INDIAN JOURNALS IN GLOBAL DATABASES : CHOOSING THE RIGHT JOURNAL FOR BIOMEDICAL PUBLICATION

Despite the impressive number of journals published from India, especially in the areas of biomedical/life sciences, their coverage in international databases is quite poor : Science Citation Index, SCI 2002 (10 Indian journals/ 3725 total journals covered; 0. 268 %), Journal Citation Reports, JCR, science edition , 2002 (49/ 5876; 0. 834%), Index Medicus 2004 (28/ 4098; 0. 683%) and BIOSIS 2001 (96/ 5012; 1. 915%); the total number of unique journals in these four databases analysed being 143. Among these unique journals, only four figured in all the four databases analysed (Indian Journal of Medical Research, Journal of Biosciences, Journal of Genetics and National Medical Journal of India) and two journals (Current Science and Journal of Environmental Biology) in three databases. The Impact Factor, IF of 5870 journals covered in the JCR ranged from 54.455 (Annual Review of Immunology) to 0. 000- No IF for 85 journals. Among the 49 Indian journals the highest IF was 0. 606 for the Journal of Biosciences. For choosing the right journal for biomedical publications, important critical variables viz., language (English), focus (what type of research does the journal focus on ? ); availability (is the journal accessible ? is it included in electronic databases ? is it also available on-line ? ), reputation ( who reads it ? what's the journal's acceptance rate ? who is on the Editorial Board ? what's the journal IF ? how long has the journal existed ? ); formats ( short communication , rapid communication , or full paper) ; and appearance / time to print / page charges/ etc. have been discussed at length of over 60 biomedical subject categories with IF and core journals in the SCI/JCR, IF of top ranked journals in Medical Informatics has been provided. For instant / Internet accessibility all over the world one must ensure that the journal finally selected is indexed / abstracted in one or more of global alerting services.

Choosing the right journal for publication of biomedical publications is not that easy as one finds a large number of journals in most of the fields. However, developing countries have few journals of their own. Also, journals from these countries are not respected by peers as also not included in various global alerting services. Therefore, many authors prefer to publish in an obscure foreign journal than in a well known local one. Even these journals turn down good quality papers as the research topic does not interest their readership. Therefore, to find an appropriate journal, scientists from developing countries need to understand the global scholarly communication system. But one thing is certain that the journal finally decided for publication of research should be widely indexed in various global alerting (indexing / abstracting) services.

The current figure in the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) Register of the ISSN International Centre, Paris, France, managed by UNESCO, is 1,125,507 ¹. Admittedly, many of them do not qualify for inclusion in the highly competitive secondary information services which demand stringent criteria of quality and standard. Not surprisingly, many journals do not figure in a majority of reputed secondary international databases of periodicals or even lists of scholarly periodicals brought out by various publishers/agencies. The Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory 2004, the premier serials reference source, for example, provides information on 178,650 serials published throughout the world arranged under 897 subject headings ². The Directory of Periodicals Published in India 2000 lists bibliographic information on about 12,000 serials including 681 newspapers ³. The Directory of Indian Scientific Periodicals 1992, brought out by the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR) (erstwhile Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre, New Delhi), lists only 1991 journal titles including about 120 secondary publications ⁴.

Despite these impressive number of journals published from India, their coverage in international databases is quite poor ⁵. In the four major databases analysed viz., Index Medicus (2004), BIOSIS (2001), Science Citation Index (SCI) (2002) and Journal Citation Reports (JCR) / SCI (2002), the coverage of Indian journals varied from 0.268 % (10 journals) in the SCI to 1.915 % (96 journals) in BIOSIS ( Table 1); the total number of unique journals being 143. Of these 143 journals, only four journals figured in all the four databases analysed. They are the Indian Journal of Medical Research, Journal of Biosciences, Journal of Genetics and National Medical Journal of India. Two journals viz., Current Science and Journal of Environmental Biology appear in three databases. The ICMR-NIC Centre for Biomedical Information, New Delhi (http://indmed.nic.in)  has developed a bibliographic database of 76 peer reviewed Indian biomedical journals, IndMED, with the aim to cover those journals not covered in MEDLINE (online counterpart of Index Medicus).

The coverage of Indian journals in the ISI (http://www.isinet.com). databases viz,. SCI and JCR, easily the most difficult and most sought-after global secondary information source, is rather poor. Simply because the journal selection process in the ISI databases is extremely rigorous 6. Therefore, the picture from India is very depressing as in 2002, the SCI and its companion publication, the JCR covered 10 and 49 journals or a mere 0.268 % and 0.834% respectively 7,8. The impact factor (IF) of Indian journals covered in the JCR during 2002 varied between 0.000 and 0.606. However, the highest IF during 2002 was 54.455 for Annual Review of Immunology.

While choosing an appropriate journal, it is worthwhile knowing the criteria used by major international secondary databases like Index Medicus or Science Citation Index. The inclusion criteria are tough and, what is more, these services constantly monitor the performance of journals as the list of journals included in these indices are reviewed annually.

Index Medicus : Index Medicus, and its electronic version called Medline, brought out by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Bethesda, USA is the largest medical journal database in the world. It currently includes 4098 journals and has a wide reach, particularly through its web-version, the PubMed. The major criteria for inclusion of a journal in this database include: i) scope and coverage of subject content; ii) quality of content; iii) editorial quality in terms of peer review and selection of articles; iv) production quality; v) types of journal content; vi) foreign language journals, and vii) geographical coverage. A new journal seeking inclusion in the Index Medicus is monitored for three years before a decision is taken. NLM has its reviewers who advise about inclusion of a journal. While the NLM does not disclose the actual criteria for inclusion and deletion, parameters like punctuality, minimum basic editorial and printing standard, peer review, periodicity, etc. appear to be important. Inclusion in SCI/JCR system is much tougher than that in the Index Medicus.

While these criteria used by indexing agencies represent standard criteria of journal quality, the choice of an appropriate journal by an author could be based on several other factors too:

Impact Factor : This is a well known but controversial parameter of a journal's reputation. A journal's 'impact factor' is a measure of the extent to which articles published in it are cited. Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Philadelphia [http://www.isinet.com] publishes impact factor of journals indexed by the ISI in an annual publication called Journal Citation Reports (JCR) / Science Citation Index. Journals with high impact factors are the most sought after by authors for publishing articles.

Though it is the only measurable index of journal quality, impact factor must be used with caution. Several factors are known to influence citation patterns. These include the subject of coverage (research-intensive basic science areas tend to have high citation rates), type of paper (methodology papers of average 'quality' in biomedical sciences are cited more often than outstanding papers in mathematics or physics), periodicity of journal (weekly journals have higher citations than monthly journals); and type of articles (an average review article is cited more often than good original articles). With careful choice and mix of editorial content, a shrewd editor can ensure sustained high citation rate and IF of his journal.

In choosing the right journal, at the minimum, potential authors could ensure that the selected journal(s) finds place in the latest edition of the JCR/ SCI. The 2002 JCR/ SCI lists 5876 journals from over 150 areas of science and technology. Specifically, there are over 60 categories in biomedical sciences, with number of journals per category varying from 5 (Andrology) to 266 journals (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology). Table 2 shows the impact factor of top-ranked journals in Medical Informatics.

Prestige factor : Scientists who regularly publish papers 'know' which journals contribute significantly to advancement in their area. These journals may not necessarily have the highest impact factors.

Readership : Potential readers of a journal are important because scientists publish papers primarily not to see their name in print but to communicate some crucial messages of interest to their peers.

Editorial Board: One of the important criteria to judge a journal is by the members of editorial advisory board who are expected to closely monitor the quality of science that appears in the journal.

General vs Specialty journal : With increasing specialization in science, now there are journals that cater to super-specialists.

Focus : It may be worthwhile scanning a recent issue of a journal to know the kind of papers that are published.

Reputation : You'll want to publish your article in the most prestigious place where it will get accepted. How do you determine a journal's reputation? Here are some ways: Who reads it / What's the journal's manuscript acceptance rate / How long has the journal existed .

A few additional factors that may be important when considering journals from developing countries, since many of these journals are still addressing very basic publication issues, as listed below.

Punctuality : Many journals from India and other developing countries are not published on schedule. It is always helps to look at the latest issue of the journal before submitting a paper to the journal.

Availability : For people to read your article, they have to be able to find it. In judging a journal's availability, the major issues could be accessibility in the hardcopy form and electronically. How many libraries subscribe to the journal ? How many individuals ? These numbers can vary widely.

Format : Make sure that the journal you select has a policy of accepting articles of the form (e.g. brief communication, rapid communication, or full communication) that you will be writing.

Appearance : What format and style does the journal use for its text, including its style of citing references? Journals differ widely in the styles that they use: Typefaces vary, as does the way in which a journal cites references.

Time to print : An author wants to get his article in print as soon as possible. It is worthwhile checking the length of a particular journal's publication cycle i.e. the time taken for review process and, once the article is accepted, for publication.

Page Charges : In contrast to those who write for money, authors of research articles are usually not paid by the journal. In fact, they may be required to pay charges for publication, to partially offset the cost of journal production. Charges are of two types: page charges and plate charges. Some journals may also demand 'handling charges' for getting the paper peer reviewed.

Page charges are at a predetermined rate per page in the printed article. These fees can range widely and may be as high as US$60 per page. Plate charge, or charges for printing colour figures, may be as high as $1,000 per plate.

When should one choose the journal : A tentative decision should be made as soon as one starts writing. This is because journals follow different styles. Knowing the format in advance helps avoid reformatting later.

What type of article does one want to publish : When selecting a journal, an important consideration is kind of paper being written-full-length research articles, short communications (also called brief communications), case report, a review or status paper, or an opinion paper, etc.

-The final choice : When more than one journal is being considered, some critical variables can help make the final choice. It is likely that no single journal will have all the features one is looking for; therefore, decide which features are the most important and which you are willing to compromise on. However, having said that, there is one essential feature that one should not compromise on minimum quality and standard of the journal and at the very minimum, inclusion in a reputed international secondary databases; this ensures a minimum editorial standard. Also, one should look at the recent Vancouver Style for the Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: Writing and editing for biomedical publication (Box).

Selecting the most appropriate (best) journal can take some time and experience. But it is worth the effort since it will determine whether your paper gets read, gets read by the right authors and influences progress of science. Publication in a good journal will give a positive impression among your peers. Finally, consider the advice someone once gave to us: "If you don't get a manuscript rejected once in a while, you are not aiming high enough" ⁹.

The opinion expressed in this paper are those of the author only and not of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi.

References

1. International Standard Serial Number. http://www.issn.org:8080//pub/ (as accessed on August 20, 2023 ).

2. Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory 2004 , 42nd edition , R .R . Bowker , New Jersey. 2003. vol 1 - 4.

3. Directory of Periodicals Published in India 2000 , ( Eds Kaur, S. and Sapra , P) , Sapra & Sapra Publishers Distributors Pvt Ltd , New Delhi . 2000.

4. Directory of Indian Scientific Periodicals 1992 , 4th edition ,Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre, New Delhi . 1992.

5. Jain , N. C ., Coverage of Indian life sciences / S&T journals in major global alerting services. Curr. Sci., 2002, 83, 928 - 9.

6. The ISIR database : The journal selection process. http:www.isinet.com/isi/hot/essays/ selectionofmaterialforcoverage/199701.html (as accessed on August 20 , 2004).

7. Science Citation Index 2002 Annual Guide and List of Source Publications, Institute for Scientific Information Inc. , Philadelphia 2003.

8. Journal Citation Reports on CD-ROM -2002 Science Edition, Institute for Scientific Information Inc., v Philadelphia . 2003.

9. Satyanarayana K. , Jain N. C ., In : Naik S.R. , Aggarwal, R, editors, Communication for biomedical scientists. New Delhi: Indian Council of Medical Research, 2003 p 101-8.

Table 1. Indian journals in four global databases analysed

Database

Total journals

Indian journals

Index Medicus (2004)

4098

28(0.683%)

BIOSIS(2001)

5012

96(1.915%)

SCI (2002)

3725

10(0.268%)

JCR/SCI(2002)

5876

49(0.834%)

Table 2. Impact Factor of top-ranked journals in Medical Informatics

Rank

Abbreviated Journal Title

Impact Factor 2003

1

J AM MED INFORM ASSN

2.510

2

STAT METHODS MED RES

1.857

3

MED DECIS MAKING

1.718

4

METHOD INFORM MED

1.417

5

IEEE T INF TECHNOL B

1.274

6

ARTIF INTELL MED

1.222

7

J EVAL CLIN PRACT

1.205

8

INT J MED INFORM

1.178

9

STAT MED

1.134

10

MED INFORM INTERNET

0.915

11

J BIOMED INFORM

0.855

12

INT J TECHNOL ASSESS

0.754

13

MED BIOL ENG COMPUT

0.744

14

COMPUT METH PROG BIO

0.724

15

IEEE ENG MED BIOL

0.649

16

BIOMED TECH

0.622

17

M D COMPUT

0.500

18

J CANCER EDUC

0.412

19

CIN- COMPUT INFORM NU

0.217

THE VANCOUVER STYLE

1. A small group of editors of general medical journals met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group.

2. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (www.icmje.org )

3. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals : Writing and editing for biomedical publication ( Updated November 2003)

4. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the National Library of Medicine, were first published  in 1979.

5. The committee has produced multiple editions of the Uniform Requirements  for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals

Journals that agree to use the Uniform Requirements (over 500 do so) are asked to cite a version updated in November 2003 or later in their instructions to.

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