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Authors are the souls of any journal, and deserve much respect. To publish a journal manuscripts are needed from authors. Authors have a great responsibility for producing facts of their work in terms of number and results truthfully and an individual honesty is expected from authors in this regards. Both ways its true "No authors-No manuscripts-No journals" and "No journals–No manuscripts–No authors". Reviewing a manuscript is also a very responsible and important task of any peer-reviewed journal and to be taken seriously. It needs knowledge on the subject, sincerity, honesty and determination. Although the process of reviewing a manuscript is a time consuming task butit is expected to give one's best remarks within the time frame of the journal.
Salient features of the JCDR: It is a biomedical, multidisciplinary (including all medical and dental specialities), e-journal, with wide scope and extensive author support. At the same time, a free text of manuscript is available in HTML and PDF format. There is fast growing authorship and readership with JCDR as this can be judged by the number of articles published in it i e; in Feb 2007 of its first issue, it contained 5 articles only, and now in its recent volume published in April 2011, it contained 67 manuscripts. This e-journal is fulfilling the commitments and objectives sincerely, (as stated by Editor-in-chief in his preface to first edition) i e; to encourage physicians through the internet, especially from the developing countries who witness a spectrum of disease and acquire a wealth of knowledge to publish their experiences to benefit the medical community in patients care. I also feel that many of us have work of substance, newer ideas, adequate clinical materials but poor in medical writing and hesitation to submit the work and need help. JCDR provides authors help in this regards.
Timely publication of journal: Publication of manuscripts and bringing out the issue in time is one of the positive aspects of JCDR and is possible with strong support team in terms of peer reviewers, proof reading, language check, computer operators, etc. This is one of the great reasons for authors to submit their work with JCDR. Another best part of JCDR is "Online first Publications" facilities available for the authors. This facility not only provides the prompt publications of the manuscripts but at the same time also early availability of the manuscripts for the readers.
Indexation and online availability: Indexation transforms the journal in some sense from its local ownership to the worldwide professional community and to the public.JCDR is indexed with Embase & EMbiology, Google Scholar, Index Copernicus, Chemical Abstracts Service, Journal seek Database, Indian Science Abstracts, to name few of them. Manuscriptspublished in JCDR are available on major search engines ie; google, yahoo, msn.
In the era of fast growing newer technologies, and in computer and internet friendly environment the manuscripts preparation, submission, review, revision, etc and all can be done and checked with a click from all corer of the world, at any time. Of course there is always a scope for improvement in every field and none is perfect. To progress, one needs to identify the areas of one's weakness and to strengthen them.
It is well said that "happy beginning is half done" and it fits perfectly with JCDR. It has grown considerably and I feel it has already grown up from its infancy to adolescence, achieving the status of standard online e-journal form Indian continent since its inception in Feb 2007. This had been made possible due to the efforts and the hard work put in it. The way the JCDR is improving with every new volume, with good quality original manuscripts, makes it a quality journal for readers. I must thank and congratulate Dr Hemant Jain, Editor-in-Chief JCDR and his team for their sincere efforts, dedication, and determination for making JCDR a fast growing journal.
Every one of us: authors, reviewers, editors, and publisher are responsible for enhancing the stature of the journal. I wish for a great success for JCDR."
Thanking you
With sincere regards
Dr. Rajendra Kumar Ghritlaharey, M.S., M. Ch., FAIS
Associate Professor,
Department of Paediatric Surgery, Gandhi Medical College & Associated
Kamla Nehru & Hamidia Hospitals Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh 462 001 (India)
E-mail: drrajendrak1@rediffmail.com
On May 11,2011
Dr. Shankar P.R.
"On looking back through my Gmail archives after being requested by the journal to write a short editorial about my experiences of publishing with the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research (JCDR), I came across an e-mail from Dr. Hemant Jain, Editor, in March 2007, which introduced the new electronic journal. The main features of the journal which were outlined in the e-mail were extensive author support, cash rewards, the peer review process, and other salient features of the journal.
Over a span of over four years, we (I and my colleagues) have published around 25 articles in the journal. In this editorial, I plan to briefly discuss my experiences of publishing with JCDR and the strengths of the journal and to finally address the areas for improvement.
My experiences of publishing with JCDR: Overall, my experiences of publishing withJCDR have been positive. The best point about the journal is that it responds to queries from the author. This may seem to be simple and not too much to ask for, but unfortunately, many journals in the subcontinent and from many developing countries do not respond or they respond with a long delay to the queries from the authors 1. The reasons could be many, including lack of optimal secretarial and other support. Another problem with many journals is the slowness of the review process. Editorial processing and peer review can take anywhere between a year to two years with some journals. Also, some journals do not keep the contributors informed about the progress of the review process. Due to the long review process, the articles can lose their relevance and topicality. A major benefit with JCDR is the timeliness and promptness of its response. In Dr Jain's e-mail which was sent to me in 2007, before the introduction of the Pre-publishing system, he had stated that he had received my submission and that he would get back to me within seven days and he did!
Most of the manuscripts are published within 3 to 4 months of their submission if they are found to be suitable after the review process. JCDR is published bimonthly and the accepted articles were usually published in the next issue. Recently, due to the increased volume of the submissions, the review process has become slower and it ?? Section can take from 4 to 6 months for the articles to be reviewed. The journal has an extensive author support system and it has recently introduced a paid expedited review process. The journal also mentions the average time for processing the manuscript under different submission systems - regular submission and expedited review.
Strengths of the journal: The journal has an online first facility in which the accepted manuscripts may be published on the website before being included in a regular issue of the journal. This cuts down the time between their acceptance and the publication. The journal is indexed in many databases, though not in PubMed. The editorial board should now take steps to index the journal in PubMed. The journal has a system of notifying readers through e-mail when a new issue is released. Also, the articles are available in both the HTML and the PDF formats. I especially like the new and colorful page format of the journal. Also, the access statistics of the articles are available. The prepublication and the manuscript tracking system are also helpful for the authors.
Areas for improvement: In certain cases, I felt that the peer review process of the manuscripts was not up to international standards and that it should be strengthened. Also, the number of manuscripts in an issue is high and it may be difficult for readers to go through all of them. The journal can consider tightening of the peer review process and increasing the quality standards for the acceptance of the manuscripts. I faced occasional problems with the online manuscript submission (Pre-publishing) system, which have to be addressed.
Overall, the publishing process with JCDR has been smooth, quick and relatively hassle free and I can recommend other authors to consider the journal as an outlet for their work."
Dr. P. Ravi Shankar
KIST Medical College, P.O. Box 14142, Kathmandu, Nepal.
E-mail: ravi.dr.shankar@gmail.com
On April 2011 Anuradha
Dear team JCDR, I would like to thank you for the very professional and polite service provided by everyone at JCDR. While i have been in the field of writing and editing for sometime, this has been my first attempt in publishing a scientific paper.Thank you for hand-holding me through the process.
Dr. Anuradha
E-mail: anuradha2nittur@gmail.com
On Jan 2020
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Correspondence Address :
Dr. P. Ravi Shankar. Manipal College of Medical Sciences, P. O. Box 155, Deep Heights, Pokhara, Nepal.
Tel.: 00977-61-440600; e-mail: ravi.dr.shankar@gmail.com
The internet has revolutionized most aspects of biomedical communication, including biomedical journals. Many journals have their own websites. The Manuscript Submission process has been automated and manuscripts can be submitted online, obviating the need for paper copies.
The open access initiative has revolutionized the field of publishing. Many journals are following a system of open peer review where the reviewer and the author know each other’s identity. Many journals offer personalized work areas to registered authors. PLoS one has started the system of post-publication peer review of published articles.
Article proofs and reprints of published articles are usually sent online. BioMedCentral publishes an article immediately on acceptance. “Online early” is a system followed by many journals to decrease publication delays. Blogs allow for informal communication and quicker publication of responses.
Open choice publication is beginning to be offered by publication houses. Voice files of articles may be accessible, and the summary of the journal may be available in audio format. Rapid responses and e-letters are becoming popular. Prepublication sites have not become really popular in the field of medicine. Systems like HINARI offer access to many medical journals, to authors in developing countries.
Indexing, Internet, medical journals, open access, open choice
Medical journals have undergone a number of changes over the years. In the recent past, the pace of these changes has accelerated. The internet has revolutionized most aspects of biomedical communication, including biomedical journals.
Journal Websites
Most medical journals have an established website, and have web presence. A journal website is a one-stop shop for information about the journal. The subject area of the journal, information on the editorial board, instructions for authors and contact details are all available on the journal site. Many big publishing houses like Springer (www.springer.com), Taylor and Francis(www.tandf.co.uk/journals), and Elsevier (www.elsevier.com) maintain their own group websites, which contain links to the various journals published by the house. One can search for journals by name or by subject category. Many sites allow browsing of journal lists alphabetically.
Manuscript Submission Process
The manuscript submission process is another area, which has been revolutionized by the web. Most journals are going in for an online manuscript submission and management system. The two most commonly used ones are ScholarOne (www.scholarone.com) and Editorial Manager (www.editorialmanager.com). These are multistep submission systems. One can register with the site and can choose a user name and password. You can be logged in using your username and password, and can submit your manuscript. The system builds a PDF of the manuscript for your approval, and once you approve the PDF, it is sent to the editorial office. The reviewer can log in, access the manuscript, download it, and post his/her comments. A few of the many journals using this system are the BioMedCentral family (www.biomedcentral.com), the Public Library of Science journals (www.plos.org), Singapore Medical Journal (www.sma.org.sg/smj), Medical Education (www.mededuc.com), and Academic medicine (www.academicmedicine.org).
Certain journals like Medical Education Online (www.med-ed-online.org), and Rural and Remote Health (www.rrh.org.au) have developed their own system, where you fill in a short online form, attach your manuscript, and send it to the editorial office. You can, of course, send the manuscript as an e-mail attachment, in case the journal does not have an online system. The online system requires a reasonably fast internet connection.
Open Access Initiative
The Budapest open access initiative (http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml) was the fist major step towards open access publishing. In many open access journals, the authors retain the copyright to their work, and give a license to the journal to publish their manuscript. Many of these follow the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), where the reader is free to share and remix the work, provided the work is attributed to the original author/s. Open access journals like PLoS (www.plos.org) and BioMedCentral (www.biomedcentral.com) charge publication fees of around US $1300. The journals however, routinely offer waivers to authors from poor developing countries according to the World Bank classification.
Open Peer Review
In 1996, the Journal of Interactive Media in Education launched open peer review. Reviewers' names are made public, and they are therefore accountable for their review, but they also have their contribution acknowledged. Authors have the right of reply, and other researchers have the chance to comment prior to publication. The reviewer knows the author’s details, while the author knows the name and affiliations of the reviewer. In 1999, the British Medical Journal moved to an open peer review system, revealing the reviewer’s identities to the authors, and in 2000, the medical journals in the open access group, published by BioMed Central, started using open peer review. As with the BMJ, the reviewer’s names are included on the peer review reports. In ad
- Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science, thomsonreuters)
- Index Copernicus ICV 2017: 134.54
- Academic Search Complete Database
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
- Embase
- EBSCOhost
- Google Scholar
- HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme
- Indian Science Abstracts (ISA)
- Journal seek Database
- Popline (reproductive health literature)
- www.omnimedicalsearch.com