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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 4
| Issue : 1 | Page : 26-27 |
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Academic promotions: Why not letter to the editor?
Basavraj S Nagoba1, Milind Davane1, Sachin Mumbre2
1 Department of Microbiology, MIMSR Medical College, Latur, Maharashtra, India
2 Department of Community Medicine, Ashwini Rural Medical College, Solapur, Maharashtra, India
| Date of Web Publication | 31-Mar-2017 |
Correspondence Address:
Basavraj S Nagoba
MIMSR Medical College, Latur - 413 531, Maharashtra
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jpsic.jpsic_7_17
How to cite this article:
Nagoba BS, Davane M, Mumbre S. Academic promotions: Why not letter to the editor?. J Patient Saf Infect Control 2016;4:26-7 |
Sir,
The revised guidelines of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for academic promotions are the talk of the town. Different views and opinions have been expressed by teachers/experts/health professionals in medical colleges and health institutions from various parts of the country regarding what is to be considered? And what is not to be considered as a valid publication for the academic promotion of teachers working in medical colleges in India.[1],[2],[3]
According to revised guidelines of the MCI regarding research publications for academic promotions, only original research articles are considered for academic promotions.[4] It has been proposed that many journals on an international level including some of the Indian journals publish original research as research notes, short communications, brief communications and in other formats; hence, publication in these formats other than original research articles need to be considered valid for the academic promotions.[1],[2]
Recently, while going through the instructions to authors, we found that in some of the international journals of repute such as Annals of Surgery (current impact factor-8.569), Journal of Medical Microbiology (current impact factor-2.269) and Indian Journal of Medical Research (current impact factor-1.446) preliminary research/pilot study, post-implicative report or new techniques are published as a research correspondence or letter to the editor apart from comment letters.[5],[6],[7] Hence, we feel that why not the letters to editors should be considered as a valid publication? Especially those letters presenting the preliminary results of original research work.
This preliminary data or newer technology is also an original scientific research that should not be neglected. As rightly pointed out by Rupa et al. that even the case reports in journals with high impact factor should also be acceptable.[3] We would like to add further that any original research work published in any format including a letter to the editor or correspondence in reputed national and international journals having impact factor more than one and indexed in reputed indexing systems should be considered valid for academic promotions.
Any type of articles, especially in internationally reputed journal including letter to the editor or correspondence certainly has substantial value. They are published because they convey important messages.
We suggest that letter to the editor or correspondence must also be considered valid so that there will be no injustice to the researchers who are presenting their original data as letter to the editor or correspondence according to the author guidelines of reputed journals.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Aggarwal R, Gogtay N, Kumar R, Sahni P. The revised guidelines of the medical council of India for academic promotions: Need for a rethink. Natl Med J India 2016;29:1-5.  [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
| 2. | Nagoba BS, Davane M, Mumbre S. New guidelines required for publications by medical academia. Natl Med J India 2016;29:113. [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
| 3. | Rupa V, Abraham V, Singh C, Cherian VM, Abraham P. New guidelines required for publications by medical academia. Natl Med J India 2016;29:113. [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
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