Applications of three journals rejected, one suspended and one kept pending
ISLAMABAD: The Journals Evaluation Committee of Pakistan Medical & Dental Council which met here under the chairmanship of Prof. Khalid Masood Gondal on Saturday February 22nd has recommended twenty-two medical journals for recognition to the Council. Applications of three journals were rejected, one was suspended while after detailed discussion the case of one journal was kept pending. The recommendations will be sent to the PM&DC Council for final approval.
Prof. Khalid Massod Gondal Chairman of Journals Committee of PM&DC chairing the meetting held at Islamabad on Saturday February 22nd, 2025.
The Journals Committee, it may be mentioned here, has been further strengthened and during the last meeting about half a dozen new members were co-opted who also participated in the deliberations. Those who were physically present included Prof. Khalid Masood Gondal, Prof. Maj. Gen. Muhammad Aslam, Prof. S.H. Waqar, Mr. Shaukat Ali Jawaid, Brig. Alamgir and Brig.Khadija the newly coopted members from Army Medical College who are affiliated with Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal, Prof. Junaid Sarfraz from Health Services Academy. Prof. Jamshed Akhtar, Prof. Shahid Pervez from Karachi, Prof. Akhtar Sherin from Kohat, Dr. Noori Kiran from Faisalabad attended online. Dr. Shaista Registrar of PM&DC, Dr. Rukhsana in charge Journal Section, Ms. Rukhsar also from the Journal Section were also present. Prof. Kamran from Lahore is another coopted member of the committee.
Evaluation reports prepared by members of the committee related to twenty-nine biomedical journals were discussed in detail before taking final decision. During evaluation some of the important aspects which are looked into include comprehensive information on the journal website which should be functional, peer review reports which is central to the quality and standard of any journals. Each manuscript published must be reviewed by at least two reviewers. Time line of publication i.e. when the paper was submitted, revised, and accepted with dates. Following authorship guidelines by the Internaitonal Committee of Medial Journal Editors (ICMJE) and ethics in publication Guidelines by Committee on Publication Ethics is essential.
The editors are expected to ensure that they do not promote gift authorship which is quite common and a menace also known as intellectual corruption. The Journals are encouraged to use Open Journal System (OJS) for manuscript management and upload all the related documents like Ethics Committee Approval of each manuscript, Letter of Undertaking, Plagiarism report, Peer Review reports, comments from the authors when they submit the revised manuscript on the OJS so that they can be checked during evaluation. The journals should also ensure timely publication as per the stated frequency, proper archiving of their data. Journals which are found deficient in the above fail to get approval.
PM&DC Journals Committee held its meetting at Islamabad on Saturday February 22nd, 2025. Group photograph taken on the ocasion shows the participants from (L to R) Ms. Rukhsar, Mr, Shaukat Ali Jawaid, Maj. Gen. M. Aslam, Prof. Khalid Massod Gondal Chairman of the committee, Brig. Khadija, Dr. Shaista Registrar PM&DC, Dr. Rukhsana Incharge Journal Section. Second row from (L to R) Brig. M. Alamgir, Prof. Junaid Sarfraz and Prof. S.H. Waqar.
During the meeting it was also decided that any journal which is rejected won’t be eligible to apply for recognition at least for six months. Most of the journals recommended for recognition were for a period of one year. Even those journals which get recognition can be rechecked at any time to ensure that they constantly follow the guidelines and if some unethical practices are noted, the committee may recommend suspension of recognition of that particular journal. The objective is to ensure that there is no compromise on quality.
PM&DC Journals Committee members are keen to facilitate the journals to improve their quality and standard. Training sessions for the Editors were organized in the past at Lahore and Islamabad and similar training sessions are planned to be organized at Karachi and Quetta besides Peshawar.
The Committee members appreciated the work put in by the Journal Section headed by Dr. Rukhsana which has so far evaluated about one hundred journals. Nine new applications were also considered and each journal was forwarded to three members of the committee for evaluation. They were requested to submit their reports in next two to three weeks. Concluding the meeting Prof. Masood Gondal thanked all the committee members for their useful input and valuable suggestions. He also thanked the PM&DC staff particularly DR. Rukhsana for making arrangements for the meeting.
During the previous meetings it was also decided that all Impact Factor Journals will be recognized and evaluated after three years, some will be recognized for two years and others for one year which all depends on the evaluation. report by the experts. However, it does not mean that no journal can be re-evaluated at any time in case there are some reports of unethical practices or deterioration of their quality and standard. Medical institutions publishing journals are advised to have proper office of journal and dedicated staff. They must provide proper infrastructure, minimum staff and facilities to ensure timely publication of the journal.
