Five years of Annals of PIMS:
Eventful Journey and the Way Forward

Muhammad Saaiq*
Khaleequz-Zaman**

The role of medical journals is well established. They provide a vibrant platform for dissemination of scientific information, help to initiate new changes and are pivotal for evidence based practice. Medical journals operate through the peer-review system in which the scientific information is validated and refined by suggestions of field experts before final acceptance for publication. This system also helps to refute any faulty information or misleading evidence.

The last issue of Annals of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Annals of PIMS) marked the successful completion of the first five years of its continuous publication. It started its journey in January 2005 as the official journal of PIMS, following amalgamation of its predecessor sister journals of the Journal of PIMS and Journal of surgery.  Since then Annals of PIMS has been enjoying an eventful journey of innovation and integration. It has been regularly published as quarterly journal, with no backlog in pending. It has been attracting medical writings from all over the country.

Table I: Various Categories of Publications in Annals of PIMS. ( n=335 )

The Editorial committee comprising of the editors, is responsible for processing of articles (editing and peer-reviewing, correspondence with authors etc.), publishing and dissemination of the journal. The Editorial board comprising of the academic council is the supreme advisory body. The journal is supported by a rich galaxy of peer-reviewers from all over the country.

Recognition of any journal by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) is an important yardstick that indicates that the journal meets the minimum accepted standards of medical journalism. PMDC is the leading governing body that has long been trying to rectify and streamline local medical journals through its guidelines and recognition/ de-recognition policy. In 2002, PMDC came up with  a comprehensive set of guidelines entitled “Essential guidelines for authors, reviewers and editors of medical and dental journals" These guidelines are in conformity with those made by the international committee of medical journal editors (ICMJE) and have been refined from time to time.  Presently, PMDC recognizes 36 local medical journals including Annals of PIMS. ^1-3

Online availability on PakMediNet, which is the largest local medical database, is also an important feature of medical journals. Presently it indexes 63 publishing local journals including Annals of PIMS.  PakMediNet provides abstracts only. Annals of PIMS have also developed its own website. This helps to ensure worldwide availability of the journal, resulting in greater input and contribution from a wide variety of people, both locally as well as internationally. ⁴
The College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) has a phenomenal contribution to the promotion of postgraduate medical education and research in Pakistan. It has been organizing workshops on medical research and   writing for its trainees as well as trainers. CPSP offers its fellowship trainees the choice of publishing two research papers in lieu of dissertation. Such papers are required to be published in nine local journals including Annals of PIMS.⁵ With interest, we are looking forward to our fellowship trainees who will be increasing motivated by the CPSP’s incentive of writing research papers instead of dissertation.

PUBLICATION AUDIT OF THE FIRST 5 YEARS (2005-2009):
A total of 335 manuscripts of different categories were published in Annals of PIMS during the five years period (2005-2009). Original articles constituted the bulk of these publications. This reflects the growing interest, especially among youngsters, towards research and medical writing in Pakistan. (Table I)
Specialty-wise, highest number of publications was from hematology, general medicine and general surgery. Encouraging trend of medical writing has also been witnessed in the areas of medical education, psychiatry and various disciplines of basic sciences. (Table II )

Table II: Specialty-Wise Distribution of Publications in Annals of PIMS.  ( n=335 )

Majority of the studies belonged to the category of Case series studies. Also there were a reasonable number of case reports, Table III.

Although these constitute level IV evidence, these are still good studies as, on one hand,  they  provide a true picture of the issues in question and on the other hand they serve as precursors to further research  via  synthesis of  a hypothesis.

Table III: Types of Studies Published in Annals of PIMS. ( n=335 )

The published manuscripts were a good mix of contribution from PIMS and other institutions from all over the country. (Table IV )

Table IV: Distribution of Publications in Annals of PIMS, By Institutional Contribution. ( n=335 )

CHALLENGING ISSUES AND THE WAY FORWARD:
Regarding the editorial staff, clear institutional protocols are being developed for transparent selection of editors and the conduct of various editorial responsibilities. The editors should be capable, highly dynamic and expert in editing and should also have a voluntary spirit for dedicated work. They should be capable of carrying out the initial review and editing of the submitted manuscripts. Managing editorial would be the focal person responsible for the online communication/ correspondence with authors, reviewers, and readers. He would have a dedicated office and full time secretarial staff. Regarding editorial decisions, there would be a clear objective policy of manuscript evaluation, processing to reviewers, acceptance/ rejection and the order of publication.
 
The Editorial board comprising of the academic council, is assuming more proactive role to streamline the journal and the  day to day editorial  business. It will also further strengthen institutional sponsorship of the journal and will ensure regular institutional funding of the journal.  The Dean, who represents the academic leadership of the institution, would assume the patronship of the journal.

The annals of PIMS would continue its genuine efforts to get indexation with higher education commission (HEC), MEDLINE/ Index Medicus, Excerpta Medica/ EMBASE, Scientific citation index expansion (SCIE), CINAHL and Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) database in future.

Regular online availability of free full text articles of the issues of Annals of PIMS on its website will be ensured. This will help to disseminate research findings and also ensure more frequent citations of its articles by other research workers. This will also serve to address the WHO’s Research Initiative of Health Inter Network Access. Inclusion of greater number of scholarly reviews, commentaries, systematic reviews and Meta analyses will also increase the potential for citations and more wide spread readership. These measures will, in the long run help to ensure the availability of  the journal on popular web sites such as OpenJGate and  Google Scholar etc.

Impact factor (a measure of the citation of articles of a journal by other authors) has become the buzzword of scientific journalism in the developed world, however there is no Pakistani medical journal presently indexed for Impact factor measurement. Where applicable, impact factor is certainly one tool of objective assessment of the quality of a journal. The ISI regularly publishes ranking of over 6000 journals on the basis of impact factor. Generally, higher the impact factor of a journal, greater is its importance; however publication of an article in low-impact factor journal does not necessarily mean that the article is less important.  What about non-Impact factor journals like ours? In fact we need to devise some local instrument other than impact factor to measure the quality and credibility of our journals. ^6-8   Factors such as circulation, readership, letters to the editors, share of systematic reviews, meta analyses, innovations, and new interventions etc may be taken into consideration in this regard.

References

1. Essential Guidelines for Authors, Reviewers and Editors of Medical and Dental Journals. Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, Islamabad 2003.
2. Pakistan Medical and Dental Council. Index Pakistan of our recognised journals. ( Serial online ) 2010 ( Cited Jan 29, 2010).   Available from: URL: http://www.pmdc.org.pk/journal.htm 2010
3. International committee of medical journals editors (ICMJE). Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: Writing and editing for biomedical publication. ( Serial online ) Oct 2008 ( Cited Dec 02, 2009). Available from : URL:www.icmje.org
4. Pakmedinet. Jan 2010 ( Cited Jan 29, 2010).   Available from: URL: http://www.pakmedinet.com  
5. College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan. List of notifications.( No. Secy/Notif-1/CPSP/03/2027-A ). Available from: URL:  http://www.cpsp.edu.pk.   Jan 2010.
6. Sohail S. Impact factor: uses, abuses, obstacles and alternatives. J Coll Physicians Surg Pak 2007; 17: 311-2.
7. Nakayama T. Comparison between impact factors and citations in evidence-based practice guidelines. J Am Med Assoc  2003;290:755-6.
8. Shiwani MH.  Quality of a Medical Journal: Where do we stand ? J Pak Med Assoc 2006; 56: 570-2