Global contribution of Indian authors in various critical care journals: An Eye-opener.

Sir,

The number of publications in the field of critical care has continued to grow over the years.[1] Good quality papers are being published from around the globe to critical care journals. Indian researchers have also been increasingly involved in publishing various papers on different sections of critical care. Although Indian authors' contributions have increased in international journals over the years, input is still scarce. There are approximately around 15 exclusively critical care-related journals (indexed in PubMed) worldwide.

We searched for the input of Indian authors in some of the leading critical care journals such as American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM), Intensive Care Medicine (ICM), Critical Care Medicine (CCM), Critical Care (CC), Annals of Intensive Care (AIC), Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM), Critical Care and Resuscitation (CCR), Journal of Critical Care (JCC), Neurocritical Care (NCC), Journal of Intensive Care (JIC), Current Opinion in Critical Care (COCC), Critical Care Clinics (CCC), Journal of Intensive care medicine (JICM), Critical Care Research and Practice (CCRP), and Seminars in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (SRCCM). All of the above journals are PubMed indexed, the database we searched. Each corresponding author's country of origin was also searched. We used relevant journal acronyms as mentioned in PubMed along with search terms “India.”

Searching was carried out on 31 July 2019. A total number of 15566 articles were published in AJRCCM, 58529 in ICM, 45132 in CCM, 4318 in CC, 8374 in AIC, 4181 in PCCM, 1222 in CCR, 3515 in JCC, 2097 in NCC, 392 in JIC, 1822 in COCC, 3862 in CCC, 1208 in JICM, 277 in CCRP, and 1371 in SRCCM. It was found that the Indian authors made a very small contribution: 0.0026% in AJRCCM, 0.00013% in ICM, 0.0012% in CCM, 0.0005% in CC, 0.0023% in AIC, 0.01674% in PCCM, in 0.0016% in CCR, 0.01792% in JCC, 0.0066% in NCC, 0.03571% in JIC, 0.0010% in COCC, 0.0015% in CCC, 0.0074% in JICM, 0.02527% in CCRP, and 0.0029% in SRCCM. Furthermore, numbers of articles in which corresponding author is from India are also very less [Table 1].

Table 1

Indian Author’s contribution to various critical-care related journals

Name of Critical Care Journal	Abbreviations of journals in PubMed	Numbers of Articles when searched by Journal name AND India	Numbers of Articles in which corresponding Author from India
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine	Am J Respir Crit Care Med	42	26
Intensive Care Medicine	Intensive Care Med	59	33
Critical Care Medicine	Crit Care Med	57	48
Critical Care	Crit Care	41	7
Annals of Intensive Care	Ann Intensive Care	20	1
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine	Pediatr Crit Care Med	70	65
Critical Care and Resuscitation	Crit Care Resusc	2	1
Journal of Critical Care	J Crit Care	63	50
Neurocritical Care	Neurocrit Care	14	10
Journal of Intensive Care	J Intensive Care	14	12
Current Opinion in Critical Care	Curr Opin Crit Care	2	1
Critical Care Clinics	Crit Care Clin	6	5
Journal of Intensive care medicine	J Intensive Care Med	9	8
Critical Care Research and Practice	Crit Care Res Pract	7	6
Seminars in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine	Semin Respir Crit Care Med	4	2

In today's critical care practice, there is a strong need to introduce a significant cultural and clinical transformation in the design of critical care studies. Qualitative research must be reasonably appreciated, supported by a conceptual framework and should be feasible in practice. Moreover, a stronger knowledge of studies performs a significant role in potentially affecting the younger generations. The reliability of the academic and research projects presented for publishing must be taken precautions, as quantitative floods could potentially undermine the true advancement the discipline has made. This is how developing countries such as India can make a huge turnaround in critical care literature around the world.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.