• Melany Lopez, Teresa M Chan, Brent Thoma, Vineet M Arora, and N Seth Trueger.
• M. Lopez is a third-year medical student, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. T.M. Chan is assistant professor, Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Medicine, Area of Focused Competency Fellowship Director of Clinician Educator Program, and adjunct scientist, McMaster Program for Education Research, Innovation, and Theory, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6104-462X. B. Thoma is assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1124-5786. V.M. Arora is professor, Department of Medicine, and assistant dean for scholarship and discovery, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, and deputy editor for social media, Journal of Hospital Medicine; ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4745-7599. N.S. Trueger is assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, digital media editor, JAMA Network Open, and former social media editor, Annals of Emergency Medicine; ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8797-2192.
• Acad Med. 2019 May 1; 94 (5): 701-707.

PurposeTo determine the responsibilities of journal social media editors (SMEs) and describe their goals and barriers and facilitators to their position.MethodThe authors identified SMEs using an informal listserv and snowball sampling. Participants were interviewed (June-July 2016) about their position, including responsibilities; goals; barriers and facilitators; and attitudes and perceptions about the position. Themes were identified through a thematic analysis and consensus-building approach. Descriptive data, including audience metrics and 2016 impact factors, were collected.ResultsThirty SMEs were invited; 24 were interviewed (19 by phone and 5 via e-mail). SMEs generally had a track record in the social media community before being invited to be SME; many had preexisting roles at their journal. Responsibilities varied considerably; some SMEs also served as decision editors. Many SMEs personally managed journal accounts, and many had support from nonphysician journal staff. Consistently, SMEs focused on improving reader engagement by disseminating new journal publications on social media. The authors identified goals, resources, and sustainability as primary themes of SMEs' perspectives on their positions. Editorial leadership support was identified as a key facilitator in their position at the journal. Challenges to sustainability included a lack of tangible resources and uncertainty surrounding, or a lack of, academic credit for social media activities.ConclusionsMany of the participating SMEs pioneered the use of social media as a platform for knowledge dissemination at their journals. While editorial boards were qualitatively supportive, SMEs were challenged by limited resources and lack of academic credit for social media work.

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