Abstract
Despite valuable research going on in developing countries like Nepal and the large number of existing scientific journals, this information does not reach international visibility. Not only are such journals obscure, but they also perpetuate a vicious circle of inadequacy that may directly be damaging the local science and research culture. Journals should prevent this by constructing an editorial board including qualified editors from developed and developing countries in the editorial board. There are several pre peer reviewed visible medical journals with this quality but the problem with them is publication delay because of peer review process. If the peer review process is fast then the publication charge will be more and the authors of developing countries cannot afford. But the journals like WebmedCentral have the post peer review system which will fasten the publication of the manuscript. After publication, manuscript will be peer reviewed by the reviewers and the one of the world’s biggest well qualified editorial team of WebmedCentral. It will give the authors tremendous amount of knowledge in their domain with the help of international editors.
Introduction
All who use, receive, or pay for health-care interventions depend on guidance from reliable research findings and will want reassurance that medical research is credible. Essentially, Nepal’s research output is still small. More collaboration and partnerships between countries in different regions of Asia and other parts of the globe as well, must be fostered. Lack of investment in research should also be addressed by nations which are capable of making investments. Research in Nepal can and should flourish over in the coming decades.
Findings of good research deserve to be presented well, and good presentation is as much a part of the study as is the painstaking collection and analysis of the data. Critical appraisal of 150 articles published in a reputed medical journal in Nepal revealed that in more than 70% articles experienced biostatisticians were not involved or had no substantial contribution (not co authored); in more than 65% of the studies, the sample size calculation was wrong and 80% of articles had inadequate statistical details and wrong statistical tests. Critical reviewers of biomedical literature have consistently found that nearly half of the published articles (including scientific articles, published even in the best journals) used statistical methods contained unacceptable errors [1-11].
Evidence-based medicine provides several ways to quantify and communicate uncertainty, but does so from a probabilistic rather than a human perspective. We can divide Evidence based medicine/clinical epidemiology into two major methodological themes: ‘statistical’ and ‘implementation’. The use and analysis of large trials, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, evidence hierarchies, cost-effectiveness analyses and the number needed to treat come under the ‘statistical’ methodology while the improved access to evidence through literature searching, library and critical appraisal tools, guideline development, risk framing, etc. would be ‘implementation’. Researchers welcome clinical uncertainty as a source of knowledge gaps, whose answers will be meaningful to clinicians and patients. Clinical epidemiology bridges clinical practice and public health. Policies notwithstanding, training in research ethics, standards and responsible conduct is often minimal or absent in academia, despite suggestions to detect and eliminate research misconduct. The quality of a medical journal depends on the inclusion of three groups of people: the authors, reviewers and editors. Deciding who should be listed as an author is not simple and quite often the decision is made on the basis of supremacy. Despite valuable research going on in developing countries and the large number of existing scientific journals, this information does not reach international visibility. Not only are such journals obscure, but they also perpetuate a vicious circle of inadequacy that may directly be damaging the local science and research culture. Journals should prevent this by constructing an editorial board including qualified editors from developed and developing countries in the editorial board[12,13]. There are several pre peer reviewed visible medical journals but the problem with them is publication delay because of peer review process. But the journals like WebmedCentral have the post peer review system which will fasten the publication of the manuscript. After publication, manuscript will be peer reviewed by the reviewers and the one of the world’s biggest editorial team of WebmedCentral. It will give the authors tremendous amount of knowledge in their domain with the help of international editors.
The vital part of the publishing process is the editorial management. The editors commence action with the receipt of the manuscript by directing the various steps of evaluation, correction and re-submission, until an editorial decision is taken to accept the paper as is, accept it after modification or reject it if it is unacceptable. They then carry out the necessary text and layout editing. Appropriate concern is given to the statistical and ethical aspects as well as to the overall uniformity of the terminology, nomenclature and style throughout the volume as a whole. Experts review plays a pivotal role on maintaining the quality of a medical journal[14-32]. A reviewer’s duty is to comment on important aspects of the paper and to formulate recommendations relating to the acceptability of the paper.
Conclusion(s)
Articles published in medical Journals like NEJM, BMJ, etc became the landmark studies for the improvement of Medical Science. Authors should submit their manuscript to a visible journal for getting more citations and downloads. Medical journals should maintain their quality and service through the ‘expert team’ for the future development of this domain. Then only, research in Nepal can and should flourish over in the coming decades.
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Competing Interests
No competing interests.
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