• Nathan A Shlobin, Simon Savage, Alexander Savage, Tania Torbati, Zhe Wang, Sebastian Salas-Vega, Marcella Mota, Alejandro Pando, Breanna Sheldon, Alison M Westrup, Jonathan Ogulnick, Jad Zreik, Nada A H AlKahtani, Damilola Jesuyajolu, Kasereka Kamabu Larrey, Tarig Fadalla, Uma Mahajan, Nihal Manijla, Rohin Singh, Andrew Wang, Ulrick Sidney Kanmounye, Christine Moore, Edward C Benzel, and Gail Rosseau.
• Department of Neurological Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Electronic address: nathan.shlobin@northwestern.edu.
• World Neurosurg. 2023 Jun 9.

ObjectiveMost surgical journals are published in English, representing a challenge for researchers from non-Anglophone countries. We describe the implementation, workflow, outcomes, and lessons learned from the WORLD NEUROSURGERY Global Champions Program (GCP), a novel journal-specific English language editing program for articles rejected because of poor English grammar or usage.MethodsThe GCP was advertised via the journal website and social media. Applicants were selected to be a reviewer for the GCP if they demonstrated English proficiency on writing samples supplied in their application. The demographics of GCP members and characteristics and outcomes of articles edited by the GCP during its first year were reviewed. Surveys of GCP members and authors who used the service were conducted.ResultsTwenty-one individuals became part of the GCP, representing 8 countries and 16 languages apart from English. A total of 380 manuscripts were peer reviewed by the editor-in-chief, who determined these manuscripts to have potentially worthwhile content but needed to be rejected due to poor language. The authors of these manuscripts were informed of the existence of this language assistance program. Forty-nine articles (12.9%) were edited by the GCP in 41.6 ± 22.8 days. Of 40 articles resubmitted to WORLD NEUROSURGERY, 24 (60.0%) were accepted. GCP members and authors understood the purpose and workflow of the program and recognized improvements in article quality and the probability of acceptance through their participation.ConclusionsThe WORLD NEUROSURGERY Global Champions Program mitigated a critical barrier to publication in an English language journal for authors from non-Anglophone countries. This program promotes research equity by providing a free, largely medical student and trainee operated, English language editing service. This model or a similar service can be replicated by other journals.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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