 |
| About Bioline | All Journals | Testimonials | Membership | News |
|
||||||
|
||||||
Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, Vol. 48, Issue 3, 2002 pp. 171 Changing of the Guard The Editorial Team Code Number: jp02059 Since its inception in 1955, the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine has come a long way. This multi-speciality journal is quarterly publication of the Staff Society of Seth G. S. Medical College and K. E. M. Hospital. The previous editorial team has just completed its five-year term, which saw the journal being put on the track of growth. A new team has taken over the editorial responsibility from 1st September 2002. This communication is aimed to spell out the current state of the journal, our future plans and priorities. In the last few years, the journal has been credited with a number of achievements. These include the commissioning of a fully functional website http:www.jpgmonline.com, which is rich with features. The website is the first in India to provide full text searchable content with links to abstracts in MEDLINE with interactive features such as submission of comments. There are over 15000 unique visitors a month and the numbers continue to increase. It is linked from over 450 websites and intranets including PubMed (as LinkOut). The site has won a number of accolades, which include the Excellent Medical Site award. The basic purpose of a journal is to inform and educate its readers. The editorial team believes that the journal's "readers" are spread beyond those who subscribe to its printed version or access it through various libraries. Hence, full texts of all articles are accessible from the journal's website without a fee. This is noteworthy since many reputed and financially better endowed journals offer such services only on payment of a fee. We are committed to continue to offer open access through the net since we believe that technology should be exploited to spread information and knowledge and not to offer these only to the select few who can afford to pay for it. In accordance with these principles, we are providing more than one source of open access to the journal. Its content is already available from Bioline International (http://www.bioline.org.br/jp) and soon will be available from many Open Archive Initiative (OAI) compliant servers. The journal is now indexed by major international bibliographic indexing agencies, including EMBASE, MEDLINE, CAB Abstracts, etc, and there is a steady flow of manuscripts for publication, from around the globe. To ensure prompt service to its contributors, a number of measures have been evolved. The present editorial team, consisting of physicians from various specialities, has a weekly manuscript meeting, to take decisions. There is a time-bound programme regarding peer review and editorial decisions and the submission to decision period has already been brought down to an average of 28 days. The authors now do not need to submit hardcopies. The journal has been the first in India to start online web-based article submission and to have installed an online manuscript management system, which permits tracking of the review system. This paperless system is accessible not only to the editorial team, but also to the referees and the authors. The authors can log on, submit and then track their articles through various stages of the editorial process till the article is published. The referees too can log on and upload their comments on a given article. The unambiguous advantage of this system is that it is akin to having the journal office on every computer, accessible from any computer and administrable from a remote computer and will also minimise the number of postal transactions. The Journal has grown in its reach, accessibility, acceptability and stature in the past few years. The current editorial team intends to work towards continuing this growth curve and enhance the journal's status still further. An editorial board consisting of experts from various specialities helps the editors. We have been blessed with a gifted panel of approximately 1000 referees. All of us while continuing to work as physicians, teachers and researchers, have taken on the task of medical writing and publishing. While the basic structure of the journal and editorial policies will remain the same, a few innovations are being introduced. One such addition is the Clinico-Pathological Forum, which will discuss interesting cases and provide readers an insight into the diagnostic process. "Expert Comments" on original articles will be an additional feature. These comments will help to elucidate relevant points, bring out finer nuances of the topic and assist the readers by providing new perspectives about the paper. The journal is a multi-speciality publication and both our readers and contributors range across the entire spectrum of medical faculties. It is intended to have a short summary of all the articles so that our colleagues benefit from an article, which does not belong to their speciality. The journal has succesfully withstood the vagaries of time. It has been faithfully served by many souls through various trials and tribulations so that today it stands strong, internationally recognised as a publication of repute. The present editorial team also feels proud that it will be taking the journal into its Golden Jubilee year in 2004. At the end of five years, when the guard changes again, we hope to look back with a measure of satisfaction having contributed to the progress of the journal logarithmically. The Editorial Team This article is also available in full-text from http://www.jpgmonline.com/ © Copyright 2002 - Journal of Postgraduate Medicine |
| |||||||||
