Performance of the Indian Journal of Anaesthesia in 2017: How did we do and where do we go from here?

In his farewell editorial in the December 2016 issue of the Indian Journal of Anaesthesia (IJA), my predecessor, Dr. S. Balabhaskar wrote 'the timeline never ceases'.[1] Those four words still ring in my ears every time a new issue of the IJA is lined up. Nothing could have prepared me for the unending flow of new articles, revised articles, readers' queries, publisher interactions and never-ending deadlines. In 2017, The IJA had a record number of new submissions, crossing 800 for the first time ever, an increase of 9% over the previous year propelled largely by a 25% increase in the number of Original Articles [Figure 1]. Fortunately, we have a fabulous team of Associate Editors, Section Editors, Assistant Editors, Editorial Board members and Reviewers who keep the system well-oiled and ready to meet these challenges.

Figure 1

Number of manuscripts of different categories submitted to the Indian Journal of Anaesthesia from 2015 to 2017

SO HOW DID THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF ANAESTHESIA PERFORM IN 2017?

I will attempt to answer the question with some objective data, and simultaneously outline what happens to an article submitted to the IJA.

Once submitted, manuscripts undergo editorial review by the Editor-in-Chief or the Associate or Section Editors. Some of these articles may not be considered suitable for further consideration, and are usually rejected within a week. This enables the authors to consider submission to some other journal, without waiting for a few months for a detailed review. Original Articles undergo a technical review by the Assistant Editors. At this stage, articles are assessed to determine whether they comply with the instructions to authors and the journal format, ethics, trial registration and statistical methods. They are then assigned by the Editor-in-Chief to Associate or Section Editors, who select and send papers for external review by members of the Editorial Board and other reviewers. Based on the reviewers' reports and their own assessment, the Editors determine whether the manuscript needs revision can be accepted, or rejected. Overall, in 2017, about 25% of all articles were accepted and published, slightly lower than that in previous years [Figure 2].

Figure 2

Acceptance rate of manuscripts submitted to the Indian Journal of Anaesthesia from 2015 to 2017

Table 1 provides some insight into this life cycle of the 801 articles that were submitted in 2017; notably, reviewers were assigned in less than a week, and the initial review (by at least two reviewers) was completed in <2 weeks, a tribute to our panel of nearly 1000 reviewers. The first editorial decision after external peer-review happened in a mean of 27 days. Accepted articles undergo language and technical checks by the publisher followed by further editorial review and final acceptance by the Editor-in-Chief. With all these exhaustive steps, checks and counterchecks, for accepted manuscripts that were submitted in 2017, the average time from submission to acceptance was only a little over 3 months, and for publication, 23 days after acceptance. Thus, on an average, an article saw the light of day in about 4 months [Table 1]. Of course, at all stages, there was a wide variability, and there were significant outliers; there are authors who unfortunately have had articles in the process for over a year, and the timelines for acceptance are indeed longer for Original Articles compared to Letters and Case reports. Most encouragingly, despite the increase in workload, the total time from submission to acceptance has reduced dramatically from 225 days in 2014 to 92 days in 2017 [Figure 3]. I take this opportunity to applaud and thank all our authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, publishers and all those involved in helping the IJA to improve both the quality as well as the turnaround time for our articles.

Table 1

Article processing timelines for 801 articles submitted in the year 2017

Figure 3

Number of days for completion of various phases of the article cycle from 2014 to 2017

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Our stated goal is to position the IJA as an international, scholarly, respected journal for all anaesthesiologists in India and across the world.[2]

We need to continue to improve both the quality of articles published in the IJA and maintain reasonable turnaround times. We have expanded the editorial team to cope with the anticipated increase in manuscript submissions. While the editorial team can help improve the written manuscript, the real determinant of quality remains the quality of research. We urge all researchers to send their best studies to the IJA. We welcome large studies based on patient centred outcomes, multicentre studies and systematic reviews. The editorial team will ensure thorough but speedy review at all stages of the article cycle.

We recommend that all articles be registered with the Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI).[34] From April 1, 2018, CTRI will only register studies prospectively, i.e., before the first patient has been recruited into the study. Authors should make the use of this window (up to March 31, 2018) to register their existing studies retrospectively with CTRI.

We plan to publish short commentaries on articles published in the issue to help readers better understand the nuances of the topic and the paper. We also plan to publish short reviews on basic sciences (including anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, statistics, etc.). Details on instructions for such articles will be published in the next few months.

The IJA now has an active Facebook account. Do visit and 'Follow' our Facebook page Ija Web to keep yourself updated with latest issues and articles of IJA and other important information regarding research and anaesthesia.

I hope that in 2018, the IJA will perform even better. We can, and we will!

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.