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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
Effectiveness of Seminar Based Approach on the Level of Financial Literacy among Dental Students of Central Gujarat
Correspondence Address :
Dr. Mital Thakkar,
7, Mahadevnagar Society, Opp. Harish Petrol Pump, O/S Panigate, Ajwa Road, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
E-mail: mital_thakkar87@yahoo.co.in
Introduction: Financial literacy refers to knowledge and skills related to effective and informed money management decisions. Healthcare professionals graduate with some of the highest student loan debt level. They complete their graduation with minimal unbiased financial planning guidance.
Aim: To assess the effectiveness of seminar based approach on the level of financial literacy among dental students of Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
Materials and Methods: This prospective interventional study was conducted in Vadodara, Gujarat, India from May 2021 to October 2021. The data was collected from 332 participants through a closed-ended questionnaire which included 83 statements related to banking, alternate banking, investment and income and expenditure. The data was assessed using Paired t-test to assess the effectiveness of financial education seminar at 95% confidence level. The software used was IBM Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) Version 21.0 for Windows.
Results: This study included 332 interns and postgraduate students, of which 209 participants were female while 123 participants were male. There was a significant difference in the knowledge of students on various financial aspects covered in the study before and after the seminar with respect to gender, age and category of students (p-value <0.05). There was a significant difference in the knowledge of participants before and after the seminar on financial literacy (p-value <0.001)
Conclusion: The result shows that the score of the participants improved after the 90 minutes seminar which would be helpful to them for their future long-term investment decisions.
College, Financial inclusion, Interns, Postgraduates
Over the last decade, the Indian economy has grown at a rapid pace (1). The growth of any country depends upon financial system. Financial inclusion is the top most priority for Government of India. Financial educations play a vital role for improving the growth of the country as well as the standard of living of the people (1).
Financial literacy is the process of acquiring knowledge about financial products, understanding the concept of tradeoff between risk and return, utilising the knowledge to make informed choices and appreciating the available professional knowledge. In today’s healthcare environment healthcare professionals training programs are facing multiple challenges (2). Healthcare professionals earn high salaries after their graduation, after spending huge amount of money during their course. Ironically, the start of their career after the graduation begins with a debt either because they intend to set-up their own clinical practice or pursue higher education, both of which requires high amount of money (3).
Healthcare professionals complete education having received minimal unbiased financial planning guidance. Some of them rely on assistance from grants, scholarships, parental contributions, or part-time jobs to pay for the costs of tuition (4). They begin their career with high amount of investment, but being unaware about the strategies of investment may lead to a lot of money wastage. Therefore, it is necessary to provide them with complete unbiased financial education and empower them to make timely constructive financial decisions (5).
On literature search, no studies on financial literacy among dental students were found from India. However, there have been similar studies conducted outside India (2),(3). Thus the aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of seminar based approach on the level of financial literacy among dental students of Central Gujarat. The study would help the various dental colleges, respective councils to plan a program to instill the knowledge of basic financial aspects for their regular daily activities.
The null hypothesis was that there is no difference in the knowledge with respect to banking, alternate banking, investment and income and expenditure among dental students before and after the seminar on financial literacy.
This prospective interventional study was conducted among the interns and postgraduates of Dental Colleges of Central Gujarat, between May 2021 and October 2021. The Ethical permission for conducting the study was received on 10th March 2021 [SVIEC/ON/MBA/PhD/21004]. The knowledge of the budding dental professionals was assessed before and after the intervention of 90 minutes of seminar on financial aspects.
Inclusion criteria: Interns and postgraduates students of Dentistry, who were willing to participate and signed the informed consent were included.
Exclusion criteria: Students who were absent on the date of post financial education data collection and unwillingness to participate were excluded.
Sample size calculation: There were nine dental colleges in Central Gujarat out of which six dental colleges allowed for data collection. The data was collected from 332 participants through a closed-ended questionnaire which included 83 statements related to Banking, alternate banking, investment and income and expenditure. The sample size calculated was 332 using the following formula:
Sample size (n)= N/ (1+Ne2)
Where, Total population=N=1952; Margin of error=e=0.05 at 95% confidence level
Questionnaire
The questionnaire tool was close-ended. It was divided into five sections. The first section comprised of demographic details, section two to five comprised of 83 statements altogether on aspects like banking (39 Statements), alternate banking (8 Statements), investment (29 Statements), income and expenditure (7 Statements), respectively. These statements evaluated the knowledge through true, false and don’t knows options. The respondents who marked incorrect (false and don’t know) response were marked 0 for the concerned question while the participants who marked correct (true) response were marked 1 for the respective question. The total score obtained in each of the four sections was analysed with respect to gender, age and category of respondents. The questionnaire was prepared after a thorough review of literature and was content validated by the experts (4),(5),(6). A pilot study was carried out to check the reliability of the respondents. The cronbach’s alpha value came to be 0.89 (p-value=0.004) indicating the high reliability of the respondents.
After analysing the pretest responses gathered from the questionnaire, a 90 minutes seminar focussing on types of bank accounts, digital banking, credit card, debit card, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFC), stock market, savings, Investment, Expenses etc. after which a self learning module was provided to the respondents for thoroughness in the financial literacy. The seminar was carried out by principal investigator who is financial expert. After a month’s time, the same questionnaire was distributed amongst the same respondents to check for the effectiveness of seminar on financial literacy.
Statistical Analysis
The collected data of pre and postfinancial education seminar was analysed with the use of SPSS version 21.0. The data was analysed by using the frequency distribution and Paired Sample t-test at 5% (p-value <0.05) significance level.
The study included 209 (62.95%) female participants and 123 (37.05%) male participants. Out of total, 269 (81.02%) participants were interns and 63 (18.98%) participants were postgraduates (Table/Fig 1).
The mean score before the seminar among the respondents related to banking was 16.57±4.09; alternate banking 2.00±1.49; investment 10.92±4.87 and income and expenditure 2.82±1.59. The average mean score and standard deviation of respondents after the seminar among the respondents related to banking 26.58±3.68; alternate banking 5.39±1.32; investment 21.28±2.59 and income and expenditure 4.91±1.24.There is a significant difference in the knowledge score before and after the seminar as the p-value is less than 0.05 (Table/Fig 2).
(Table/Fig 3) describes the difference in mean score and standard deviation of financial literacy pre and post the seminar amongst female and male. Here, the result shows that there was a significance difference in the knowledge of participants before and after the seminar on financial literacy among both the gender (p-value <0.001). Hence, the null hypothesis is rejected.
(Table/Fig 4) describes the difference in mean score and standard deviation of financial literacy pre and post the seminar amongst less than 25 years and greater than 25 years. Here, the result shows that there was a significant difference in the knowledge of participants before and after the seminar on financial literacy among both the age (p-value <0.001).
(Table/Fig 5) describes the difference in mean score and standard deviation of financial literacy pre and post the seminar amongst interns and Postgraduates of Dentistry. Here, the result shows that there was significant difference in the knowledge of participants before and after the seminar on financial literacy among both the category (p-value <0.001).
This present study result shows that the knowledge of the respondents were less pertaining to banking, alternate banking, investment and income and expenditure with respect to gender, age and category. Ahmad FA et al., 2017 observed that residents’ and fellows’ knowledge was low in basics of financial concepts like savings, debt management, long-term planning etc (3). The result of the study showed that the basics of financial literacy would affect their personal financial decisions. From this study, it has been found that the knowledge of the respondents increased through the seminar on financial literacy which would be helpful to them for future finance decisions hence rejecting the null hypothesis. Therefore, adding the topic of personal finance management in the healthcare professional’s education curriculum would benefit them.
As a study by Shahrabani S, 2013 (7) in Israel found that the level of financial literacy was very low with respect to gender, nationality, class rank and work experience (7). The result of study shows that even after the financial crisis Israeli students still have large gaps in their understanding of economic terms. Therefore, it is necessary to include basics of finance education in college curriculum. The knowledge of the respondents of this study also suggests that it is better to provide the basic of finance during their education in schools as well as in university curriculum.
A study by Ibrahim ME and Alqaydi FR, 2013 focused on personal debt with pertaining to bank, borrowings and credit card of individual residing in UAE (8). This studies shown that the knowledge of the respondents were below the average level. Through the current study also it has been found that the knowledge of the respondents were below average in the areas like banking, loan and credit cards.
Due to increase in the number of dental colleges and dentist population ratio in urban sector compared with that of rural sector, the survival of the dentists has become a challenge. It is necessary for the dentistry graduates should have knowledge on practice management and financial management to become successful entrepreneurs and also to succeed in their life. Parija SC and Shivasakthy M, 2019 had found that the dentistry graduates must aware the fundamental knowledge on financial skills at the time of work setup (9). They should be able to know the difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’ to setup a quality healthcare practice. This area is often left unfocussed in their curriculum.
The current study showed that the knowledge of the budding healthcare professionals was low due to not covering financial education in their curriculum. Russell K and Stramoski S, 2011 conducted a survey among the dental hygienists through closed-ended questionnaire which included six parts with 40 questions address the following topics like current financial status, savings and debt, financial goals and beliefs, workplace benefits, retirement mindset and characteristics of survey respondents (10). The result of the study showed that the hygienists had ability to provide secure financial futures for themselves, still most of the respondents showed interest in receiving education about basics of finance through the dental hygiene curriculum and continuing education courses.
Swamy MB and Priya R, 2017 (11) found that the postgraduate management students in Andhra Pradesh whose level of financial literacy was low amongst the students of Finance, Marketing and HR, while level of financial literacy was high amongst the accounting students (11). Chen H and Volpe RP, 1998 (6) conducted a survey on the awareness of financial related topics amongst the students, which has been found to be below average. Thus, a planned intervention to increase the young minds’ awareness about proper management of personal finance well integrated into their curriculum would result in well managed finance by the budding professionals.
Limitation(s)
The study was limited to dental interns and postgraduates and could not be extended to other students, faculty and clinicians. The study was restricted to dental colleges in central Gujarat.
The study reveals a high level of financial literacy amongst the respondents after the 90 minutes seminar. The knowledge of the respondents improved after participation in the seminar. This study shows that it is possible to improve the financial literacy of interns and postgraduate students of dentistry in order to prepare them for the financial demands of the future. To accomplish this, financial management needs to be integrated into their curriculum as an important step to ensure future financial success of today’s budding healthcare professionals.
Future research may be conducted on the same topic with different interventions to check for the effectiveness and then, a well-planned integrated intervention in the form of module may be introduced into the curriculum of healthcare professionals which would enable them to manage their personal finance.
Author M.V is PhD guide at present. M.V supported and guided for statistical data analysis. SC is ex PhD guide since 2017 to February 2022 till he left the Institute. He has been guiding my research work since beginning and has also guided in the write up.
DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2022/59068.17285
Date of Submission: Jul 14, 2022
Date of Peer Review: Aug 02, 2022
Date of Acceptance: Nov 01, 2022
Date of Publishing: Dec 01, 2022
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
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• iThenticate Software: Oct 31, 2022 (7%)
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