Lung India: 30 years of my association.

Prof. Virendra Singh

THEN AS AN AUTHOR

Now-a-days, Lung India is an established national journal. The most important problem with an editor is how to say ‘no’ to the articles of his fellow colleagues and friends? On occasion of completing three decades of publication, I wish to share one of my initial experiences with the journal. I have been associated with Lung India since 1982 not on editorial side but as a budding author. My first article was rejected by both the referees, and I was disappointed. I wrote back to put my point further to the then editor Prof. CV Ramakrishnan. He was a kind-hearted person, therefore, took opinion from a third referee about suitability of the article for publication in the Lung India. Unfortunately, the final result was rejection. Then, we sent the article to Journal of Asthma. It not only accepted the article but also published it as the leading original article of the journal.[1] My pleasant surprise shot to the climax when I saw that whole editorial was written on our article and editor congratulated us for making discovery of a new concept.[2] At the time, a wish came in my mind that if I become editor of the journal, I will not allow such justice to occur again.

Subsequently, I realized that individual judgment has many bias and at times, good articles are also rejected in the review process. Peer review is the best process, but it also has some loop holes. It also happens with leading international journals. Now, I am editor but despite of the best effort, sometimes even good articles could not get published.

Friends, rejection of an article does not mean it is not good; therefore, do not feel disheartened and sustain your effort and associate with the journal more emphatically.

NOW AS AN EDITOR

In 2010, I took over as an editor of the journal. At that time, there were twin challenges of shortage of funds and of number of articles getting submitted to the journal. Within two years time, the financial crisis is over and now our journal is self-sufficient. Now our journal is getting sufficient number of good articles. Even authors from other countries are also submitting articles in good numbers.

Another problem was RNI registration. Lung India was a journal, which was running without a registration number. You will be pleased to know that now our journal got RNI registration.

Exposure of Lung India at international level was further enhanced when we associated with renowned publisher Wolters Kluwer. In order to get good comments and fair judgments, we are sending the articles to the people working in that field. In this attempt, the number of international referees has increased almost two times. We have also started awarding outstanding authors and referees during National Conference on Pulmonary Diseases (NAPCON).[3] Our journal was plagued with a serious problem of plagiarism. We resolved this problem with two-way approach. On one hand, we started using better software to detect the plagiarism and on other hand, we started a campaign to create awareness among readers.[45]

Latest cover-page design of Lung India

With sustained improvement in quality of articles, now citations of Lung India articles are also improving gradually. Now its exteriors are comparable to any international journal, but interior of the journal are more important for getting an impact factor. In times to come, I alone cannot, but, we together can uplift impact factor of the journal. In the effort of making Lung India in improved shape, many of our colleagues have helped a lot; especially I wish to mention Dr Bharat Bhushan Sharma, Assistant editor, who is devoting day and night to upgrade our beloved Lung India.

On 15th August, this Independence Day, we are celebrating 30th birthday of Lung India. To glorify the occasion we have brought a special gift article for you based on sweet-and-sour experiences of former editors.[6] We have decided to publish supplements on a regular basis. You will find with this issue a special supplement containing Joint ICS/ NCCP guidelines for diagnosis and management of community and hospital-acquired pneumonia in adults. I hope that readers will find it highly valuable.[7]