Friends, it gives me a sense of accomplishment that I will be
relinquishing the office of Indian Pediatrics after a satisfying
tenure of six years as its editor-in-chief. When I took over as the
editor-in-chief of this prestigious journal at a relatively young age of
41 years, there were few apprehensions in my mind – whether I will be
able to match the expectation of society’s 25,000 members, and moreover
millions of readers; whether I will be able to fulfill the commitments
made during my induction [1]; and whether I will be able to carry out
(and expand upon) the variety of tasks the journal team had been doing,
including training of potential authors, and contribution to advancement
of medical knowledge in form of books and research. Now six years later,
I leave with a deep sense of gratification that with an extremely
dedicated team of editors and journal committee members, and continuous
help and support from parent society Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP),
I could not only execute my duties with integrity and rigor expected of
a journal editor, but could also contribute immensely to its growth in
terms of reputation, popularity, impact, outreach and finances.
Indian Pediatrics has always been a popular
reader-friendly journal besides its recording value of research-based
manuscripts. Besides publishing high quality research papers and
consensus guidelines, we introduced some new sections – ‘Journal club’,
‘Reminiscences from Indian Pediatrics – A tale of 50 years’, ‘Rational
diagnostics’, and ‘Clinical videos’, which helped us in maintaining a
reader-friendly format of the journal for the benefit of most ordinary
reader who may not understand the intricacies of research and
statistical analysis. The section ‘In a lighter vein’ provided a
platform to literary readers of the journal to express their ideas and
thoughts.We also published four special issues during this period –
related to the themes of Polio eradication, Rotavirus disease,
Retinopathy of prematurity and Quality improvement in healthcare – with
guest editors being the most eminent academicians and researchers in the
related fields. Impact statistics of Indian Pediatrics showed a
steady improvement, with impact factor and 5-year impact factor reaching
its all-time high level of 1.163 and 1.392, respectively in 2019. This
was despite the fact that we never chased impact factors, and maintained
reader-friendly format by publishing popular articles and case reports,
which do not help in improving the impact statistics of journal, and
rather may adversely affect it.
Indian Pediatrics has always endeavored to train
its readers and members of academic fraternity in brushing up their
research and writing skills. Besides continuing with our signature
workshops on art and science of writing scientific papers, we could
develop a 3-day hands-on Research methods workshop. It gained immense
popularity within a short time, and we could successfully organize four
such workshops with 100% participation in each; the demand for more such
workshops are continuously pouring in. We could also publish relevant
books – ‘The Art and Science of Writing a Scientific Paper’, ‘The Best
of Indian Pediatrics’ (2nd and 3rd edition), and ‘Advances in Medical
Education.’ The long-awaited thorough revision of book ‘Principles of
Pediatrics & Neonatal Emergencies’ could also be completed under
leadership of Dr Piyush Gupta.
The Go-Green exercise by Indian Pediatrics,
probably the biggest such initiative by any medical journal, was a
challenge [2]. It was indeed arduous to make members switch to
electronic versions of journal, and inform us of their intent to
continue or discontinue print copies. However, with a large exercise
continuing over several months, we could successfully reach majority of
members of IAP, and could collect their options. This led to 60%
reduction in print copies. The gains of this exercise will bear fruit in
long-term, leading to tremendous cost-saving, and providing
opportunities for further improvement in production quality, including
color format and better paper quality. It was necessary that the journal
should have tremendous electronic presence before we ask members to
opt-out of print copy. We could successfully develop mechanism of making
electronic versions reach the members, including posting of monthly
e-copy of the journal to member’s unique profile at IAP website and
developing mobile application of Indian Pediatrics. Dissemination
of information published in journal through social media was also
accomplished, with a noticeable presence of journal on Facebook and
Twitter.
A long-cherished dream of the members of journal
committee as well as of IAP was an office where journal committee and
staff could work in a better environment. The procurement process of new
journal office is also complete, and by the time this issue of journal
is published, we would have inaugurated a swanky new office of Indian
Pediatrics with facilities of video conferencing, networking and a
decent conference hall and library.
I am deeply grateful to all my colleagues: the
dedicated team of editors and guest editors who worked day-and-night to
convert submitted manuscripts into the best possible published papers;
journal committee members who supported and helped them in every
decision; reviewers who provided critical and useful comments to help us
to reach at balanced decisions on manuscript; readers who provided
feedback and pointed out tiniest of error in the journal to motivate us
to work towards perfection; and the journal staff who executed the
administrative and ground-level work. Also, it has been a privilege to
learn from every manuscript I handled, irrespective of whether it was
finally accepted or rejected; and to interact with authors who patiently
and graciously accepted all our decisions. I convey my special thanks to
Prof. Piyush Gupta, who handed over the reins of the journalin an
excellent condition. He was always accessible and resolved my queries
promptly and enthusiastically, besides providing encouragement and
emotional support during stressful periods. No words can express my
thanks to Prof. Devendra Mishra who handled most of the editing and
proofreading work, and continuously strived to work for high academic
and ethical standard of the journal. It’s a pleasure to hand over the
baton to him now, and to look forward to new ideas and innovations.
