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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
Tobacco Use among Medical Students: Are They the Role Models of the Society?
Correspondence Address :
Syed Esam Mahmood
Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine,
Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital
Bareilly (U.P.) 243006, India.
Phone: 8127537806
E-mail: semahmood@gmail.com
Background: Tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of premature death, disease and disability around the world. The medical students who themselves use tobacco are unlikely to counsel patients against using tobacco.
Aims: To find out the prevalence and the pattern of tobacco use amongst medical students and to suggest suitable preventive and promotive measures to them. Settings and Design: A three month cross sectional study was conducted among the male medical students of Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Methods and Materials: A total of 277 students out of 331 who were residing in the boys hostel participated and they were interviewed with regards to tobacco use by using a structured self administered questionnaire.
Statistical Analysis: The collected information was analyzed by using the SPSS 14.0 version software. The Chi-square test was applied.
Results: Nearly one third of students admitted to be tobacco users. Most of the tobacco users were aged between 21-30 years. The tobacco consumption was significantly higher among the senior students. Nearly 25.27% of the students admitted to tobacco smoking, while only 10.47% admitted to tobacco chewing. A higher proportion (42.39%) of the students had initiated tobacco use themselves, while 41.31% of the students were offered tobacco by a friend and 16.31% were offered tobacco by a senior. A majority of the students smoked just for fun, they were aware that tobacco was injurious to health and they wanted to quit tobacco use. About 14.13% of the tobacco users had suffered from a health problem.
Conclusions: The prevalence of tobacco use is high amongst the medical students of Bareilly. Being the role models of society and future doctors, they have an important role to play in the tobacco cessation and prevention efforts.
Tobacco use, Medical students, Role models
Introduction
Tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of premature death, disease and disability around the world (1). Tobacco use is one of the risk factors for six out of eight leading causes of deaths worldwide (2). An estimated 4.9 million deaths which occur annually can be attributed to tobacco use. This may increase to 10 million by the year 2020, if the current tobacco use epidemic continues and more than 70% of these deaths are expected to occur in the developing countries (3). The Global Youth Tobacco Survey has estimated that 5,500 adolescents may start using tobacco every day in India to join the 4 million young people who were aged less than 15 years, who regularly used tobacco (4). Medical students who are future doctors have an important role to play in the tobacco cessation and prevention efforts. They are ideally suited to provide the knowledge about tobacco use. However, the medical students who themselves use tobacco are unlikely to counsel patients against using tobacco (5). The prevalence of tobacco smoking has gone up among the Indian medical students. They lack adequate knowledge about the smoking-related diseases, the tobacco cessation techniques and the preventive measures.
The undergraduate medical students should be equipped with the knowledge and skills to promote smoking cessation skills among their future patients. With this background, this study wasundertaken among medical students to find out the prevalence of tobacco use amongst them and to suggest suitable preventive and promotive measures to them.
This cross sectional study was carried out among the male medical students of Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India. The approval for this study was obtained from the institutional ethical committee and the consent of all the students was taken. All the medical students who were residing in the boys hostel were surveyed and they comprised the study unit. A total of 277 out of 331 students participated in the study. A structured, self administered questionnaire was used to collect detailed information about the pattern of the tobacco use. The students were assured confidentiality of their responses. The following Operational Definitions were put to use in the present study: 1. Current smoker- someone who smoked in any form either daily or occasionally in the preceding month of the survey. 2. Current smokeless tobacco user- someone who consumed smokeless tobacco in any form either daily or occasionally in the preceding month of the survey.
The data entry and the statistical analysis were performed by using the SPSS Windows version 14.0 software. The test of significancePearson’s Chi-square test) was applied to find out the results. The p values which were <0.05 were considered as significant.
The overall response rate was 83.68% (277/331). Out of the 277 respondents, 92 (33.21%) were found to be tobacco users. A majority of the tobacco users (82.61%) were aged between 21-30 years. The tobacco consumption was significantly increased among the senior (third, fourth and final year) students as compared to that among the junior (first and second year) students (P<0.05) (Table/Fig 1) Seventy (25.27%) students admitted to tobacco smoking, while only 29 (10.47%) students admitted to tobacco chewing. Seven (2.53%) students consumed tobacco in both the smoked and the smokeless forms. Thirty eight (41.31%) of the 92 students smoked more than 10 cigarettes or consumed more than 10 tobacco pouches (pan masala) per day. A majority (42.39%) of the students had initiated the tobacco use themselves, while 41.31% of the students were offered tobacco by a friend and 16.31% were offered tobacco by a senior. About 68.57% of the students smoked just for fun. A majority (89.53%) of the respondents were aware that tobacco was injurious to health and nearly 64.13 % of the students wanted to quit tobacco. About 14.13% of the students had suffered from a health problem since they had started consuming tobacco (Table/Fig 2)
Nearly one third of the students admitted to tobacco consumption in our study, which was in agreement with the findings which were reported among the medical students of Allahabad and Uttarakhand [6, 7]. Previous studies from India which were conducted among male undergraduate medical students had reported a prevalence of tobacco use of between 8.0%- 50.0% (8),(9),(10),(11). In the current study, the tobacco consumption was found to be significantly higher among the senior students as compared to that among the junior ones. Our findings are coherent to those reported among the medical students of Orissa and Lahore (8), (12). Nearly 25.27% of the students were smokers, while about 10.47% students were tobacco chewers in our study. Warren et al (2008) reported that in 47 out of 80 global health professional students’ survey sites around the world, over 20% of the medical students currently smoked cigarettes; and that in 29 of 77 sites, over 10% of the medical students currently used other tobacco products (13). A higher proportion of the students smoked less than 10 cigarettesor chewed less than 10 tobacco pouches (pan masala) per day. A majority of the current smokers smoked less than 10 cigarettes per day, according to the survey which was carried out among undergraduate medical students in Malaysia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (10). In the current study, a majority of the students had initiated the tobacco use themselves or they had been offered tobacco by a friend. Similar trends have been reported among the medical students of Nepal (14). A higher proportion of the medical students smoked just for fun, as was found in our study. Similar observations were reported in a Delhi study which was conducted among malecollege students (15). Our study revealed that a majority of the students were aware that tobacco was injurious to health and that they wanted to quit tobacco. The quitting of the tobacco use by these future doctors can be beneficial for all, as they are the mentors of the healthcare of the society. About 14.13% of the students had suffered from a health problem since they had started consuming tobacco, as was observed in this study. This was in agreement with the findings of a study which was conducted among the medical students in Bangladesh, where about half of the smokers complained of chronic cough, lack of concentration and a short memory (16). It is essential to introduce teaching on tobacco dependence and cessation early in the courses of the medical schools, to discourage smoking among the medical students. The tobacco curriculum should continue throughout the entire medical degree, as it is difficult to determine whether this effect directly reflects the students’ seniority or age or both (17). Medical students being role models of the society, should be encouraged to set an example before others by saying ‘NO’ to tobacco use. These future doctors have an important role to play in the tobacco cessation and prevention efforts.
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