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The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Olympia Tsilochristou is EAACI JM Chair and EAACI Social Media Coordinating Editor. She is a Specialist in Allergy, engaged as a Clinical Research Fellow in molecular allergology at Charité University Hospital, Berlin.

Peter V. Tomazic is EAACI ENT Section JM Representative and JM coordinator of the JM-CTA collaboration. He is an ENT doctor at the ENT-University Hospital Graz, Department of General ORL Head and Neck Surgery and studying for a PhD on proteomic analysis of nasal mucus in allergic rhinitis.

About the European Academy

The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) is an association of clinicians, researchers and allied health professionals which is dedicated to improving the health of people affected by allergic diseases. With more than 9,000 members from 121 countries and 52 National Societies, EAACI is the primary source of expertise in Europe for all aspects of allergy.

Over the years, EAACI has developed specific activities to support and increase the influence of the 4,000 younger members within the Academy known as Junior Members, or JMs who connect with each other and make a valuable and fresh contribution to the work of the Academy. They now enjoy a large number of benefits, such as free online access to the Academy’s educational resources and journals, and have the possibility of applying for clinical or research fellowships and for the Mentorship Programme. The Junior Members also benefit from scholarships to attend the Annual Congress, and from travel grants to participate in Focused Meetings and Allergy Schools.

The Junior Members Working Group

The JM Working Group (WG) is the representative body of EAACI JMs. Initially founded in 2001, the group aims at supporting and serving the educational needs of the Academy’s younger members, as well as their participation in, and influence on, EAACI activities.

The JM WG has been undertaking many initiatives towards this direction including the following: a series of sessions during the EAACI Annual Congress targeted to JMs, participation of JM representatives in the EAACI Specialty and CME Committee, and the Mentorship Programme supporting communication between Seniors and Juniors.

In addition, the JM WG has proven to be a valuable liaison supporting the EAACI communications policy by disseminating information on upcoming EAACI Events and Campaigns, as well as about EAACI publications and Position Papers. Taking a step further, a collaboration between the JM Working Group and the Pediatric Allergy & Immunology (PAI) journal was launched in 2011. Since then, the JMs have worked closely with the Editorial Office of PAI to develop new initiatives to promote the journal and related educational activities from the JMs’ point of view.

Collaborating with Clinical and Translational Allergy

The JM WG has more recently initiated a collaboration with Clinical and Translational Allergy (CTA), another one of EAACI’s official journals, which aims at promoting the journal’s scientific output and increasing its visibility amongst both the JMs and wider allergy community, in addition to increasing influence and input of JMs within the journal. Core elements of this alliance are:

• The monthly selection of ‘Must read articles’ from CTA publications which are highlighted in the journal and distributed via social media. These articles are flagged as such because they are most relevant to fellows in training based on their educational content.
• An active presence of CTA in the most popular social media networks; Clinical and Translational Allergy (Facebook) and @CTA_Journal (Twitter) are the dedicated social media accounts where we post and tweet recent and highly accessed articles.
• The opportunity for JMs to submit ‘hot topic reviews’ in cooperation with their mentors for publication in CTA. Four such reviews (1,2,3,4) have already been published.
• Article processing charge discounts for articles where a JM is the first author.
• JMs who are highly active in research and more advanced in their career are invited to act as peer reviewers in the CTA editorial process and are provided feedback on their review.
• Production of webcasted interviews organized by JMs where the leading authors of recently published CTA articles will be invited to discuss the findings of their article. The interviews will soon be available on the EAACI YouTube channel and CTA’s social media platforms. The purpose of this initiative is to promote the article, give JMs the opportunity to meet senior authors personally and discuss details of their work with them.

If you have any open questions, suggestions or just want to learn more about the JMs and their activities please feel free to contact us at jm@eaaci.org. We also cordially invite you to visit our homepage or become a follower of CTA on Facebook and Twitter.