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Visibility of
Medical Journals:
Is indexation in Medline crucial?
Dr. Maqbool H. Jafary* FRCP
Background
Medline is an excellent source of published data and it is recognized
all over the world to be so. It has listed around 4000 biomedical
journals from all continents. However, the representation of the
journals from the developing countries indexed in Medline is no more
than 2% at any given time.1 Medline has certain criteria for enlisting
the journals and justifiably so, the most important ones being quality
and the regularity of the publication amongst others.
Numerous journal editors keep trying for indexing and continuously send
their copies for the consideration of indexation; however, the results
are usually disappointing. Understandably not all journals come up to
the required standards and therefore deserve to be rejected. However
some journals, in spite of meeting all the apparent criteria laid out
for acceptance, get repeatedly rejected. Interestingly no specific
reasons for non-acceptance are spelled out.
Non-acceptance after repeated attempts has its own negative
consequences. Not to mention the frustration on the part of the editors,
a major consequence is poor visibility of a journal. Poor visibility has
its further negative off shoots in that it has poor attraction for the
authors to submit their manuscripts and good quality articles get
diverted elsewhere. Poor visibility and poor circulation may lead to
economic losses, irregular publication and even closure of the journal.
How can the visibility be increased?
In the absence of Medline indexing, the visibility of a journal can be
improved through alternative indexing services which may accept a
journal for indexing.
In Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO, a very useful service is
provided by Index Medicus for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. It
has an online service as well as the publication of IMEMR Current
Contents, a quarterly publication, providing the abstracts of the
articles contained in the journals enlisted with them. (www.emro.who.int/HIS/VHSL/Imemr.htm).
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) by Thompson/ISI USA and EMBASE/
Excerpta Medica Netherlands are prestigious indexing services. Index
Copernicus Poland, SCOPUS, INIS database are other useful indexing
bodies. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) which provides free
pdfs is an excellent source of good visibility of the journals enlisted
with them. (www. doaj.org/home). Biology Browser (www.biologybrowser.org)
and Scirus (www.scirus.com) are other good and comprehensive sources and
so are Pubmed Central and Google Scholar. The later two provide the
luxury of full text articles. There are several other sources to achieve
the objective of visibility but the linchpin of the exercise of
increased visibility is that possibly all the journals should be on the
net and should have their own website.
Going on the net
To create a journal’s own
website has become an essential tool of survival in the life of any
journal. There are of course barriers to the creation of the website
especially for smaller journals with relatively limited circulation.
These barriers include initial and running cost of the website, need of
the additional manpower and staying on the toes to keep it up-dated.
However, none of these hurdles is serious enough and can be overcome
with relative ease even by the smaller specialty journals with limited
circulation of hard copies. With each passing day more and more agencies
are willing to create the website at competitive rates and even assist
in maintaining it and updating it.
Once the website is created, editors should announce it loudly, solicit
manuscripts and post the published articles, preferably full text, even
before the hard copy gets published. Interestingly, even before any
indexing by indexing service, the journal visibility sours to new
heights. Search engines start showing the contents of the journal to a
searcher who searches through key words. Manuscripts can be invited
online and edited online. Enormous amount of processing time can be
saved through online communication with authors, reviewers and referees.
Above all going online is a great source of manuscripts.2
Experience at Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences
Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences (www.pjms.com.pk) went online in
the last quarter of 2003. Since going online there has been a gratifying
impact of the increased visibility. Table-I and II show the total number
of manuscripts received from 2003 t0 2006. The number has increased
significantly not only from within Pakistan but also overseas. Overall
there has been an increase of over 250% in 4 years. This enables us to
be select better quality manuscripts which are eventually published. The
number of online submissions also shows a continued upward trend.
The number of countries from where the manuscripts have been received
has steadily increased from 11 in 2003 to 30 in 2006 and geographical
spread has also increased to four continents, the major share being that
of Asian countries including Middle East. (Table-III)
Will Medline become irrelevant?
Some experts are beginning to think in terms of irrelevance of Medline
in time to come. Professor Laporte states “….. with online availability
of full text medical journals, indexing in Medline is going to become
irrelevant”.3
However, it seems to be an extreme view. Medline is a symbol of
established quality of a journal included in their indexing service and
the balanced view is that Medline will certainly not be irrelevant and
for that matter this also goes for any indexing service. These services
will stay as authentic sources of data for the times to come.
What needs to be done?
Editors should look for alternate sources of increased visibility of
their journals while striving to go online preferably with full text
articles. One should cast away the frustration of lack of inclusion of a
journal in Medline, and instead make a continued and concerted effort to
improve the standard of the journals. Indexation in Medline, while it is
certainly worthwhile, but should not be an obsession and an end-all
game.
References
1. Laporte RE. Proceedings of
South Asian Cardiovascular Research Methodology Workshop held at Aga
Khan University Karachi. Pulse International Feb. 15th 2005;6(4):3.
2. Jafary MH, Jawaid SA. Online edition of a journal: A great source of
manuscripts and potential regional cooperation. Pak J Med Sci 2006;
22(2):107-9.
3. Laporte RE. With availability of full text online medical journals
indexing in Medline is going to become irrelevant. Pulse International
2005; 6(4):1
(pulse@pulsepakistan.com)
* Chief Editor,
Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan
E-mail: maqbool.jafary@gmail.com
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