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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
Book Review
Full Version
Community Pharmacovigilance In Nepal - A Guide For Community Pharmacists
Correspondence Address :
Dr. P. Ravi ShankarDepartment of Clinical Pharmacology KIST MedicalCollege,P.O.Box.14142Kathmandu,(Nepal)Ph:977-1-5201680,Fax:977-1-5201496,E.mail:ravi.dr.shankar@gmail.com
Pharmacovigilance in Nepal started taking its present shape around the year 2005. In October 2004, the Department of Drug Administration (DDA) was nominated as the focal point (national center) to liaise with the WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring in Uppsala, Sweden. Various regional and other pharmacovigilance centers function under DDA. At present, Manipal Teaching Hospital in Pokhara, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, KIST Medical College in Lalitpur and Nepal Medical College in Kathmandu act as regional pharmacovigilance centers.
This booklet has been published by the Regional Pharmacovigilance Center, Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Western Nepal in collaboration with the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, Malaysia. The authors are Mr. Subish Palaian from Manipal Teaching Hospital, Dr. Mohamed Izham from USM, Dr. Pranaya Mishra from Saba University School of Medicine and Ms. Anna Celen from Uppsala Monitoring Centre.
Recently the regional pharmacovigilance center at Pokhara, Nepal had carried out a unique initiative to involve community pharmacists in the reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and in pharmacovigilance. Thirty community pharmacists from the Pokhara valley were trained to recognize and report ADRs. During the training period the community pharmacists requested the center to bring out a pharmacovigilance booklet and the present booklet is the result of that request.
The booklet has three main parts. The first part describes certain important aspects of pharmacovigilance (PV), the second covers certain important drugs (medicines) in brief while the third part concerns itself with certain commonly asked questions about pharmacovigilance.
The first chapter discusses the importance of monitoring the side effect of medicines. The definition of ADRs and pharmacovigilance are also covered. The importance of pharmacovigilance in Nepal has been stressed once again by the authors in this publication. In the absence of the requirement for mandatory clinical trials before a drug is licensed, PV is important to study ADRs occurring in the Nepalese population. The same situation may also prevail in other developing countries. The fifth chapter describes the current pharmacovigilance program of Nepal. Community PV was started in Pokhara as a project with support from Health Action International Asia Pacific (HAIAP), Colombo, Sri Lanka. Reporting of ADRs by community pharmacists is important as self-medication is common in Nepal and community pharmacists act as the first level of contact for many patients with the health care system.
The second part describes the salient features of certain commonly used medications. Each medicine is covered under the following sub headings: generic name, therapeutic category, indications, route of administration, dose, preparations available, side effects, patient counseling and use in special populations. The drugs have been described alphabetically starting from acyclovir and ending with warfarin. The inside back cover of the booklet contains the index of drugs which will be useful for quickly accessing information. Each drug has been described in a simple manner focusing on the information necessary for a community pharmacist. We especially liked the short comments in bold letters at the end of the description of individual drugs. Some of these are ‘If you are dispensing a drug without prescription, ask whether the drug is taken by a pregnant woman’, ‘Long term use of painkillers can be very harmful’, and ‘Do not dispense incomplete course of antibiotics. This can lead to bacterial resistance’. These short statements are very useful to inform and educate community pharmacists.
The last section deals with reporting of ADRs by the community pharmacists to the regional PV center. Certain information is very specific to western Nepal while others will be of use to community pharmacists elsewhere. Though primarily intended for community pharmacists, the booklet will serve as a quick reference about medicines for all pharmacists and also other categories of healthcare providers.
The book has been well produced and the paper quality is excellent. We were however not able to understand the role of fishes on the back cover. The only correlation was the statement by a well known personality about the pharmacopeia of his times and how dumping it into the ocean would not make any significant difference to human kind but would be a danger to fishes. We congratulate the authors on an excellent and timely book
About The Book
Palaian S, Izham M, Mishra P, Celen A. Community pharmacovigilance in Nepal: a guide for community pharmacists. Regional Pharmacovigilance Center, Manipal Teaching Hospital and Discipline of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2008.
The first author of the booklet can be contacted at subishpalaian@yahoo.co.in, dic.mth@manipal.edu.np. The author can be contacted for free soft copies of the booklet.
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