3 ways professional societies can boost impact through collaboration

Although their specific objectives may vary, societies typically share the same core objectives to advance science, drive innovation, connect their communities, build strategic partnerships, and be a trusted voice and source of knowledge in their domain. Often, they work independently on their missions, focusing on their own unique goals and member communities.

However, given the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research, societies cannot fully serve their communities while working in silos; collaboration with other societies in the same or adjacent fields can help enormously in meeting common goals. Moreover, collaboration between societies can improve the knowledge transfer among research communities, provide alignment on goals and missions, and strengthen advocacy for research prioritization and funding.

Here’s how some societies have done this — and how you may be able to increase your society’s impact by working collaboratively with other like-minded organizations.

1. Joint publications, statements and guidelines

When societies work together to publish joint publications, statements or guidelines, often designed to endorse and publicize a recommended approach, it can lead to better outcomes through cross-pollination of ideas, consensus building and the dissemination of critical information to a wider audience within a specialty or research area or across specialty areas. By co-publishing, societies can often broaden the reach of these high-impact papers and disseminate relevant information more quickly — especially important when the information affects clinical care and health outcomes. Here are a few examples.

Joint article publication

The National Kidney Foundation(opens in new tab/window) (NKF) and American College of Radiology(opens in new tab/window) (ACR) developed and endorsed inaugural consensus statements to improve and standardize the care of patients with decreased kidney function who have indications to receive intravenous gadolinium-based contrast media (GBCM). The societies’ shared mission was to disseminate this important consensus report to both the nephrology and radiology communities, so they jointly published the report in Kidney Medicine(opens in new tab/window) (an NKF journal) and Radiology(opens in new tab/window) (the journal of a related organization: the Radiological Society of North America(opens in new tab/window)).

“By collaborating with the ACR and jointly publishing our consensus statement, we were able to reach both nephrologists and radiologists with guidance about how to avoid complications of using certain contrast media in people with kidney disease, while meeting the need for appropriate diagnosis of other health conditions,” says Dr Kerry Willis, Chief Scientific Officer for the National Kidney Foundation.

Since publication, this joint report has garnered multiple citations to the Kidney Medicine version and Radiology version — and high article downloads on both journal sites — achieving the goal of broader dissemination and engagement of this important cross-disciplinary topic.

Joint virtual special issue

The Elsevier-owned journal Gait and Posture(opens in new tab/window), which publishes new and innovative basic and clinical research on all aspects of human movement, is currently putting together a virtual special issue (VSI) — an online collection of articles on a topic or research area — that will bring together at least eight societies. The VSI will showcase guidelines on gait posture and represent insights from various regional and national societies. So far, two guidelines have published with many more in the works:

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  Australia and New Zealand Clinical Motion Analysis Group (ANZ-CMAG) clinical practice recommendations(opens in new tab/window)

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  Clinical Movement Analysis Society – UK and Ireland: Clinical Movement Analysis Standards(opens in new tab/window)

While some of these societies have affiliations with the journal, that’s not required for publication in the VSI. This VSI will act as a hub to both showcase these guidelines and collect similar research on a rolling basis going forward. The collaboration will bring together insights from around the world that can be used to advance the knowledge of dynamic aspects of human movement and postural control for researchers, clinicians and patients.

2. Joint working groups

Professional societies in a specific discipline or area of science often face similar complex challenges and have unique opportunities to work together toward solutions. Joint working groups consisting of representatives from multiple professional societies allow for different perspectives and ideas to be shared in a broader and more impactful way.

One example is the Global Environmental Evolution in Nephrology and Kidney Care – GREEN-K initiative(opens in new tab/window). Led by the International Society of Nephrology(opens in new tab/window), this initiative is a global effort by 10 prominent national and regional kidney societies to promote environmentally responsible kidney care in line with UN principles for climate action. It has a vision of “sustainable kidney care for a healthy planet and healthy kidneys,” and mission to “promote and support environmentally sustainable and resilient kidney care globally through advocacy, education, and collaboration.” This initiative will be inclusive and global, focusing on collaborative action to develop a coordinated plan to achieve low carbon kidney services across the spectrum of care. Members of the Steering Committee shared their initial call to action in a Special Report published in Kidney International: Our Shared Responsibility: The Urgent Necessity of Global Environmentally Sustainable Kidney Care(opens in new tab/window).

Joint working groups can result in joint position statements from participating societies, foster research in new areas, generate higher levels of advocacy for a particular challenge, and really move the needle on developing ways to address complex issues in a particular field.

3. Joint meetings/conferences

Many large international societies offer joint membership or other benefits for regional affiliated societies. This helps to increase visibility of these societies across multiple research communities and broadens the reach of any affiliated events. These types of cross-organizational agreements help create greater visibility for conference panelists and speakers and can attract a larger, more diverse group of conference participants.

One such example is the collaboration between the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST)(opens in new tab/window), with which Elsevier publishes three high impact journals (the journal CHEST®,(opens in new tab/window) CHEST® Critical Care(opens in new tab/window) and CHEST® Pulmonary(opens in new tab/window)) and the Fleischner Society. CHEST is an organization focused on clinical education, with more than 22,000 pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine professionals, while the Fleischner Society is a niche international organization of key opinion leaders in thoracic radiology.

A seven-year collaboration that will continue to grow, this relationship reflects the crossover that exists between adjacent disciplines and the value of collaborating in support of common goals. The Fleischner Society can have a greater impact on the care provided by pulmonary clinicians, and the CHEST community and its leadership is more deeply involved with the latest advancements shared by the sub-specialty society.

The benefits of collaborating with other societies

The synergy achieved through these society partnerships helps to create shared knowledge, broadened reach, and amplified advocacy for the advancement of each society’s goals. We encourage you to explore collaborative opportunities to drive positive change in your communities and beyond.