Adieu IDOJ! Reflections & Gratitude

With this issue (61^st issue of the journal to be precise), as I complete my term as Editor-in-Chief (EIC), Indian Dermatology Online Journal (IDOJ) and reflect upon, the journey over the past 6 years (2016–2021) has been more than satisfying and professionally enriching.[1]

IDOJ, an official publication of Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists (IADVL), is completing 10 years since its inception. I must acknowledge the unswerving trust and support that I received from all the National Executive Committee (EC) members, particularly, Dr. Venkataram Mysore, Dr. Devesh Mishra, Dr. Yogesh Marfatia, Dr. Ramesh Bhat, Dr. P Narasimha Rao, Dr. Kiran Godse, Dr. Jayadev Betkerur, Dr. Rashmi Sarkar, Dr. Shyamanta Barua, Dr. Rajib Kumar Gogoi, Late Dr. Umashankar Nagaraju, Dr. Shashikumar B M, Dr. Feroz K, and Dr. Rakhesh SV for always supporting IDOJ on financial and administrative matters during their tenures as the presidents/president elects, secretaries, and treasurers of the association (IADVL). I am thankful to the IADVL EC for the trust and faith bestowed on me and my team and giving us complete freedom to uphold the sanctity of editorial works and the journal. I am indebted to my teachers and mentors notably Prof Bhushan Kumar, Prof. V K Sharma, Prof. A J Kanwar, and Prof D M Thappa for their guidance and support to me over these years.

As I took over as EIC, I had the proud privilege to work with the leading experts in the field of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology and young dynamic colleagues to form a formidable editorial team who delivered with utmost sense of responsibility, efficiency, and impartiality upholding high editorial standards. Dr. Shyam Verma, my predecessor and founder editor, had done a herculean task of starting this journal and taking it up to PubMed indexing.[2] I was fortunate to had with me Dr. K T Ashique as Associate Editor, an indispensable editorial team core member, who made my EIC job easy and enjoyable for which I am always happy and grateful. I am confident that my successor EIC, Dr. K. Seetharam who has ample experience of editorial work at senior positions shall further elevate the academic profile of IDOJ and keep up its performance graph and editorial standards, to which I positively look forward to.

Young expert colleagues as deputy editors – Dr. Sendhil Kumaran, Dr. Tarun Narang, Dr. Rahul Mahajan, Dr. Vinay K, and Dr. Aparna Palit and some rising stars as assistant editors were the strength of my editorial team who never failed to deliver as per my expectations. I am grateful to my entire editorial team, authors from India and world over and most importantly reviewers, the unsung heroes who relentlessly and with dedication, have put time, knowledge, and expertise into reviewing the numerous papers submitted to the journal over the years [Figure 1]. Without your support, hard work, and dedication for the cause of science, IDOJ could not have come so far. My editorial team was successful in expanding reviewer database from about 300 (2016) to more than 800 (2021). The manuscript submissions more than doubled over this period. IDOJ can now boast to be one among the top dermatology journals having shortest manuscript turnaround time and time to publication from acceptance [Table 1].

Figure 1.

Manuscripts submission in IDOJ (2016-2020)

Table 1.

IDOJ - Journal Key Statistics

New manuscripts submission (2020)	964
Characteristics	Result (median)
Manuscript data:
Days to suggest reviewers	4.65
Days taken by reviewers	16.98
Days taken by editor for decision	9.35
Days until paper is under review	30.98
Days for rereview by reviewers	8.09
Days to send revision decision by editors	11.92
Days from first submission to acceptance (2021)	84.4
Days from acceptance to publication (2021)	70.4
Articles Downloads (2021)	1,869,256

The journal success depends on its popularity among readers, which is evident by one of the highest numbers of monthly downloads of IDOJ popular articles and citations among dermatology journals from India [Table 1]. I along with my editorial team sincerely thanks readers and authors for their unstinted support for making this possible. Over this period, IDOJ started new sections like Through the Dermoscope, Dermatology Pearls, Research Snippets, Reflections on Research, Clinicopathological Challenge, and published various symposiums on topics of current interest in clinical dermatology.[3] Many high-ranked authors devoted their time and skills to contribute timely master pieces including IADVL Academy Special Interest Groups (SIG) treatment guidelines during Covid-19 pandemic. This has largely contributed to the growth and development of the journal.

All the professional support by vibrant Wolters Kluwer-Medknow publishing team was crucial for us to tide over the technical hurdles and bringing journals issues on time. I wish to thank all of them, especially our industrious production editors Mr. Bilal Khan, Ms. Pallavi Narsale, Ms. Sheetal Hodge, and Mr. Chetan Darne and editorial quality managers Ms. Swetha Veluri, Ms. Mamta Java, and Ms. Cynthia Soans who helped steer the journal to the highest standards of publication and indexation. IDOJ now features in all medical colleges’ libraries of India as complimentary subscription (courtesy IADVL) and has an evident international visibility and readership. IDOJ by virtue of being a print journal since January 2018 indexed in DOAJ and in UGC-CARE list; authors are eligible to get their publications credit for teaching faculty appointment/promotion as per norms in India.[4]

As a result of editorial reforms and journal performance, it was gratifying for editorial team to succeed in IDOJ indexing in ESCI (Emerging Sources Citation Index by Clarivate Analytics) in April 2021 and accepted for inclusion in Scopus including listing under Scimago Dermatology Journals and Web of Science in December 2021.[5,6] This is by far one of the biggest steps of IDOJ during my tenure. At the conclusion of my term as EIC, my vision for IDOJ is to get indexed as SCIe (Science Citation Index Expanded) followed by generation of impact factor which should happen by 2023 first quarter as expected in normal course.[7]

I take this opportunity to congratulate all the IDOJ award winners for the year 2020 in the categories of best review article, original article, case report, and letter to editor (report published in this issue). Heartfelt gratitude to the Almighty for giving me the strength to walk resolutely on this arduous path, with a special word of thanks to my family for bearing with me and to all my dear friends, colleagues, and mentors who kept me motivated all along to do my best for the Journal. The ultimate goal of this IADVL Journal is to promote science, advance the knowledge and clinical skills of readers for further development of speciality and better care of our patients. On behalf my editorial board, I personally express regret to any author if ever editorial decisions were perceived as harsh or unpleasant while we tried to uphold high editorial standards.

I take this opportunity to wish all of you a safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous new year 2022!