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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
Original article / research
Full Version
Accuracy of the Drug Advertisements in Medical Journals in India
Correspondence Address :
Motilal C. Tayade, Postgraduate student, MD (Physiology)
Email: vijaytayade@yahoo.co.in, Phone: 09604102508.
Introduction: Drug advertisements in medical journals are an important tool to inform physicians about drug usage. The ethical criteria for drug promotion were laid down by the WHO in 1988.
Aims and Objectives: The present study was planned to assess the accuracy of the drug advertisements which were published in Indian medical journals from different specialties.
Materials and Methods: We studied 882 drug advertisements which were published in different indexed medical journals from various specialties during the period from January 2008 to December 2010. The advertisements for laboratory equipments were excluded. The advertisements were independently categorized into different groups of specialties. The information content of the drug advertisements were analyzed.
Statistical analysis: In this representative survey, we found more than 70 % advertisements which had not mentioned drug storage instructions and had not warned about major interactions. We also found that more than 50% advertisements had not included the information regarding side effects and the precautions which had to be taken during drug usage. The information about pharmacological data was found in less than 1% of the advertisements.
Conclusion and Results: Our analysis indicated that the drug advertisements which were published in various Indian medical journals provided less information which was related to the vital aspects of the drug.
Drug advertisements, Indian Journals, World health organization, FDA
The pharmaceutical industry’s primary aim is to maximize the profit attempts to generate more prescriptions of its products by means of advertisements in various medical journals (1). The ethical criteria for drug advertisements should lay the foundation for proper behaviour concerning the production of drugs which are consistent with the search for truthfulness and righteousness (2). Drug advertisements have an important effect on the prescribing habits of the physicians (3). Is the information content in the drug advertisements which are published in India really ethical? The present study was planned to analyze the content information of the drug advertisements in various Indian medical journals.
Our aim was to analyze the content information of the drug advertisements in various medical journals in India. Our objective was to find the usefulness of these advertisements for general practioners as well as for medical students.
In this study, we screened a total of 882 drug advertisements from pharmaceutical companies which had appeared in different specialities in the journals which were published from January 2008 to December 2010. (Table/Fig 1)Indexed journals of the recent three years were selected from different specialties. The advertisements for laboratory equipments were excluded. Only new drug advertisements were included, while the reminder/repeat advertisements were excluded from the present study. The advertisements were categorized according to their specialties. (Table/Fig 2)
The information content was collected by using the format of the drug information sheets which were suggested by the WHO′s ethical criteria for medical drug promotion, (1988) Geneva (2). The percentage of the advertisements providing information content about each aspect was worked out and tabulated. (Table/Fig 3) and (Table/Fig 4)
OBSERVATIONS
We found that the brand name and the generic name of the drugs, use of the drugs and the name and contact information of the related pharmaceutical companies were mentioned in more than 70% of the advertisements. However, the therapeutic uses, side effects and the contraindications of the drugs were not mentioned in more than 50% of the advertisements. Colour advertisements were found in more numbers (65.75%) than the B/W advertisements (34.24 %). The use of graphics (22.67%) as well models like females, children, etc. (38.54 %) were also found in many advertisements. The information about pharmacological data like pharmacological effects, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, overdose with correction and about the additives which were added in the drug preparations was found in less than 1% of the advertisements.
Recent advances in research and clinical experiences keep on changing the drug therapy for many diseases. Therefore, scientific information on new drugs and therapeutics is undoubtedly of paramount importance. The industry drug advertisements are intended to be persuasive rather than educational and it is not meant foreducating the physicians about the use of drugs (4). The central argument for carrying advertisements in medical journals is only independency (5).
This representative survey on the accuracy of the drug advertisements in different Indian journals provides less content which is related to the vital aspects of the drugs like major interactions, side effects, drug storage, etc. We found that a majority of the drug advertisements were coloured, as well as models were also used for advertising the drugs, thus ruling out the limitations of the budget.
A study which was done by B.Gitanjali (6) which was related to the BMJ Indian editions, noted almost the same observations regarding the status of the drug advertisements. A similar research work which was done by A.Lal (1998) (1), found information concerning the adverse effects, precautions, contraindications, warning major interactions, ingredients which were known to cause problems, drug overdose, drug storage and the cost which was indicated, in less than 40% of the advertisements.
Recently, V. Tandon et.al (2004) (7) compared the standard of the Indian journal advertisements with the international journal advertisements. He found that the advertisements in international journals provided more complete drug information as per the recommendations which were laid down by the WHO, as compared to those in the national journals. However, they were found to be deficient in providing information regarding some of the aspects like pharmacological effects (12%), mechanism of action (16%) and pharmacokinetic data (8%), whereas the information in the advertisements of the national journals was inadequate in nearly all aspects of pharmacological data, clinical information (0%), pharmaceutical information (0-33.3%) and legal aspects (0-11.11%). The main areas which were stressed upon in the national journals appeared to be the brand names (100%), indications (92%) and the addresses of the manufacturers (88.88%). Following the introduction of new regulations for drug advertisements in Switzerland, 53% of all assess pharmaceutical claims which were published in major medical journals were not supported by the cited referenced study which was done by Macarena G. et.al. (8).
However, there are regulatory requirements which are different even in the various developed countries. There are agencies like the MCA (Medicine Control Agency) in the UK to ensure that these regulations are followed strictly. In the United States, the marketing and the distribution of pharmaceuticals is regulated by the Federal Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987. The IFPMA code is followed strictly in developed countries like the USA and the UK. Recently ( Feb.3,2011), the Journal of Emergency Medicine from Australasia, which publishes the latest research and unique patient cases in the field of emergency medicine, has announced that it will no longer carry advertisements which are paid for by the pharmaceutical companies (9).
The establishment of ethical criteria for drug promotion is based on the updating and the extension of the ethical and scientific criteria which were established in 1968 by the WHO (2). All the regulatory aspects which are related to the advertisements of drugs in India, are covered under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act,1940 and the Magic Remedies Act, 1954. There has been inadequate information in the drug advertisements which were published regularly in different journals in India.
Our analysis indicated that the drug advertisements which were published in various Indian medical journals provided less information regarding the vital aspects about drugs.
RECOMMENDATION
We strongly suggest the need of a uniform regulation and a code to be followed and effective supervision by the central agencies andthe government to overcome this problem.
Accuracy of drug advertisements in Indian journals, ethical criteria for drug advertisements in Indian journals, Status of drug advertisements in Indian journals.
We are very thankful to The Librarian, Central Library, Pravara Institute Of Medical Sciences, A.P.Loni Tal.Rahata, Dist. Ahmednager, Pin-413736 for permitting us to use the journals for analysis. We are also very thankful to Miss. Pratibha M. Karandikar, Lecturer, PREC, Loni, for her extensive help and support during the preparation of this work.
Abbreviations
WHO : World health organization FDA : Food & Drug Administration MCA : Medicine control agency IFPMA : International federation of Pharmaceutical manufacturers Association
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