Editorial
Case Report | Volume 8 | Issue 3 | JOCR May – June 2018 | Page 1-2| Shyam A. DOI: 10.13107/jocr.2250-0685.1080
Why there are so many submission, why the rush to publish?
Authors: Ashok Shyam [1, 2]
[1] Indian Orthopaedic Research Group, Thane, India.
[2] Sancheti Institute for Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Pune, India.
Address of Correspondence:
Dr. Ashok Shyam,
Department of Orthopaedic, Sancheti Institute for Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Pune, India.
E-mail: drashokshyam@gmail.com
Since JOCR has completed 8 years and we have, as independent publisher, seen the trends in submission patterns to JOCR, at times it gets us wondering. Specially the number of submissions that have drastically increased in last 2 years to JOCR that it has become difficult for the current staff to handle it.
When JOCR was started, there was no journal that was exclusively for orthopaedic case reports. Also one of the reasons for starting JOCR was that, most journals were not accepting case reports, as it negatively affected their impact factor [This is till true for most major journals] [1]. However, we have now realised that there is a renewed interest in publication of case reports specially in India. Possibly on one hand this is effect of long-term work of the Indian Orthopaedic Research Group that has been stimulating orthopaedic surgeons in India since a decade now. Some may say that this is also due to promotion laws that insist on publications, however case reports do not feature in that list. So, this renewed interest is not due to change in academic policies of institutes. I would really like to believe that this is due to increase inclination among surgeons to report their cases and share their experiences. I also interviewed few authors who have published multiple case reports and they too confided that they wanted to share their experiences with their peers. This is a very good sign for orthopaedic research specially in countries like India, Pakistan and other Asian countries who are main contributors of JOCR. Case reports must be considered as an important stepping stone in career of every academician and should receive same importance as original research [1, 2]. A lot can be learnt by post graduate students and trainees while publishing case reports, specially doing literature review, formatting an article as per journal guidelines, submitting an article and revising the article. Students can get acquainted with the academic process through case reports and an acceptance helps in boosting the confidence of a young researcher [3].
However, this increased submission has strained the journal system and the reviewers. At JOCR we try to send every article that is submitted to us for review. Our reviewers have been very kind over the years in supporting JOCR, however we are now lagging in review process due to increased submissions. This does make the authors impatient and many authors write to us inquiring about the status. This is completely understandable, and we appreciate the authors patience with JOCR and will try to hasten the process in future. A lot of article that are submitted are poorly formatted and get rejected as mentioned in the last editorial [4]. This has led to loss of reviewer’s time and effort and has forced us to establish a preview system. From now we will be doing a preview assessment of all submissions to JOCR and only after previewing it will be sent to reviewers. This will help in saving time and effort of the reviewers and will also help in getting early decision to authors.
We will also like to mention to the authors that the time taken for review and processing of the article is not a deliberate delay, but the process is designed to improve the quality of the articles before publishing. Any article that is published in an author’s name becomes a part of the authors legacy. The review process and all the publishing processes are designed to optimise the articles to improve the content and message. We request our authors to keep some patience with us and let our team work on your manuscripts. With the above preview process, we will try to reduce the waiting time as much as possible.
In order to further reduce the time for review and fast track the process, we would like to request the authors to send the articles in proper format as suggested by Journal guidelines. If possible, please submit the article for your departmental review for a week or send it to your colleague for review so you can get comments to improve the articles and then submit to the journal. This step will help in framing the best draft of the article which can then be submitted to the journal. This will help in the preview process and the reviewers will also find it easier to review with a smaller number of correction, which in turn will lead to a better turnaround time for the articles.
If there are any suggestions to reduce the review time without compromising the quality of the articles, please do write to us at the official editor email.
Regards
Dr Ashok Shyam
Editor – JOCR
| How to Cite This Article: Shyam A. Why there are so many submission, why the rush to publish? Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports 2018 May-June;8(3): 1-2 |
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