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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
Effect of Stress due to COVID-19 Pandemic on Time Management Skills among University Professionals
Correspondence Address :
Dr. Tarig H Merghani,
Ras Al Khaimah College of Medicine, Ras Al Khaimah Medical and Health
Sciences University, Ras Al Khaimah, Kuzam Road, United Arab Emirates.
E-mail: tarig@rakmhsu.ac.ae
Introduction: Time management skills are necessary for professionals to accomplish their goals and succeed in their career. The recent changes in the educational environment that were caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) could be stressful and might affect the structure of faculty work.
Aim: To evaluate the stress level among university personnel during the COVID-19 outbreak and its relation to their time management skills.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted on a sample of 56 university professionals. Each participant filled a google form questionnaire consisting of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Time Management Scale (TMS). The results were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0.
Results: A total of 56 responses were received from full-time faculty and staff with 60% response rate. The overall PSS (mean±SD) was 15.29±7.13, indicating a low level of stress among the professionals. The mean TMS of 37.98±7.63 indicates an average time management skills. Significant negative correlation was found between PSS and TMS (r=-0.371, p=0.005). A positive correlation was found between TMS and years of experience (r=0.278, p=0.038). Both PSS and TMS had insignificant association with age, gender and years of experience.
Conclusion: The stress level during the COVID-19 outbreak is relatively low among the University professionals. The TMS has a negative correlation with the PSS; however, it improves with the increase in years of job experience.
Coronavirus disease-2019, Higher education, Job experience, Outbreak, Questionnaire survey
Stress is a wide spread phenomenon occurring at different situations during human life. A mild degree of acute stress has been shown to bring out a positive effect in terms of performance, motivation and adaptation to various factors (1). In a higher educational institution, even under normal circumstances, the faculty and staff might face various levels of expectations, requirements and competition that lead to anxiety and stress (2).
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019 has led to sudden unexpected worldwide changes in the working environments. All countries have taken strict measures to prevent the spread of infection in their communities. These measures include household isolation, physical distancing, and closure of schools/universities and cancellation of all public gathering events like sports, conferences and seminars. The higher education institutions continued teaching and conducted all assessments through online platforms. This sudden shift in the pattern of education, the increased workload in preparation of new online materials and the financial implications of the pandemic that included salary cuts were definitive sources of stress to university employee and probably could affect the efficiency of their work. Articles describing the adverse effects on education and the economic impact and the social disruptions caused by the pandemic have been published since the early months of the disease (3),(4). Moreover, the present situation created a requirement of special Information Technology (IT) skills, which many faculty and staff lacked. This additional source of stress adds to the occupational stress and develops when the occupation requirements do not match workers’ capabilities, needs and resources (5).
In his article about stress and burnout in teachers, Harden RM described a number of interacting factors that contribute to stress in medical teachers, including clinical and administrative workload, burden of teaching, number of students, participation in scientific research and access to support (6). However, there is paucity of data regarding the impact of the present COVID-19 pandemic on the university professionals. The pandemic could be stressful and may cause anxiety and fear, as it is fatal and highly infectious. The preventive measures like physical and social distancing can make people feel isolated. Complaining of any symptom related to the disease creates apprehension, frustration and anxiety. The impact of all these factors on the University faculty is unknown. The faculty need to take care of themselves and their families while performing their work and maintain their income, which is only possible with proper time management. Time management is a skill that influences university faculty and staff performance. It aims to increase the output and ensures faster and better completion of the necessary work. This is very aptly suited to the present situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the stress level among university faculty and staff during the COVID-19 outbreak using standardised stress scale and to investigate the association between the perceived stress level and their time management skills.
A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted among University faculty and staff of Ras Al-Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University (RAKMHSU), United Arab Emirates (UAE) from June 2020 to July 2020. Approval for this study was obtained from the Institutional Research Ethics Committee (RAKMHSU-REC-40-M). All the participants gave their consent before taking part in the study. All the fulltime faculty and staff were approached through the official e-mail addresses and google forms were mailed. The response rate was about 60%. A total of 56 participants completed the survey.
Inclusion criteria: Full-time faculty and staff working at RAKMHSU, UAE, who are interested to participate were included in the study.
Exclusion criteria: Subjects under specific treatment for stress or depression and those who had positive COVID-19 results were excluded from the study. Four participants who submitted incomplete forms were also excluded.
Tools for Assessment
An online survey using the free software google forms was prepared. The survey consisted of three components, general characteristics questions, a PSS of 10 questions (7) and TMS of 25 questions (8). The PSS questions were valued based on the Likert scale of five options, from never (0) to very often (4). The scores of the TMS questions were 2.0 for always, 1.0 for sometimes and 0 for never. The results of PSS were graded as low perceived stress and high-perceived stress at a cut-off value of 28. The results of TMS were classified at a cut-off point of 45 into excellent and low time management score.
Statistical Analysis
Data was analysed using the SPSS version 20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Descriptive statistics were used to summarise the study variables. The Chi-square test was used to analyse categorical variables and student’s t-test for continuous variables. Bivariate correlation was used to find relationships between different variables. Statistical significance was accepted for p<0.05.
As shown in (Table/Fig 1), the majority of the participants (62.5%) were males, 80.4% were younger than 50-year-old and 78.6% were from South East Asia. The overall mean PSS and TMS were 15.29±7.13 and 37.98±7.63, respectively. Comparisons of means showed insignificant association between PSS or TMS with the participants’ ages, gender and years of experience. The South East Asian participants had significantly lower mean PSS (p=0.003) and higher TMS (p=0.045) compared to participants from other countries.
(Table/Fig 2) shows the association between the PSS and the TMS using cross tabulation with the Chi-square test. The percentage of participants with high perceived stress score (above a cut-off value of 28) was 7.1%. The percentage of excellent time management skills (at a cut-off point of 45) was 17.9%. Among those who showed high PSS, the percentage of excellent TMS was lower than the percentage of low TMS (25% Vs 75%, respectively); however, the relation was statistically insignificant (p=0.556).
(Table/Fig 3) shows results of bivariate correlation between PSS, TMS, age and years of job experience. Significant negative correlation was found between PSS and TMS (r=-0.371, p=0.005). A positive correlation was found between TMS and years of experience (r=0.278, p=0.038). The correlations of PSS with age and years of experience were statistically insignificant.
The COVID-19 pandemic has abruptly changed the entire scenario in higher education institutions. Many workplace and non workplace factors have affected the day-to-day activities of University faculty and staff and have increased the possibility of occupational stress. Reported factors include fear of infection, inadequate information about the disease, inadequate supplies, reduced financial income due to salary cuts, fear of job loss and sense of stigma during and after the period of isolation (9). Recent studies that evaluated the level of stress among undergraduate students reported high level of stress due to the coronavirus outbreak (10),(11),(12). Among the stressors reported by the students, fear of infection was the principal source of stress (12). Other factors like academic difficulties, poor social interactions due to physical distancing and separation from the college were also reported. On the contrary, the university teachers and staff showed a relatively lower stress level during the COVID-19 outbreak, with a mean PSS of 15.29±7.13. The finding that the PSS has insignificant association with the faculty gender was not matching with many previous studies that reported higher levels of both work and family related stress among women employed in higher educational institutions compared to men (13),(14).
Watts J and Robertson N reviewed burnout amongst university professionals in comparison with ‘at risk’ groups such as healthcare workers (15). They found that academics engaged in research in addition to teaching tended to report the highest levels of stress. In this study, the Asian participants had lower mean PSS compared to those from other countries. It is worth noting that the majority of faculty, as the majority of UAE population, were from South East Asia. Therefore, this finding could be explained by availability of social support; however, the responses to stressful conditions might vary according to many other factors that might include the social class of the individual (16).
Stress and anxiety may prevent the optimal use of time and restrict the skills of time management. This study showed a negative correlation between PSS and TMS during the COVID-19 outbreak. Based on this finding, effective time management is less likely with a high level of perceived stress. The lack of time handling skills during times of work overload could be by itself a source of anxiety and depression (17). A recent meta-analysis described the effectiveness of stress management at work on the employee motivation and success of the organisation (18). According to researchers, planning the effective use of time reduces errors and insufficiencies and helps to control stress and improve concentration on work, even during the tough situations (19).
Limitation(s)
The major limitation of this study was the small convenient sample that was approached through the online platform. Other limitations were recall and reporting bias. These limitations should be considered for appropriate interpretation of the results.
The overall level of perceived stress during the COVID-19 outbreak is relatively low among University faculty and staff. Time management skills improve with years of job experience. About 7% of the participants showed a high level of stress that is negatively correlating with time management skills. Both perceived stress and time management scores are not related to age, or gender. The universities should be proactive in addressing the pandemic contribution to stress. Professional help in mental health should be sought early to prevent serious future outcomes.
10.7860/JCDR/2021/48728.15240
Date of Submission: Jan 27, 2021
Date of Peer Review: Apr 15, 2021
Date of Acceptance: May 14, 2021
Date of Publishing: Aug 01, 2021
AUTHOR DECLARATION:
• Financial or Other Competing Interests: None
• Was Ethics Committee Approval obtained for this study? Yes
• Was informed consent obtained from the subjects involved in the study? Yes
• For any images presented appropriate consent has been obtained from the subjects. NA
PLAGIARISM CHECKING METHODS:
• Plagiarism X-checker: Jan 28, 2021
• Manual Googling: May 12, 2021
• iThenticate Software: Jun 21, 2021 (7%)
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- Index Copernicus ICV 2017: 134.54
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- HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme
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