Sir,
The article by Bloria et al., ‘Publications in high impact journals from India in the last two years – A reality check', made an interesting reading.[1] It not only highlights achievements of Indian institutions but also encourages others to do good research. However, we wish to add our point of view.
Many Indian authors work and prefer to publish in subspeciality journal, for example, Journal of Cardiovascular Anaesthesia, Journal of Neurosurgical Anaesthesia and Pediatric Anaesthesia. These are also highest impact factor journals of the respective subspecialities; by excluding these journals, we have missed out the achievements of these authors. Boldt et al. had rightly included the journals from anaesthesiology, regional anaesthesia, clinical monitoring and computing, intensive care, resuscitation, emergency medicine and trauma in a similar analysis published.[2] We believe that including subspecialities will be a true reflection of the current status of research and publication in anaesthesiology in India. Kapoor et al. have also included Journal of Neurosurgical Anaesthesia and Pediatric Anaesthesia in their evaluation.[3] Indian Journal of Anaesthesia is a prestigious journal with worldwide recognition. This article will be read and sited all over the world. We agree with the authors highlighting our shortcomings and difficulties in quality publications, but we feel that including subspeciality journals in analysis would have painted a real picture.
Apart from the causes listed by the authors for this lack of publication in high-index journal, according to us one reason could be the quality of recognition of indexing agency by the Medical Council of India.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
REFERENCES
- 1.Bloria SD, Kataria K, Luthra A, Bloria P. Publications in high impact journals from India in the last two years – A reality check. Indian J Anaesth. 2018;62:994–6. doi: 10.4103/ija.IJA_494_18. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Boldt J, Maleck W, Koetter KP. Which countries publish in important anesthesia and critical care journals? Anesth Analg. 1999;88:1175–80. doi: 10.1097/00000539-199905000-00038. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Kapoor I, Prabhakar H, Mahajan C. Worldwide contribution of Indian authors in various anesthesia-related journals. J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol. 2016;32:276–7. doi: 10.4103/0970-9185.182127. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]