A new editorial team takes over…

“Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.”

– John Ruskin

The Journal of Postgraduate Medicine (JPGM) was first published in the year 1955.[1] JPGM has been a witness to the glorious legacy of the 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), Sandeep Bavdekar (2007–2012), Nithya Gogtay (2012–2016), and Sunil Karande (2016–2024).[1,2,3] JPGM is the first internationally indexed journal published by any medical college in India.[3,4] JPGM is the official quarterly publication of the Staff Society of the Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, India and publishes articles in the subjects of clinical medicine, surgery, pharmaceutical and basic medical sciences, as well as medical superspecialities.[1,3,5] It is a renowned peer-reviewed, open-access multispeciality journal indexed in various databases/agencies including the DOAJ, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, MEDLINE/Index Medicus, PubMed Central, SCOPUS, Science Citation Index Expanded, and the Web of Science.[1,2,3,5] JPGM is currently published and distributed by Wolters Kluwer India Private Limited. Completion of 50 years of the journal was celebrated by organizing an international conference on medical writing, editing, and publishing (September 2004) at Seth GS Medical College (the JPGM GoldCon).[4]

JPGM was included in the Journal Citation Reports in the year 2006 and received its impact factor for the first time in the year 2008.[5] The impact factor of JPGM for the year 2022 was 1.6 and the 5-year impact factor is 2.0, a respectable figure for a multispeciality postgraduate medical journal. The journal receives and publishes articles from all over the world, giving it an international recognition.[2,3,5] The journal has been in the forefront in arranging conferences and training sessions for medical writing[2,3,4,5] and was the first Indian journal to adopt a fully automated online manuscript management system for reviewing, editing, and publishing its content[1] and one of the first to have its own website (www.jpgmonline.com).

Successive editors of JPGM have strived hard for the journal and given it a truely multifaceted outlook with various sections like editorials, editorial commentaries, original (research) articles, brief reports, viewpoint articles, case reports, case series, case snippets, adverse drug reaction reports, ethics forum, education forum, grand round case, clinicopathologic correlation, and students’ forum.[1,2,3,4,5] A stringent review process with a strong database of national and international reviewers has been in place for many decades.[2,3,5] The efficiency of the journal in manuscript handling and publication has been improving steadily over the last three decades with minimum time lag between the submission of the manuscript and a decision regarding its acceptance/rejection.[2,5] Since the year 2015, the facility of early online publication (ahead of print) as soon as the manuscript is proofread and formatted, even before the publication of the actual journal issue, has made it possible for the authors to get the credit of early publication and instantaneous visibility of the article to our esteemed readers.[2] The journal also collaborated with 10 other prominent Indian biomedical journals to draft a statement on publishing clinical trials in Indian biomedical journals advocating the use of registration number from the Clinical Trials Registry- India (CTRI) or other similar registry while submitting their research to the concerned journals for publication (thus necessitating the authors to register their trials with CTRI).[5]

As I take over as the editor of JPGM, I have feelings of privilige as well as great responsiblity. When I entered the campus of these twin insitutes of Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital in the year 1990, as an unassuming undergraduate student, little did I think that I would become the editor of JPGM someday. In fact, my first original research article publication has been in JPGM itself. I have been able to climb the ladders of academic achievements only due to the training and guidance that I have received in these twin institutes as a student and as a faculty member. My association with JPGM spans over two decades now, having worked in various capacities such as editorial assistant, consulting editor, associate editor and editorial board member (besides being a regular reviewer for JPGM). My experience as a reviewer for over 50 medical journals, presence in the editorial board of four other reputed indexed journals, experience as the editor of Pediatric Clinics of India, and my tenure as the Asian editor of Journal of Pediatric Intensive Care have helped me in understanding the editorial decision-making, peer-reviewing, and publication process better. Being in the organizing committee of the JPGM GoldCon (the Golden Jubilee Conference of JPGM in 2004)[4] and being faculty at various other medical writing conferences/workshops have also played a pivotal role in molding my career in medical writing, reviewing, and editorship. The new editorial team will have a 4-year term till June 2028 and will be functioning during the centenary year of the twin institutes. My editorial team consists of Dr. Charan Lanjewar (cardiologist) and Dr. Sharmila Jalgaonkar (pharmacologist) as associate editors and Dr. Shruti Bhide (pharmacologist), Dr. Mandar Koranne (surgeon), and Dr. Ujwal Rathod (pathologist) as assistant editors. The new team of editors will relentlessly work hard to maintain the quality of the journal and further the strengths of the journal, which include the indexation, quality of manuscripts, rigorous peer review, open access, and quality editing.

I am extremely thankful to Dr. Sunil Karande, the immediate past editor, for helping me in understanding the nuances of the job as an editor and training me in the editorial processes. Dr. Sunil Karande has steered the journal successfully for the last 8 years (including the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic period) and the journal has attained great heights and repute in his tenure. I owe a lot to Dr. Sandeep Bavdekar and Dr. Nithya Gogtay (past editors of JPGM) as they have held my hand at all steps in my writing–reviewing–editing career. I wish to thank Dr. Sangeeta Ravat, our dean and president of the Staff Society, for having faith in me, and I look forward for her guidance. I also thank Dr. Harish Pathak, our academic dean and vice-president of the Staff Society, for his constant support.