The Details
The BEMC Journal Club (JClub) takes place usually every third Wednesday of the month at 4pm (Berlin time, GMT+01:00). The JClub will take place either as a Zoom meeting or in person, depending on the semester. JClub meetings via Zoom are not recorded.
To prepare for BEMC JClub, we expect participants to read the journal article and submit 2-3 thoughtful questions per meeting via the BEMC JClub Contribution Form by 4pm on Monday before the meeting!
- What do we read? The topics vary from meeting to meeting. Sometimes, we choose a paper that aligns with the topic of an upcoming BEMC Talk. Other times, we will select a recent methods-focused paper from a top epidemiology or statistical methods journal. We also take reading suggestions from our regular participants. We try to announce what we are reading at least one month in advance, so that we all have sufficient time to prepare.
- What is the level? The BEMC JClub is not an introductory-level discussion group, and we select papers that beginners will likely find challenging.
- Can I get credit for participating? Get all the details on our ‘For Students’ page.
- What is the language? All JClub meetings are held in English.
- Where can I sign up? Use the registration link for our JClub via Zoom or just drop by for our in-person JClub.
JClub Summer Semester 2025 Schedule
This summer semester, from April to July 2025, we will be hosting our BEMC JClub in person at the Campus Charité Mitte! Registration is not necessary – everyone is welcome to join any session, but regular attendance is encouraged. The articles for each following JClub meeting are decided by the participants in each meeting. Participants are most welcome to bring articles to suggest for reading at the next meeting! Information on the articles to be read for each session will be sent out via our BEMC mailing list (you can subscribe to it here) and updated in the list below.
We will meet Wednesdays, at 4pm Berlin time, on Campus Charité Mitte, Virchowweg 9 (see CMM location map). JClub meetings are typically 90 minutes long. To prepare for JClub, participants are expected to have completed the assigned readings prior to each meeting.
Meeting dates, rooms, and reading assignments are as follows:
| Date | Room | Reading Assignment |
|---|---|---|
| April 23, 2025 | Seminarraum 405, Virchowweg 9, CCM | Hu, J.K., Tchetgen Tchetgen, E.J., & Dominici, F. (2023). Using negative controls to adjust for unmeasured confounding bias in time series studies. Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 3(1), 66. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-023-00249-4 |
| May 14, 2025 | Seminarraum 402, Virchowweg 9, CCM | Eyting, M., Xie, M., Michalik, F., Heß, S., Chung, S., & Geldsetzer, P. (2025). A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia. Nature, 10.1038/s41586-025-08800-x. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08800-x |
| June 25, 2025 | Seminarraum 405, Virchowweg 9, CCM | Tennant, P. W., Arnold, K. F., Ellison, G. T., & Gilthorpe, M. S. (2022). Analyses of ‘change scores’ do not estimate causal effects in observational data. International journal of epidemiology, 51(5), 1604-1615. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab050 AND Glymour, M. M. (2022). Commentary: Modelling change in a causal framework. International journal of epidemiology, 51(5), 1615-1621. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac151 |
| July 23, 2025 | Seminarraum 402, Virchowweg 9, CCM | Krzyzanowski, B., Mullan, A. F., Dorsey, E. R., Chirag, S. S., Turcano, P., Camerucci, E., … & Savica, R. (2025). Proximity to Golf Courses and Risk of Parkinson Disease. JAMA Network Open, 8(5), e259198-e259198. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.9198 |
Note: If you cannot access the full-text version of this article and you are affiliated with Charité, you can order it through the medical library free of charge. To do this, search the paper on Primo ➝ turn on “Display resources without direct access” toggle ➝ select the article ➝ scroll down to “Links” and click “Ordering documents via Doctor-Doc“. Processing time is fast; you will receive the article via email within one or two days.
If you have any other questions, please contact us at bemcolloquium@charite.de.
Don’t forget to submit 2-3 thoughtful questions/comments using this BEMC JClub Contribution Form before 4pm on the Monday before any meeting you plan to attend!
For a list of articles we’ve read in past years, check out our archives available in the pulldown menu under “JCLUB”.
Berlin Epidemiological Methods Colloquium (BEMC) 