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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 62
| Issue : 2 | Page : 67-68 |
Adieu…
NJ Gogtay
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas (GS) Medical College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
| Date of Web Publication | 15-Apr-2016 |
Correspondence Address:
N J Gogtay
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas (GS) Medical College, Mumbai, Maharashtra
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0022-3859.180535
How to cite this article:
Gogtay N J. Adieu…. J Postgrad Med 2016;62:67-8 |
"No permanence is ours; we are a wave that flows to fit whatever form it finds"-Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
It seems like yesterday that I took over as the editor of the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine (JPGM). My journey with JPGM has spanned for almost 15 years; 5 years each as assistant and associate editor, before finally occupying the chair of the Editor on the July 1 st , 2012. The journal has been witness to a glorious legacy of past editors-NM Purandare (1955-1971), UK Sheth (1971-1979), RS Satoskar (1979-1984), SD Bhandarkar (1984-1991), AF Almedia (1992-1996), K Radhakrishna Murthy (1997-2002), Atul Goel (2002-2007), and Sandeep Bavdekar (2007-2012). [1] The journal was, and continues to be among the top ranked multispecialty journals in the country. As the current team, headed by the first woman editor (a sudden realization!), moves toward its last day on the June 30 th , 2016, it is time to take stock and reflect on the work done in the past four years.
The vision outlined in 2012 [2] , on the fronts of peer review, methodological quality, shortening turnaround time, and training programs, has largely been realized. Compared to 2012, there has been a jump in the number of authors and referees registered on the manuscript management system. Registrations have risen from 7,118 to 10,096 authors and 7,000 to almost 8,000 reviewers between 2012 and 2015. [3] Both editorial efficiency and author convenience have improved. The (median) time from first submission to acceptance in 2012 was 221 days, which dropped to 71 days in 2015. Likewise, the time from acceptance to publication has been reduced from 118 days in 2012 to 71 days in 2015. The improved web-based manuscript management system has a more user-friendly interface and the streamlining of workflow processes by the publisher has greatly helped the authors. Annual submissions have ranged from approximately 1,000-1,300 and even today, a third of the manuscripts continue to come from outside the country. Thanks to consistent citations, the journal's impact factor has been maintained around one. An important introduction to the Table of Contents has been the "Commentary" section. This section written by leading experts placed original articles in perspective and in the context of current evidence in the field.
Education and training are crucial components of any journal and its editorial team. In 2012, the journal organized training workshops on literature search for authors and ended with a medical writing conference "Writecon" for authors and editors in 2015. The team additionally participated in several medical writing events during the four years including the prestigious conference of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) in November 2015 in New Delhi, India. The journal was privileged to host the visit of Dr. Fiona Godlee, Editor of The BMJ who interacted with the editorial board and editorial team on February 7th, 2013 and gave them pointers on how JPGM could adapt processes followed at the BMJ. Finally, JPGM as a member the Indian Association of Medical Journal Editors (IAMJE) endorsed the editorial that critiqued the publication criteria laid down by the Medical Council of India for faculty promotions. [4]
JPGM has additionally seen numerous technological advances, one of which was the creation of the JPGM iPad app. I expect that this advance will improve both journal visibility and the quality of submissions. Despite financial constraints, the journal has continued to make its entire content available to readers free of cost and, in addition, does not charge author processing fees. Entry into PubMed Central, the digital repository is yet another milestone and the availability of journal articles and their archived pdfs will further enhance visibility, readership, and downloads for personal use. As with any quarterly journal, JPGM was fraught with articles getting published much later after acceptance. To address this limitation, JPGM, from 2015, has begun putting up articles online within a few days of their acceptance. This ensures that research and reviews are available to readers much earlier than before. The four issues in the year (January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December) are now additionally released either in the first month of the issue or in the last week of the previous month, thereby decreasing the time for articles to become part of world literature and evidence.
The past four years have not been without their challenges. The toughest part has been finding appropriate peer reviewers and obtaining good quality peer reviews. Delay by busy and beleaguered peer reviewers and contradictory reviews that required arbitration led to delays with a few papers which I regret. Raising funds for the iPad app was hard work, but I am pleased to say that work is in progress to secure funding and develop an android version of the app. Most editors struggle to attract good papers, and I hope that more and better papers will allow the journal to increase its publication frequency. I do derive joy from the fact that each of the issues was incrementally better than the previous one and built on past gains. There will be a vacuum in my life now that the journal moves to new hands. I will certainly miss the joy and excitement that a new submission of a good quality or a good peer review brought and the e-mail on the smartphone announcing the release of a new issue.
My task would not have been possible without the help and support of several people. The journal is where it is today thanks to the vision of Dr. DK Sahu or DK as he liked to be called. To him, I owe a debt of gratitude. My sincere thanks are due to Dr. Sandeep Bavdekar, former editor of the journal who continued on the advisory board of the journal and was a pillar of support throughout my tenure. A host of undergraduate and postgraduate students who are now either senior residents or faculty or seasoned researchers themselves aided me in triage, literature review, proofreading, and copy editing. I am thankful to each and everyone of them. They are Akanksha Thakkar, Shaunak Kulkarni, Ninad Maniar, Uday Kulkarni, Amir Shaikh, Hrishikesh Kulkarni, Rahul Bhoite, Natasha Bala, Sonal Jain, and Shrikanth Atluri. Subeditors and reviewers form the backbone of any journal, and came from within and outside the institute helped ensure both the quality and timeliness of the journal. Amongst them, I would especially like to thank Robin Ferner, CS Pramesh, Dattatraya Muzumdar, Pradeep Vaideeswar, Sudeep Gupta, Vani Parmar, Tanuja Shet, Ritesh Agarwal, Rakesh Aggarwal, Sudeep Shah, S Kannan, Vyankatesh Shivane, Prafulla Kerkar, JV Divatia, Priya Ranganathan, Kaizad Damania, Renuka Munshi, Smrati Bajpai, Sunil Raina, Kedar Deodhar, Tapan Saikia, Mamta Muranjan, NK Hase, Parag Tamhankar, Shobna Bhatia, Gita Nataraj, Uday Khopkar, Siddharth Deshpande and S Manikandan for all the help and support rendered. I acknowledge the unstinting support rendered by the staff society of the institute and the publisher Medknow-Wolters Kluwer. In addition, thanks are due to the Dean Dr. Avinash Supe and former Deans Dr. Sanjay Oak and Dr. Shubhangi Parkar for their critical inputs. I am grateful to my Head of the Department Dr. Urmila Thatte, colleagues in the department, as well as the editorial team of Milind Tullu, Sunil Karande, Shirish Joshi, Shilpa Sankhe, and Praveen Iyer. Finally, sincere thanks are due to readers, contributors, and reviewers.
From the July 1 st , 2016, a new team takes over. I take this opportunity to wish the new team headed by Dr. Sunil Karande the very best. Dr. Karande, a pediatrician by training, served as an Associate Editor with the present team and ensures a continuum. I am sure that under his stewardship, JPGM will rise to still greater heights.
Nithya Gogtay
Editor, Journal of Postgraduate Medicine
2012-2016
| :: References | |  |
| 1. | Bavdekar SB. JPGM 2007-12: The editor's report. J Postgrad Med 2012;58:99-102.  [ PUBMED]  |
| 2. | Gogtay NJ. From the desk of a new editor. J Postgrad Med 2012;58:169-70. [ PUBMED] |
| 3. | Gogtay NJ, Rajgopal L, Bavdekar SB, Mehta S, Salvi VS, Goel A. Fifty years of Journal of Postgraduate Medicine: A journey in time. J Postgrad Med 2004;50:164-6. [ PUBMED] |
| 4. | Aggarwal R, Gogtay NJ, Kumar R, Sahni P. The revised guidelines of the Medical Council of India for academic promotions: Need for a rethink. J Postgrad Med 2016;62:69-72. [ PUBMED] |
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