On Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the "Medical Archives" Journal (1947-2021).

This year the journal "Medical Archives" celebrates 75 year of existing. "Medicinski Arhiv/Medical Archives" was founded in 1947 as official journal of the Association of Physicians (Sabor ljekara Bosne i Hercegovina) of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the first Editorial board was consisted of academicans: Vladimir Cavka (Professor of Oftalmology), Blagoje Kovacevic (Professor of Surgery), Bogdan Zimonjic (Professor of Internal medicine), and Ibro Brkić (Professor of Internal medicine). Exactly the Medical Archives journal was a key milestone that helped in education of all academic and professional staff that became the foundation of Bosnian and Herzegovinian medicine as a science and health care as a profession. Medicinski Arhiv was included in largest bimedical database Medline in 1947 and till now in that database is deposited more than 7000 papers. Also this journal has highest h-Index in Scopus database ranked by SCImago rank. In Medicinski Arhiv journal authors from more than 60 countries from whole the world published their papers, some of them with very high Scopus h-Index.

BACKGROUND

Medicinski Arhiv/"Medical Archives" was founded in 1947 as official journal of the Society of physicians of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the first Editorial board was consisted of Vladimir Cavka, Blagoje Kovacevic, Bogdan Zimonjic. Exactly the Medical Archives journal was a key milestone that helped in education of all academic and professional staff that became the foundation of Bosnian and Herzegovinian medicine as a science and health care as a profession (1-5).

The first Editoral Board, besides mentioned academicians were consisting from 1947 until 1952 by: secretary of the Editorial Board, professor Ibro Brkic, while as the Editorial Board members was very well-established Bosnian and Herzegovinian scientists: Dimitrije Dimitrijevic, Grujica Zarkovic, Slavko Djurisic, Feodor Lukac, Milos Aranicki, Teodor Ilic and Mihajlo Protic.

In the first issue published in 1947, academician Vladimir Cavka, the first Editor-in-Chief, signs the Editorial in the first issue with this line: "Our leaders, not sparing the enormous material resources, trying with all their strength that or Medical Faculty in Sarajevo as quickly as possible put on a solid foundation, expecting rightly, of all who participate in the construction of the Faculty the maximum effort. With the formation of the Medical Faculty in Sarajevo and the activation of the Association of Phisicians for Bosnia and Herzegovina there was a need of issuing a professional medical journal, in which, next to scientific papers and articles can be included also clinics and therapy of all branches of medicine, and which will, in the first place, were of interest to practicing doctors. Also the journal was publishing articles from the organization of the medical service, social medicine, as well as articles from the medical literature" (1).

Five years later (May 18, 1952), at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Phisicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Editorial Board Secretary Dimitrije T. Dimitrijevic, after the Assembly accepted the proposal to elect in the Editorial Board: professor Nedo Zec, professor Spiro Janovic, Teodor Ilic, MD, Isak Samokovlija, MD, S. Teofanovic, MD, professor Mihajlo Protic, professor Blagoje Kovacevic, professor Milivoje Sarvan, professor Stanislav Szabo, professor Bogdan Zimonjic, professor Feodor Lukac, and professor Milos Aranicki. As Editor-in-Chief of the journal has been elected professor Vladimir Cavka, who submited to the Assembly a report of the Editorial Board, the next states:

"The articles received for publishing was mostly from the clinics and the institutes of the Medical Faculty in Sarajevo, as well as other medical experts of our capital. But also were accepted and published articles from other medical centers, primarily in Belgrade and Zagreb, or from other places of our Republic. This increased participation of doctors from others sites which was particularly noticeable in the last year, which clearly showed how much the journal gained the reputation beyond the borders of our Republic... Editorial Board took care to gather the highest possible number of young doctors, to whose cooperation and commitment we owe the most in this considerable progress compared to the early years ... In an effort to improve the journal as much as possible and taking into account the larger influx of articles, Editorial Board has decided that during the year increase the number of volumes. As a result, it is made a shift from three-month to two-month publishing, although this required more effort and more material costs. So in the course of 1951, instead of four was published six volumes of our journal, two of which were double issues... Editorial Board will try to persist on that path. Having constantly in front them our young state of medicine as a science and the great need of medical practice, they will try by uniting and representing the demands of both, to keep despite all the difficulties this our journal in the future at the required high level. At the same time, it will try to provide to physicians, particularly those in our Republic, mainly the articles relating to the many questions of modern medicine" (1).

From respect for a number of our scholars and researchers who over the past fifty years was engaged in publishing of the Medical Archives, in this Editorial, we will pride one summary, cursory crossection of their names and activities in journals in the past period.

The tenth anniversary volume of Medical Archives was edited by the Editorial board, consisting of: Vladimir Cavka - Editor in Chief, Dimitrije Dimitrijević - Secretary, and members of the Editorial board: Blagoje Kovacević, Bogdan Zimonjić, Grujica Zarković and Slavko Djurisić. In the period from 1957 to 1959, the post of Editor in Chief was held by professor Blagoje Kovacević, a secretary professor Jakob Gaon. In 1960 the function of Editor in Chief was given to professor Bogdan Zimonjić, and between 1961 and 1963 professor Milos Aranicki and Secretary of the Editorial Board was professor Jakob Gaon. Then, from 1964 to 1965, and the anniversary 1966 the function Editor in Chief was carried out by professor Bogdan Zimonjić and Editorial board secretary by professor Jakob Gaon. Other members of this 20th anniversary volume of Medical Archives was Ernest Grin, Seid Huković, Zivojin Jeftić, Milenko Perinović, A. Rasković and Nedo Zec. From the 1967 to 1971 Editor in Chief was professor Jakob Gaon, and the Secretary of the Editorial board professor Milenko Perinović. Since 1972, was introduced the position of deputy Editor in Chief, and from that year until 1976 jubilee function of the Chief Editor performs professor Midhat Prcić and as his deputy professor Rikica Najdanović. Also introduced was the dual functions of the secretary and in this period secretaries were Ass. professor Albert Musafija and Ass. professor Arif Smajkić.

Jubilee 1976 (volume 30) Editorial Board was consisted of: professor Midhat Prcić, Editor in Chief, professor Rikica Najdanović, Deputy Editor in Chief, Editorial Board Secretary Ass. professor Momir Macanović and Ass. professor Arif Smajkić. Members of the Editorial Board were: Mirjana Dzumhur, Izet Hadzić, Faruk Konjhodzić, Albert Musafija, Jamal Rezaković, Irfan Zulić, Izet Osmanagić, Bozidar Pokrajcić and Berislav Topić. Then, in 1977 Editor in Chief became professor Seid Huković, his deputy Chief physician Milorad Tomasević, and the Secretary of the Editorial Board professor Dubravka Potkonjak and professor Slobodan Loga. From 1981 to 1983, Editor in Chief was Chief physician Milorad Tomasević, his deputy professor Faruk Konjhodzić and Secretary of the Editorial Board Branka Kovacević. From 1984 to 1988, function of Editor in Chief Editor performs professor Irfan Zulić and of Secretary Branka Kovacević (deputy function is canceled).

Jubilee 40th volume of the Medical Archives was edited the Editorial Board with the following members: professor Irfan Zulić, Editor in Chief, Branko Kovacević, Secretary of the Editorial Board, and members: Mirjana Bokonjić, Stjepko Jadrić, Mustafa Kapidzić, Dusko Kecmanović, Mihael Sabljak, Arif Smajkić, Vera Tadić, Berislav Topić and Jovo Vranić. From 1989 to 1991 pre-war position of Editor in Chief, was held by professor Mirko Grujić, and the Secretary of the Editorial Board Antonija Kecman.

It should be noted that, in addition to numerous other difficulties that we have experienced during war 1991, 1992, and 1993 years have been suspended the continuous publishing of Medicinski Arhiv/Medical Archives journal. True, the problems of financial and technical nature have always been hampered and slowed down its regular publishing, but the circumstances of war specially underlined these difficulties, and the Medical Archives practically ceased to be published until 1994. Thanks to the exceptional dedication of certain individuals, we were able to ensure the continuity of our journal indexing. But there have been also other problems that are interfering with regular publishing of Medical Archives. In addition to those of financial and technical nature, a significant role played also the problems of quality articles authorization, the quality of peer review, while hindered communication and serious war policies were crucial to the quality of writing articles and their publication in the Medical Archives has declined significantly. War Editorial Board from 1991 to 1994 year consisted of professor Irfan Zulić as Editor, and professors Izet Masić and Halid Sulejmanagić – as his deputies and Board members: Faruk Dalagija, Zehra Dizdarević, Osman Durić, Mediha Filipović, Mirko Grujić, Sabira Hadzović, Salahudin Hodzić, Halid Hujić, Faruk Konjhodzić, Nedzad Mulabegović, Branko Nikolin, Amir Pleho, Umid Salaka, Vera Sunjic, Hamid Tahmiscija and Savo Vlaski. From 1994 the function of Editor in Chief performs professor Izet Masić.

The 50th anniversary volume was edited by the Editorial Board: professor Izet Masić, as Editor-in-Chief, Chief physician Zoran Ridjanović as his deputy and members of the Board professors and associates: Zijad Beslagić, Maida Ganibegović, Mirko Grujić, Zoran Hadziahmetović, Ljiljana Milanović, Bakir Nakas, Branko Nikolin, Besim Prnjavorac, Enver Raljević, Sead Redzepagić and Umid Salaka.

Jubilee 60th volume of the journal " Medical Archives" in 2006 was edited by the Editorial Board composed of: professor Enisa Mesić, ass. professor Belma Paralija, ass. professor Nada Koluder, professor Zakira Mornjaković professor Bećir Heljić, academician Husref Tahirović, ass. professor Haris Tanović, ass. professor Habiba Salihović, professor Izet Masić (Editor-in-Chief), ass. professor Damir Aganović and professor Osman Sinanović.

Jubilee 70th volume of the journal " Medical Archives" in 2016 was edited by the Editorial Board composed of very influential internationaly recognized scientists: Prof. Kenan Arnautovic (University of Tennessee, USA), Prof. Jacob Bergsland, (The Intervention Centre, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway), Prof. Marko Buksa, (Clinic for Internal diseases, Faculty of medicine, Sarajevo, BiH), Prof. Benjamin Djulbegovic, (University of Tampa, Florida, USA), Bahare Fazeli (Inflammation and Inflammatory Diseases Research Center, Medical school, Mashhad, Iran), Prof. Vjekoslav Gerc, (University of Sarajevo, BiH), Prof. Mirko Grujic, (University of Mostar and Sarajevo, BiH), Prof. Izet Hozo, (Clinic for Internal diseases, Faculty of medicine, University of Split, Croatia), Prof. Ahmad-Reza Jamshidi (Rheumatology Research Center Tehran University of Medical Sciences: Tehran, Tehran, Iran), Prof. Jasenko Karamehic, (Clinical center of University of Sarajevo, BiH), Prof. Abdulah Kucukalic, (Psychiatric clinic, Clinical center of University of Sarajevo, BiH), Prof. Asim Kurjak, (Dubrovnik International University, Dubrovnik, Croatia), Prof. Pavle Milenkovic, (Faculty of medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia), Prof Resia Pretorius, (Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria), Prof. Zeljko Reiner, (Clinical center “Rebro”, Faculty of medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia), Prof. Osman Sinanovic, (Neurology clinic, University clinical center Tuzla, BiH), Murat Ugurlucan (Istanbul, Turkey), Prof. Muharem Zildzic, Faculty for health sciences, University of Zenica, BiH), Editor-in-Chief was Prof. Izet Masic.

INFLUENCE OF "MEDICINSKI ARHIV" ON DEVELOPMENT OF MEDICAL SCIENCES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Exactly the Medicinski Arhiv/Medical Archives journal was a key milestone that helped in education of all academic and professional staff of Bosnian and Herzegovinia in academic educational institutions and health care organizations (6-12). Medicinski Arhiv was included in MEDLINE as largest biomedical database in 1947 and till now in that database is deposited more than 7000 papers. Also this journal has highest H index in Scopus database ranked by SCImago rank. In Medicinski Arhiv journals authors from more than 60 countries from whole the world published their papers, some of them with very high peronal rank of h-Index.

"Medical Archives" grew by content, with more quality design, more international and over the past decade well known in Europe and the World, and on the library shelves of major university centers in Europe, and as on-line edition is represented in more than 30 databases. Since 2013 full articles published in Medical Archives are available in the database PubMed Central,

In 1996, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of publishing "Medical archives" I made a detailed analysis of past events related to historical facts and figures, which are responsible for maintaining the continuity of the journal, and this text was published in the journal issue of Medical Archives, 1996; 50 (1-2) as it was stating this: "It is needless to point out how much and what kind of role this journal played over the past 50 years. Medical Archives became affirmed medical journal in our country, and by the exchange with the most famous libraries and journals became known in medical circles in majority of the countries of the world.

Described facts about history of "Medicinski Arhiv" were printed in special monograph published on occasion of the 60 years of Medicinski Arhiv promoted in Academy of Science and Art of Bosnia and Herzegoviba in 2006, deposited and visible on web site of the journal (www.medarch.org) and on Researchgate on-line platform (3).

True, from this distance, if we made valid scientific and professional analysis of the value of published articles in "Medical Archives", acceptable at the international level, or by the citation - indices "Impact Factor" and "Influence Factor", which are relevant for the transfer of published scientific information and their availability to the scientific world, we are not sure that these parameters were sufficiently illustrative (9-12).

But do not let that worry us, because according to the Garfield list, just before the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the 1,000 most cited researchers in the world, unfortunately, there is none from the former Yugoslavia. Therefore, we need not be wrong if the citation of articles from the "Medical Archives" is relatively low, because in the same position are many esteemed journals from Bosnia and Herzegovina or other journals from former Yugoslavia (Table 1).

Table 1.

Bosnian and Herzegovinian journals at SCImago rank in 2020

Acta Informatica Medica	(CS 1.8)	(https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21100203503);
Medicinski Arhiv/Medical Archives	(CS 1.7)	(https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/33944)
Medicinski Glasnik	(CS 1.3)	(https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/18442)
Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences	(CS 3.9)	(https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/91727)
Acta Medica Academica	(CS 0.9)	(https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21100245723)
Acta Medica Saliniana	(CS 0.2)	(https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/19600157206#tabs=0)
Folia Medica - Facultatis Medicinae Universitatis Saraeviensis	(CS 0.1) (coverage discontinued in Scopus).	(https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/30480).

At this point another fact must be noted - that a significant decline in the quality of published articles in the "Medicinski Arhiv" occurred after 1991. The reasons for this are well known to us all, and on them we do not need to waste words and time. One is indisputable, browsing through all the volumes of the "Medical Archives", from the first from 1947 to the last in 1995, I got the impression that the articles by, our outstanding teachers and researchers, particularly in the first and the second decade of Medical Archives publishing were of significantly higher quality. This was probably the result of a more serious approach and dealing with science and scientific research in those years.

One thing is certain, "Medical archives" has enabled us all to realize our ideas through research, to convert results of the research into practice, to convert the results of the practice into scientific facts, to join scientific facts in the base of knowledge and, finally, to convert our knowledge into specific policies and practices.

The point of all this is that the whole our research, as our strongest weapon, put in practical use, either in our own environment and internationally. A key element of this philosophy is the rapid application of existing knowledge and spreading it worldwide by modern Information and Communication techologies (ICT). Regardless that existing scientific information are underused and that the creation of new scientific and technical information is very dynamic,

"Medical Archives" by its impact, to a great extent, in many communities improve the quality of health care and was a source of current scientific and professional information in daily activities. This is especially proved valuable during the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina, when it was interrupted the flow of current scientific and technical information from the world, and the publication of the Medical Archives had the most significant educational role in its long history.

On this occasion, we emphasize that extraordinary role in the flow of scientific and technical information have documentation and information that open paths to the exchange of ideas, results and experiences. that is why systematic professional data collection in medical science and practice, and that is and should be one of the most important tasks of the "Medical Archives", should provide that any user of specified data and information is fully and duly informed.

The essence and size of our motives and desires to directly acquired medical scientific and technical information present through the Medical Archives to the general scientific and professional public, has its full meaning and justification. This is supported by the fact that modern ICT for transmission or transfer of scientific and technical information to the most remote corners of the world from the central hosts through influential computer online databases.

In the past period, "Medical Archives" becomes recognizable in the international scientific community, more authors published their articles in it because its recentness become significantly higher compared to other B&H journals and with highest H index included. It is important to note that to all contributed the fact that the "Medical Archives" with the full articles was made available to the wider scientific and academic community after being indexed in prestigious index database PubMed Central and in more than 30 other databases worldwide.

As showen on Table 1. Medical Archives has Impact Factor 0.67, H-Index, 19, Rank 16449, SJR 0.228. The impact factor shown here is equivalent to citescore and is, therefore, used as a replacement for the same. Citescore is produced by Scopus, and can be a little higher or different compared to the impact factor produced by Journal Citation Report.

Medicinski Arhiv/Medical Archives is a journal covering the technologies/fields/categories related to Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q3). SCImago Journal Rank is an indicator, which measures the scientific influence of journals. It considers the number of citations received by a journal and the importance of the journals from where these citations come. SJR acts as an alternative to the Journal Impact Factor (or an average number of citations received in last 2 years). This journal has an h-Index of 21. The best quartile for this journal is Q3.

The ISSN of Medicinski Arhiv journal is 0350199X. An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is a unique code of 8 digits. It is used for the recognition of journals, newspapers, periodicals, and magazines in all kind of forms, be it print-media or electronic. Medicinski Arhiv is cited by a total of 212 articles during the last 3 years (Preceding 2018). Medicinski Arhiv Impact Factor (IF) for 2018-2019 is 0.67, which is computed in 2019 as per it's definition. Medicinski Arhiv IF is increased by a factor of 0 and approximate percentage change is 0% when compared to preceding year 2017, which shows a rising trend. The impact factor (IF), also denoted as Journal impact factor (JIF), of an academic journal is a measure of the yearly average number of citations to recent articles published in that journal.

Medicinski Arhiv has an h-Index of 21. It means 21 articles of this journal have more than 21 number of citations. The h-Index is a way of measuring the productivity and citation impact of the publications. The h-Index is defined as the maximum value of h such that the given journal/author has published h papers that have each been cited at least h number of times.

Readers can visit the official website of the "Medical Archives" journal for the call for paper, submission guidelines, notification date, and submission deadlines (13).

CONCLUSION

The journal "Medicinski Arhiv" has been established in 1947 and published by Society of Physicians of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and since 1992 until 2008 Publisher of "Medicinski Arhiv" has been "Avicena" d.o.o., Sarajevo.

From 2009 journal changed the name to "Medical Archives" and registered in National Library Medicine Catalogue with this name and became official journal of Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Coverage history of this journal is in largest biomedicine database MEDLINE as following: 1950, 1952-2014, 2016-ongoing.

Detailed facts about history of the journal are published on the occasion of 60 years anniversary and promoted at Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2006 and as special monograph it is visible on website of Academy (www.amn.ba) and on ResearchGate platform and Academia.edu platform.