ICMR Journal records Covid surge, 2.5x more submissions of papers also more cited by peers

New Delhi: Two years of the Covid pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number of papers filed with the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR)the in-house journal of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The impact factor is 2.37 the magazine — an index that estimates the number of times articles featured in a particular journal have been cited in other scholarly publications — is also at an all-time high.

According to a senior scientist at the ICMR, the number of papers submitted has increased 2.5-fold over the past two years.

During this period, the ICMR has published five special issues on Covid, one on One Health and another on women and cervical cancer.

“I’m not at liberty to disclose that exact numbers [of] paper Submissions before and after Covid, but I can say that submissions have increased by 2.5 times, which is normal in a medical emergency situation,” said a senior scientist working with the IJMR said ThePrint on condition of anonymity.

“Covid now appears to be on the decline, but we expect this pace to continue in the coming days,” said the scientist.

Last month, in a public notice inviting expressions of interest (EoI) from publishers to be associated with the IJMR, The ICMR said: “With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a new dynamic in publishing research. Even with the increase in the hit factor of IJMR Recently (>2) and media attention, some articles have been published in the IJMR received, there has been an amazing increase in the number of articles submitted.”

The current publisher of the journal is Medknow, part of Wolters Kluwer Health, one of the largest open access publishers worldwide with over 450 medical journals in its portfolio.

According to the EoI requirements, the publisher must provide an e-editorial manager, an online manuscript processing platform with integrated iThenticate plagiarism detection software, and a quality standalone website with good mobile responsiveness.

The publisher should also be a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to ensure compliance with international ethical standards.


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IJMR was founded in 1913

That Indian Journal of Medical Research has been the flagship journal of the ICMR since 1913.

According to the ICMR, it is one of the oldest medical journals not only in India but also in Asia. That IJMR appears monthly in two volumes and 12 issues per year. All articles are peer-reviewed.

Due to the pandemic, many important papers on the state of the pandemic in India have been published in the journal, including a paper from last year that looked at the plausibility of a third wave of Covid in India. Among the authors of this paper were ICMR Director General Dr. Balram Bhargava.

Another, written by Dr. Samiran Panda, Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases at the ICMR, addressed the dilemma of opening schools.

Studies in the journal also looked at the issue of chloroquine, among other issues, which India has long held as a preventative therapy against Covid, despite the world generally dismissing the idea.

During IJMR The impact factor is not very high compared to many foreign medical journals, it is cited most frequently by Indian colleagues.

It also has a unique Indian identity that is different from other medical journals.

In January 2019 the IJMR released a collector’s edition for the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi with an issue whose cover story was about “Gandhi and Health”.


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