As I myself belonging to a developing country (Brazil) I found this work very importnat. I presume that htis is adressed to the coleagues of Nepal, but it is not stressed in the text. Nevertheless its is very important for our countries to know this new kind of publishing scientific works.

I am a medicine  professor and WebmedCentral Editoral Board member, WebmedCentral Plus and  Medical Education

Dear editor

I read with great interest the article by Sathian B and Sreedharan J on the peer review process and improvement of medical research in Nepal [1]. I congratulate the authors on a good piece of work.

I agree with the authors that publication delay is a major problem with biomedical journals in developing countries. I had written an article in the Australasian Medical Journal where I had looked at problems with medical journals in South Asia [2]. Among the issues mentioned in the article were journals often do not consider the author’s perspective while receiving and processing articles, ensuring editorial independence, strengthening and quickening the peer review process, reducing the time lag between acceptance and publication and allowing a forum for readers to express their comments on the article. A body which can monitor and accredit journals was also mentioned.  

Ensuring editorial independence may be a problem for journals. Editorial boards are not always involved in decisions about manuscript acceptance and rejection in many journals. Also ensuring that articles submitted by authors whom you know, who work in the same institution or who are ranked higher than you in the institution or outside may be a difficult job for editors. Journals like the BiomedCentral Series and WebmedCentral ensure that the previous versions of the manuscript along with reviewers’ comments and the revised versions are easily available on the journal website.    

The major advantage of the WebmedCentral platform is quick publication within 48 hours and the high production standards of the platform. The post publication peer review process on the platform however needs to be strengthened. This is a challenge facing me as a lead faculty, medical education. Recently WebmedCentral has also launched a post publication peer review platform, WebmedCentral Plus.

There are certain areas where the article can be improved on. I feel the first three paragraphs do not tie in well with the rest of the manuscript. Linking sentences can be added to make the link clearer. Also as the manuscript has been published under the WebmedCentral Medical Education platform the article should be more closely linked with the field of medical education. I and the readers am also interested in knowing how the journal edited by the authors, the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology ensures standards of peer review and quick decisions on submitted manuscripts.

With the increasing publication of journals online and free access to published papers journals from Nepal are increasing their visibility. Also Nepal Journals Online (Nepjol, www.nepjol.info) provides a good platform for online access to journals published from Nepal. The challenge now is to ensure a quick and fair peer review process to ensure high quality of published articles.  

References:

1. Sathian B, Sreedharan J. Relevance of Post or Pre Peer Review Process Journals for the improvement of Medical Research in Nepal. WebmedCentral MEDICAL EDUCATION 2012;3(5):WMC003368.
2. Shankar PR. An urgent need to strengthen medical journals in South Asia. Australasian Medical Journal 2011;4:628-30.

i have been involved in medical and health sciences education for a number of years and have published a number of articles on the topic. I am also lead faculty medical education, WebmedCentral and Editorail Board member, WebmedCentral Plus, Medical Eduaction.  

Sir, This is a well written article applicable not only to Nepal but also to researchers from all developing countries.  My only doubt is to whom is this article is addressed ?  I believe that medical researchers are well aware of the issues discussed here.  And the general public who MAY want to know will not access this website.  Please do clarify.

Medical education and scientific research published eight papers both national and international peer reviewed journals with indexation and impact factor.