Moving on with challenges & new initiatives

I accept my new leadership role as Editor of The Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR) with great humility. The Journal is highly reputed among Indian biomedical journals and is almost a century old. As usual for the newcomer, I being no exception have some new ideas for its improvement and at the same time the Journal also faces several challenges. Though I am not new to the IJMR as I have been nurturing the IJMR for the past two decades in various capacities (Assistant editor and Associate editor). During this period I got ample opportunities to understand the mechanics and dynamics as well as complexities associated with journal publication. I consider myself privileged to have worked with three former editors of the IJMR (Drs G. V. Satyavati, N. Medappa and K. Satyanarayana) who brought the IJMR to the current prestigious position. It is from their rich expertise that I have gained certain unparalleled principles of discipline, importance of punctuality, honouring the timelines, strictness, rigidity with quality maintenance, and flexibility and friendliness with contributors and reviewers. The whole experience has allowed me to acquire some of the finer details of editorship for which I shall always remain beholden to them.

The IJMR has a long and distinguished history and will soon enter into the centenary year. It enjoys a great reputation and is placed on a respectable platform today. An editor's role is that of an energetic enthusiast who always aims to improve the journal further and I shall be no exception. It is, therefore, incumbent upon me to make sincere efforts to win the situation with the support of our editorial team and Editorial Board, and uninterrupted quality contributions from academia and researchers.

Over the past few years the IJMR has undergone major changes and has shown a considerable improvement in the quality of its editorial content. The impact factor (IF) has increased and the Journal has attained a new position among the top slot of Indian biomedical journals - an uphill task has been achieved. Introduction of new sections and several modifications in the publication policy were some of the major changes that were made during the last few years. With the advent of Clinical Trial Registry – India (CTR-I), the Journal took a lead role in preparing the guidelines for publication of clinical trials in Indian biomedical journals. Online processing of articles was made possible with the availability of advanced technology and new tools. Access to free full-text of the IJMR was provided to the readers across the globe. A Herculean task of preparing the digital archive since the inception of the IJMR (1913) has been recently completed.

Today the IJMR has a good reputation, but we editors live in a world of rankings and IF. Faced with the challenge of achieving a respectable impact factor for the journal, the editor is bestowed with the dual burden of improving the journal content as well as impact factor (though both are complementary to each other). The IJMR currently has an impact factor of 1.826 from a meager 0.45 in 2002-2003, a task which looked impossible in early last decade. The bigger challenge at present is not only to sustain this position but to move further along, reaching a new height.

Attracting high quality research articles is one important option for further development of the Journal. I consider it as my first target as an editor. We are living in an era of ever changing technology and sea of information. A large number of journals are coming up every day and due to fierce competition with ever increasing specialty journals, it will not be an easy task and I need to be careful as well as cautious in my approach. Journal editing is not merely a job but a passion which many of my fellow editors understand. My vision is to make IJMR an international journal truly representing quality biomedical/clinical research with public health implications. I envisage IJMR in the hands of all postgraduate medical students preparing for the examinations, and Ph.D. students pursuing their research career in medical colleges and universities and the junior and senior faculty members of medical schools. The medical researchers should eagerly look forward to read the latest issue of the IJMR in hope of getting some new information.

As a part of the new vision, some changes are in the pipeline. There will be minor cosmetic changes in the text. Among the new s0 ections “Clinical Images” will be introduced from July 2012 and this will coincide with the beginning of centenary year of the IJMR - a proud moment for all of us. We also intend prioritizing articles with innovative novel information for fast track processing and rapid dissemination. We already have special issues and special sections on topics of contemporary interest and importance and wish to expand this activity further with high priority. Systematic and evidence based reviews will be preferred over narrative reviews. We intend to provide timely service to our readers, contributors and reviewers. Online processing of manuscripts has provided some relief to us and our contributors. We will work hard to bring out each issue of the Journal in the first week of the respective month.

These are some of my initial thoughts which I am sharing with you. More will come in due course of time. We would welcome new ideas with an open mind. All our readers will agree with me that each idea takes time to shape up and I am sure to get that time.

Wishing all our readers, contributors, reviewers and subscribers a very happy and prosperous new year 2012!