Question sections must be submitted by March 29, 2024, to be considered for inclusion in the 2024 Annual Survey. Question/section submitters are encouraged to review past CDIM Survey Data and/or CDIM Survey Publications.
The CDIM Annual Survey undergoes a rigorous process of editing, pretesting, and pilot-testing to maximize content validity. A primary goal of the Survey and Scholarship Committee is to assist CDIM members in achieving educational scholarship through the content that they submit for inclusion in the Annual Survey.
If your items are accepted for inclusion in the Annual Survey, a subgroup of Survey and Scholarship Committee members will be assigned to assist with further development of and revisions to your section. This will require prompt responses from section leads to requests for revisions during survey pretesting and pilot-testing. Alliance Surveys staff also will assist with reviews of content to ensure that best practices for survey methodology are adhered to.
CDIM survey data collection is managed by Alliance Surveys staff, who will provide a report including survey section summary results for authors about one month after survey closure. About one month prior to their planned launch date, the CDIM Annual Surveys is submitted by AAIM Surveys staff to an institutional review board (IRB) for compliance with human subjects research protections. AAIM Surveys staff hold valid certificates in human subjects research training.
After receiving the de-identified dataset and summary results from your survey section, a committee section liaison will be available to coordinate secondary data analysis requests from AAIM Surveys staff if you do not have access to data analysis support or cannot conduct a secondary analysis. The liaison also will contribute to the drafting of a scholarly work in addition to providing input on appropriate journal selection for successful publication. Typically, AAIM Surveys staff also provide a draft survey methods section as a (to be modified accordingly by authors) for inclusion in a scholarly work.
It is the goal of the committee to publish the data from each section of the Annual Survey in a timely manner. Primary authors are expected to produce a draft manuscript within six months of receiving their de-identified dataset from the Annual Survey.
Although the Annual Survey is submitted each year for exemption from full IRB review, AAIM Surveys staff will notify authors about any additional exemptions they might need to seek from their local IRB. This might be expected by a scholarly journal if an AAIM Surveys staff member served as the study’s principal investigator but not as a coauthor for a scholarly work. Extenuating circumstances can delay the development of a manuscript in a timely manner; thus, section liaisons are prepared to assist authors with advancing their manuscript toward publication. However, if a draft manuscript has not been produced within 12 months of primary authors receiving their survey data, the section liaison may be appointed as a primary author.
Based on the guidance provided by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on authorship, the Survey and Scholarship Committee section liaisons and AAIM Surveys staff would meet criteria for authorship based on their contributions to design and acquisition of data should they be involved in 1) subsequent drafting and/or revising of the manuscript; and 2) final approval of the manuscript for publication. Occasionally, additional committee members who have contributed substantially to specific sections may also be designated for authorship by the Survey and Scholarship Committee leaders.
Authors who submit question sections are required to digitally sign an acknowledgment of these CDIM Annual Survey Guidelines, to ensure that they are aware of the expectations set for them:
- After a section is accepted for inclusion in a survey, with authors having to sign the form within one week after being notified of acceptance; and
- after receiving their datafile and summary results.