Re-starting 7th January 2025, we'll meet every week on Tuesday from 2 pm to 3pm at AIL 13-530 to discuss a journal paper or conference proceeding.

We met 44 times in 2024!

Every week, we'll cycle through a list of presenters/moderators. The idea is simple, at least 2 days in advance, the moderator will send us all a link to a journal paper or a conference proceeding. We'll all try to read the paper and then come to the meeting. In the meeting, the moderator will lead the discussion of the paper, and we all will get a chance to ask questions or answer them or discuss the quality of the writing itself.

Here are some more concrete rules:

• The selected paper should not be more than 5 pages long for a two-column paper (10 pages for a single-column paper).
• In case there is an interesting paper but it is too long, please designate a limited part of the paper that will be selected. For example, you can say that we'll discuss the paper till section 3 or that we'll skip section 4 in discussion or something like that.
• Gauge the interest of the audience. Choose a simple paper if it is bringing in a new idea for most of the group. If you would like to present a more complex, dense, or technical paper, be prepared to carry the load of most of the discussion yourself.
• Ideally, there are no limits on what topic of paper we can discuss. Obviously, something related to plasma physics is good, but that doesn't mean we can't learn something worthwhile from other fields. Use your discretion.
• Sometimes, it is interesting to compare two papers or sets of results, please reduce the designated reading or mark one paper as the main paper in that case.

• '''The moderator''' is expected to have read '''the complete paper at least once'''. There is no expectation of reading references or supplementary material.
• ''' Everyone else''' participating is expected to have at least read:
  • Abstract
  • Introduction section
  • Conclusion/Discussion section
  • All figure captions
  • All tables
• The moderator is the chair and is expected to moderate the pace of the discussion. If the moderator says we move on, we move on.
• Please do not cut off someone while they are speaking.
• No question or idea is a dumb one in this space. We all should be down to clown. That is one reason we'll keep the overlords out!

A strong resilient journal club culture is only possible if all of us pitch in and make it a nice experience for everyone. That should be the goal in mind whenever we come to these meetings.

There is no hard requirement for attendance but it is frowned upon to not show up in less than 30% of the meetings. We all have research duties and goals and it is understandable that you might not be able to come every single time or would not be interested in reading a particular paper. But often, you learn a lot from a paper you are not sure about because you will never know what you don't know, so the best practice is to keep trying to attend as much as you can, also to keep the spirits up and support the discussion for whoever picked up the paper that week.

Caution: If you fail to swap your moderation turn and do not send a paper to read on your turn more than once, you would be removed from the club.

Current roster of participants and information on their planned turns

This link gives restricted access only. If you do not have access, use the request access option to get access. Whoever is in charge of maintaining this system will grant you access.

• Please email [email protected] to get added to the roster.
• You'll get weekly emails for the paper we are discussing and reminders for when it is your turn to present.
• Alternatively, add your name, and email to "List" worksheet on this spreadsheet. Please ensure you increment the order column when adding your name.

• Go to your turn row in the "Schedule" worksheet on this spreadsheet and change your name to the name of the person you are swapping with.
• Also edit the entry where their name appears to replace with your own name to complete the swap otherwise that person will get 2 turns in a single cycle.

• If a holiday is occuring on the scheduled date or if everyone is collectively deciding to take a break on some day, please add the word break on that date's row in "Schedule" worksheet on this spreadsheet.
• This will introduce a phase lag to the next calculations automatically.

• Weekly journal club is a great way to become a well-read academic in a field.
• It is a small weekly investment for overall long-term growth.
• It is fun to kill an hour from work some days and meet other people to discuss something different.
• We might try to get snacks for this meeting if enough people join.
• It feels great to be a part of a club.

Here, we'll list all the past discussions. This is incomplete and I would like a ML/AI solution to updating it. I can't really take care of doing this every week.