctors and physician-scientists

Back to the Future: Medicine Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

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The role of orthographic neighbourhood effects in lateralized lexical decision: a replication study and meta-analysis

The effect of orthographic neighbourhood size (N) on lexical decision reaction time differs when words are presented in the left or right visual fields. Evidence suggests a facilitatory N effect (i.e., faster reaction times for words with larger neighbourhoods) in the left visual field. However, the N effect in the right visual field remains controversial: it may have a weaker facilitative role or it may even be inhibitory. In a pre-registered online experiment, we replicated the interaction between N and visual field and provided support for an inhibitory N effect in the right visual field. We subsequently conducted a pre-registered systematic review and meta-analysis to synthesise the available evidence and determine the direction of N effects across visual fields. Based on the evidence, it would seem the effect is inhibitory in the right visual field. Furthermore, the size of the N effect is considerably smaller in the right visual field. Both studies revealed considerable heterogeneity between participants and studies, and we consider the implications of this for future work

Thinking Globally in the Pursuit of Individual Identity: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS)

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are core values that are unequivocally essential to healthcare research and practice. However, global health inequities remain pervasive and disruptive to the delivery of healthcare. This unacceptable lack of inclusivity and equity infiltrates all aspects of medicine, including research and publication. Accordingly, there is a dissemination of unbalanced and homogenous perspectives which are not representative of the global population. The International Journal of Medical Students (IJMS) has strived to counter such biases through the development of content and the process of its publication. Further, the selection of its editorial team and ambassadors is conducted with the intention of diversity. We respect individual differences and celebrate them as strengths adding to the quality of our journal. Therefore, the IJMS has taken a positive step toward an equitable environment by publishing a policy statement on DEI. We hope to lead by example by fostering a culture of inclusivity for all researchers, regardless of background. Though, we recognize the complexity of implementing comprehensive DEI practices and consider it our duty to the community that we continuously develop through a dedicated effort and iterative process