Abstract
This article describes the methodology of preparation,
writing and publishing scientific papers in biomedical journals. given is a
concise overview of the concept and structure of the System of biomedical
scientific and technical information and the way of biomedical literature
retreival from worldwide biomedical databases. Described are the scientific and
professional medical journals that are currently published in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Also, given is the comparative review on the number and structure
of papers published in indexed journals in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are
listed in the Medline database.
Analyzed are three B&H journals indexed in MEDLINE
database: Medical Archives (Medicinski Arhiv), Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical
Sciences and Medical Gazette (Medicinki Glasnik) in 2010. The largest number of
original papers was published in the Medical Archives. There is a statistically
significant difference in the number of papers published by local authors in
relation to international journals in favor of the Medical Archives. True, the
Journal Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences does not categorize the
articles and we could not make comparisons. Journal Medical Archives and
Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences by percentage published the largest
number of articles by authors from Sarajevo and Tuzla, the two oldest and
largest university medical centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author
believes that it is necessary to make qualitative changes in the reception and
reviewing of papers for publication in biomedical journals published in Bosnia
and Herzegovina which should be the responsibility of the separate scientific
authority/ committee composed of experts in the field of medicine at the state
level.
Keywords: System of biomedical scientific and research information,
indexed medical journals in Bosnia and Herzegovina
1. TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Actual
knowledge is acquired through the scientific research. Complete, general,
specific, verifiable and applicable knowledge about the mankind is obtained by
the scientific research (1, 2). Medicine fits into the general definition of
science, as the rational human activity with the clear achievements, laws and
opportunities. Medicine can only be seen as a science, and through the science,
a doctor must apply the scientific method, simply, because it provides the best
proven, deeply thoughtful and critical responses (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Physician’s thinking and work is an essential
and important scientific aspect, in order to be viewed as complete. Mature
research thinking is the most complex and highest form of the human
intellectual activity, and can be planned and transferred only by a mature,
knowledgeable and intelligent individuals who work systematically, consistently
and fairly
Science is
just one of the enthusiasms that draw people, who, in life, not only care for
their survival, but who also try to enter the areas, in which, a person can
only be spiritually present. Science is not much different from philosophy. The
highest degree of knowledge translates into the ability to research problems.
The important scientific work is a team work, because it is a prerequisite for
success. Team work is then followed by the research of the relevant literature,
which acquaints us with the chosen theme and provides the ability to grasp the
essence of the problem. This tedious progression is then continued by the
assistance of the capable mentor – through the process, which can be very
difficult. Scientific and professional work is primarily an educational tool;
its content can be set in different ways. This work requires the use of the
scientific literature and other sciences, except medicine, because, by
following this path, we strengthen the style and spirituality of our work
Science is
a shared, coherent, organized and established knowledge of the human race and
it is one of many human activities. It stands out, particularly with important
contributions, thinking, technology of work and social roles. Science has four
core values
·
•
It is a key link of the education system,
·
•
It is a part of the culture of the nation,
·
•
It contributes to the overall well-being and safety in everyday’s life,
·
•
It represents a source of real knowledge of mankind.
Definition
of the scientific article was presented by the scientist, Day in 1983, and it
reads: “The scientific article is a written and published report on the
original research.” (1). In most cases, the scientist is a person of
exceptional diligence and, it is, at the same time, very focused on what it
does. If someone is engaged scientifically, it can significantly improve the
human condition to put the great effort and endeavor, with the understanding
that the sacrifice of many daily pleasures, will eventually bear the
compounding-human condition improving effects. We must bear in mind, that
dealing with the scientific and professional work, requires a certain level of
intelligence and this process also possesses the following characteristics: a)
the average intelligence, b) the ability of analysis and synthesis, c) power
for the observation, d) will, e) persistence, f) creativity, g) ethics and i)
responsibility.
After the
author selects an inviting and attractive, to him or her, close topic, he or
she should be able to find a mentor. The author than creates the detailed list
that will be his or her guide during the writing of the paper, and finally, the
writing the project begins. The first thing that the author needs is to think,
as to what to write and in which order, in order to create the best possible
scientific publication, which represents the main method of communication among
the scientists. Each item of work must be accurate, with a clear understanding
of the presentation of research results, which must follow and represent, the
logically proven procedures, in order to help to develop a logical scientific
thinking.
As the
authors, (with the help of their mentors or advised by their reviewers) devise
a scheme of work and take all necessary materials for their research
preparation, such as the approximate tables and charts that shall be later
improved. It must be emphasized again that the preparation and design of work
is different from person to person, in a process where each author is striving
to find its own way to approach the article and its own writing style that is
acquired during the years of writing and mentoring. The basis for this
development is the fact that this work is to be subordinate to the reader,
which possesses unique style and harmonious arrangement. We have mentioned the
contents, which, in essence, represent the construction work, which form the
basis and pillar of the authors’ imaginary parts. Scientific and technical
papers are typically written instructions to the journals, in which the author
want to publish his or her article. The overall idea is that every scientific
or professional paper should have the appropriate chapters or parts (sections).
The
concept of pointing out that the usual order of sections is contained in the
abbreviation “IM-RAD” (1, 6).
•
I -Introduction,
•
M–Methods (or methods and materials),
•
R–Results
•
A–and
•
D – Discussion and Conclusion
By
following that order there must be a good reason to use a different expression,
while, (quite to the contrary, in a review article, that would be quite
inappropriate). Usual way in writing of articles for publishing in biomedical
journals is to follow the instructions: – Vancouver’s rules and Uniform
Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing
for Biomedical Publication .
In the
book “How to teach scientific communication”, author F. Peter Woodford pointed
out 22 steps in preparing, writing and presenting of the scientific and
research investigation :
•
Ask yourself whether the time is right
•
Clarify your conclusions by preparing tables and figures complete with titles
and footnotes
•
Decide who will be co-authors
•
Consider the ethics of scientific publication
•
Relate your conclusions to the existing body of knowledge
•
Write a working title and abstract
•
Choose the target journal and make notes on its instructions to authors
•
Define the name of the main sections
•
Fill the section files with relevant brief notes in any order, to form
„ragbags“
•
Range the contents of the ragbags logically
•
Finalize the design and content of tables and figures
•
Make a topic outline and consider writing a sentence outline
•
Write the first draft continuously by collecting references as you go
•
See if the first draft needs major alterations
•
Have the illustrations prepared in the final form for the target journal
•
Polish the prose
•
Rewrite the title and structure the abstract
•
Request private review by three independent critics and your co-authors
•
Re-read the instructions to authors and make any necessary adjustments
•
Revise as many times as necessary
•
Submit the article to the journal
•
Analyze the editor’s decision letter and respond appropriately
2. CONTENTS, STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF BIOMEDICAL JOURNALS
According
to the material that they work on, biomedical journals can be divided into four
groups:
•
Narrow specialized journals;
•
General medical journals;
•
Classic journals; and
•
Primary scientific journals.
Narrow
specialized journals commonly deal with materials from a more narrow area of
research. They are usually oriented towards one segment of medicine, very often
this could be a specific organ or disease,(for example, the journals about
diabetes, cancer, AIDS, neurosurgery or similar). These journals usually
contain the archive features, they are carefully prepared, strictly reviewed
and of high scientific value. Nowadays, most academic journals are issued on a
quarter of a month basis and some every month.
General
biomedical journals are intended for a wider circle of users, which are mainly
interested in the problems concerning biomedicine and natural sciences. Some
examples of the journals are: “Lancet”, “Science”, “Nature”, “Public Health”
and others. These journals are published rather frequently, (once in seven or
fifteen days). They concern very diverse topics and they are meant not only for
the medical practitioners, but also for a wider circle of scientific and
research workers. Some of these journals publish important original articles
from various specialties, with data of wide interest to the medical public (1). There are a few medical publications that
publish actualities from inside the healthcare field or just short news and
reports, similar to those of daily newspapers, such as the “Informator”, also
reside inside this category of journals. This development enables healthcare
workers to stay informed and updated. Due to its content, such publications are
not listed as primary.
Classic
journals concern the issues from just one biomedical field. They are published
once a month and are considered the forerunners of the first journals.
The
primary scientific journals are the part of the scientific literature and the
main source of information. They are serial publications, in which, for the
first time, “the original research results are reviewed and the scientific
articles” are published. Considering that the monotonous criterion for the
classification of these journals does not exist, it is hard to establish their
exact quantity, but it is assumed that there are around 100,000 in existence,
now. The bases for any further calculations of the growth in numbers of these
journals, were 10 journals that were being published in 1750. Estimates tell us
that every 50 years the number of published journals increases tenfold, thus,
the estimate for today is 100,000. The “fading away” of journals is also taken
in account. According to some authors, the number of journals is doubled every
15 years, which amounts to an increase of 5% annually (1). “The Periodicum Biologorum”, one of the most
famous scientific journals founded in 1886 in Zagreb, was listed among the
4,000 scientific journals that are being processed by the Science Citation
Index (SCI). The “Bradford distribution” law states that the most valuable
information is published in a relatively small number of journals. According to
this law, 8,000 primary scientific journals, instead of 30,000 being published
now, would be quite sufficient. Many authors agree that the SCI database
confirms this rule, because in a selection of 4,000 journals, it contains a
majority of valuable information that is published each year, worldwide.
There are
two basic attributes of primary scientific journals: significance and value. We
say that it is significant; “if it efficaciously transmits scientific
information, if it is readily available to scientists and if they read it.”The
best measure of the significance of a journal is the ECHO factor, “which shows
how much the published articles from a journal are cited” (1, 2). For example, if a journal has an echo factor
of 0.10 to 0.30, in a certain period, then, on average 3 to 10 published
articles are cited once. In other words, the echo factor tells us how much the
journal is used and how important it is for the scientists.
The IMPACT
factor shows, “how much a scientific article in a journal is cited on average (8), and it is very similar to the echo factor,
which shows how many articles are cited in a journal” (1, 2). The value of a journal is a completely
different question, that is to say, it is measured, according to the role of
information that is published in it, for the sake of the scientific advancement.
The
significance and value of the primary scientific publications usually go
together. It is an unusual occurrence that a small journal should publish an
article of importance. That is why it is usually suggested that “the echo
factor can be taken as an approximate indicator of the scientific value of a
journal”.
2.1. Quality of primary scientific journals
According
to the estimates that researcher Lackovic and collaborators made, (3,8), 10,000 scientific and research publications
are published daily in the field of medicine, worldwide. This sky high number
is a natural consequence of the scientific progress, but it is also a result of
the syndrome called, “publish or perish”, which shall represent, the
quantitative instead of the qualitative evaluation of the scientific papers.
This is the reason, as to why every scientific milieu, no matter how big or
small, tries to publish its own medical journal. Often, in the newly initiated
journals, not enough attention is paid to the value of the published articles,
so that they are acceptable on the international level. The articles should be
directed towards the worldwide scientific public and be composed according to
its rules. A well known Croatian scientist Silobrchic (1), the researcher in the field of the biomedical
research and scientific information, thinks that “such a journal is the only
one that makes sense of publishing, because there is no other way, in which a
journal could be edited”. This is one of the reasons why, the financing of a
vast number of the “scientific” journals, which do not satisfy international
standards with their quality, is just an irrational way of emptying the science
budget.
The
Institute for scientific information in Philadelphia (ISI) publishes the
publication titled, “Who is publishing in science – WIPIS”, every year. In it,
there is a list of authors who had their publications published that year, in
the journals included by the ISI. The journals included, are the ones thought
to reflect the contemporary scientific – research front. Authors are classified
by the countries they come from and by the institutions they work for.
In the
majority of developed countries, on every 1.000 researches there are one to two
or more journals that are in the SCI. In ex-Yugoslavia the number is 0.18.
Also, in developed countries, on every 1,000 researchers there is one
international journal, and in ex-Yugoslavia, there is one international journal
on every 5,000 researchers. Alongside the development of economy in a country,
the rate for the development of science depends also on the specific terms,
under which the scientific research is conducted. The scientific productivity
of our medical researchers is deemed to be low. An average researcher publishes
a work that is easily available to the international public every 5 years, and
the ones from university do so every three to four years. Every 1,000 doctors
publish six or seven, and those outside clinics and institutes, only 1.1
international clinical papers annually. These statistics are very poor indeed,
since, according to the SCI, we are lagging behind Austria, approximately 70
times.
The number
of published journals in the SCI, from a particular country is not always a
reflection of the scientific activity in that country. Many of the indexed
journals in highly developed countries are formally international, and the
country a journal originates from, is only the country it is being printed in,
(i.e. Switzerland is the host publisher of the indexed publications of SZP:
“WHO Chronicle”, “WHO Technical Report Series”, and so on). The highly
developed countries also host the biggest publishing houses, such as: “Elsevier
Raven Press”, “Pergamon Press” and others, which gain considerable profits by
publishing international journals. For example, a few hundred international
journals, (“Journal of...”, “European Journal of...”, etc.) are printed in The
Netherlands, but that country actually contributes relatively little to the
world’s knowledge fundus (1). The same is true for Switzerland and other
small countries (8).
·
•
The duration;
·
•
Reviews and selection of articles; and
·
•
Expenses.
It is
estimated that, on average, the time between the completion of a scientific
research and its publishing in an appropriate primary scientific journal is
usually between 24 and 30 months, which depends on the scientific field. In
Psychology and natural sciences the time is approximately 12 months (1, 2).
The word
“review” is of Latin descent, (i.e. “recensare” which means to examine
carefully or to overhaul) and it is the critical representation of a paper. The
basic purpose of a review is “the estimation of originality, how scientifically
acceptable the manuscript is and the verification of the references regarding
relevance, revision and adequacy”. During the review, the language (style) of
the paper must not be disregarded.
Doing
reviews is a very delicate and responsible job, because it is the foundation of
the decision about the publication of the paper. Reviewers contribute
considerably to the working quality of the paper with their suggestions and
marks. A reviewer should answer a few crucial questions (1):
•
Is the paper original? (How big is its informational value? / How scientifically
important is it?)
•
Is it relevant for the majority of the journal readers? (Who is the paper
intended for?)
•
What results of the applied researches does the paper have to offer?
•
What results of experimental researches does the paper have to offer?
What is
its practical value?
•
Is the level of the presented material acceptable?
•
Scientifically, (e.g. the methodology, results overview, discussion, quoting);
•
Documentary, (e.g. table and picture quality, statistical evaluation);
•
Linguistically, (i.e. intelligibility, terminology validity, stylistic and
orthographic order);
•
Formally, (i.e. whether the title is corresponding to the content, is the
manuscript composed according to the journal’s proportions, does it contain all
the essential parts, etc.);
•
The editorial boards of the better journals usually send questionnaires that
their reviewers must fill out.
In the
same way we lag behind the rest of the world in the manuscript quality, we also
fall behind in the review quality. Because the reviewer’s job “is under
appreciated”, (e.g. scientific, research and public appreciation); “reviews
are often superficial, slow, biased, flat rated and insufficient”. Reviewers
often do a poor job of categorizing articles, due to the fact that they,
rather tolerate the “atomizing” of the scientific researches, by which the
authors try to “derive” as many original papers as possible, while they do not
pay enough attention to the mentioning of co-authorship(s), or the ever
increasing cases of falsification of the scientific results. Falsification is a
very serious occurrence and represents such a significant problem that the US
Congress is investigating that unfortunate phenomenon by utilizing the
“MEDLARS” database, which keeps track of the recalled papers. This is why the
motto of “publish or perish” is turning into its opposite, “publish and
perish”, lately. The categorization of articles and the evaluation of the
LPU,-(e.g. “Least Publishable Unit”) are also a part of the reviewers’ job, so
we will deal with them in more details.
According
to Rumboldt , all articles in journals can be categorized in five groups:
•
Original scientific articles;
•
Previous announcements;
•
Review articles;
•
Scientific meetings’ presentations;
•
Research articles.
Only
original scientific articles, reviews and ordered lectures from the scientific
gatherings can be considered to be the true “scientific papers”. An article
must contain “the original data”,(which is a new way to approach a problem, new
hypotheses and a way to broaden horizons for the upcoming researches). It must
also offer an opportunity to test the results, ( which are clearly defined
methods of the procedure(s) and replicable results, so it could be proclaimed
as “an original”. On the other hand, the research articles deal with the facts
that are known beforehand, as well as with the known methods on a new test
samples.
Process of
distributing the research corpus into smaller parts leads to the phenomenon
known as “the scientific inflation” and researcher Garfield attempted to take
measures against this undesirable development .He retaliates by determining, “the
smallest unit of information that is allowed to be published” (e.g. “least
publishable unit” – LPU). A reviewer must therefore determine, as to whether an
article can be published in the presented form or be incorporated into a bigger
announcement.
The
decision to decline a manuscript to be published is under the jurisdiction of
the reviewer and editor in chief, so that the process of reviewing an article,
before it could be published is the key part of journal’s policy. Around 5,000
papers are submitted to the “British Medical Journal”, and only 600 or 12
percent are published. 50 percent of papers go through the reviewing process,
while the rest are simply declined, either, because they are considered
unoriginal, overly specialized, unintelligible or scientifically insufficient .
As of
recently, all of the serious international journals have been using a wider
international group of reviewers chosen among scientists, judged to be the most
competent, in the given branch of science . In some countries, the researchers
usually write reviews of projects and scientific papers for each other, thereby
breaking the autonomy of the evaluation. To lessen such a danger, some journals
use the “anonymous reviews”.
The delay
in announcing the results of a paper depends on the time needed for a quality
review, while giving the final touches to a manuscript and it is certainly a
lesser evil than a worthless “scientific” hyper .The matter of expenses that
arise in the course of publishing an article must not be ignored, due to the
fact that they concern both authors and publishers, equally. The price of a periodic
in foreign currency rises annually on a 10-15 percent rate (21). In addition,
if we add to that the fact that a scientist must “buy” 20 to 30 articles, so
that he/she could discover those among them that are of real interest to
him/her, the problem of expenses gets even more serious. It is estimated that,
in average, 17 mail packages are exchanged in the period from the submission of
an article and its publication. In order to save money, a few medical journals
will give honorary payments to the editors and associates. Furthermore, today’s
tendency translates into the practice that the authors take either partial or
full part in the covering of the expenses, which is deemed to be actually in
their best interest (8).
Secondary
publications
Intensive
and rapid development of biomedical science has led to the production of large
quantities of documents and information. At the same time, we can observe the
increased demands of scientists and health workers for the “fast, reliable and
complete information.” This led to the development of the “secondary
publications”, as a guide through the primary literature. As the number of
primary publications grew, this development had accelerated the development of
the secondary publications, whose basic task was to monitor the rate of
appearance and development of the primary publications. Regardless of the
forms, the common characteristics of secondary publications are that these
publications point to the information provided by the primary publication,
(i.e. by providing its description and content), and by facilitating the choice
of proper primary publication. “Essentially, secondary publications summarize
the primary document and then group the summaries of documents together,
according to their professional classification criteria. This allows that
significantly reduced space contains higher density of semantically related
information, which, in turn, significantly simplifies user’s job.
Individual
researcher should now spend a lot of working hours, not to read professional
literature, but only to select the titles of articles that should be read.
Because of this “information chaos”, on each researcher, one librarian should
be hired, only to perform groupings and selection of potentially relevant
articles. This “problem” can usually be solved by the international system of
secondary and tertiary publications and computer databases.
Bradford
is the first scientist who has scientifically proven that 90 percent of the
important research results are published in the relatively small nucleus of the
journals and that an attempt to come to 100 percent of the relevant data is
almost impossible. Garfield has found that the use of works from certain
journals can cause even more selection, as exemplified in – the- so-called,
“Law of concentration.” That “law” implies that the basic list of 500 to 1,000
journals publishes about 95% of all significant papers (8).
Depending
on the manner of describing the primary documents, the secondary publications
are divided into the following groups (1):
•
index journals;
•
index–abstract journals;
•
the general and special bibliographies, and
•
library catalogues, (e.g. alphabetic, author, research and subject).
Index
journals
In
biomedical area there are significant numbers of index journals. Among them are
the two most famous, “Index Medicus and Current Contents”.
Index
Medicus is the
oldest secondary publication in the biomedical field, which was founded in
1879, by the John Billings Show, who was the first director of the National
Library of Medicine, located in Bethesda, USA “(NLM) from 1865– 1895. Index
Medicus is considered to be the precursor of all secondary publications. After
several changes the current form of Index Medicus came into shape in 1960.
Index Medicus analyzes about 3,500 primary biomedical publications, received in
the NLM library, in the period of the last 3-6 months before the
publication of Index Medicus (1). It is published once a month, or as “a
cumulation”, while its content covers a complete biomedical field. Latest
information for users of Index Medicus is provided by the „Medical Subject
Headings”-(MESH), which in fact are alphabetically arranged, according to the
“MESH” classification rules for the field of biomedical science. The Index
Medicus’s user can simply obtain basic bibliographic information about the
article or monograph as follows: name and the name of the author, the title of
the document and complete information about the source – carriers of the
document, then the name of the journals where the document is published, the
year, volume number and page number(s) where the document is located. Index
Medicus is frequently used in medical practice and physicians consider that the
journal is a primary tool in the retrieval of the necessary information.
Every
year, in January, (the first) issue of Index Medicus, gives in the separate
section the special information for the Index users, such as :
•
Abbreviation list of journals that handle Index Medicus;
•
Complete list of titles of journals;
•
The subject headings grouped by broad areas;
•
The subject headings grouped by fields in the Index Medicus;
•
Register of the author; and
•
Special topic bibliography (e.g. pharmacodynamics).
In January
issue of Index Medicus thesaurus – dictionary is published, which informs users
about the subject that will be handled in the current year table 1.
MESH–Medical Subject Headings
Each
dictionary represents a different scheme of organizations of terms. Medical
Subject Heading (MESH)- thesaurus is the genesis of the development of National
Library of Medicine (NLM). MESH is an “up to date” list of biomedical headings
that were introduced by researchers of NLM’s during a continuous monitoring of
development of medical terminology, semantics and synonyms. MESH creation was a
very active process . MESH publishes annually approximately 15,000
index terms and 7,000 synonyms that give about 22,000 descriptors. The last
issue of Index Medicus was published in December 2004 (Volume 45). The stated
reason for discontinuing the printed publication was that online resources had
supplanted it, most especially PubMed, which continues to include the Index as
a subset of the journals it covers.
Current
Contents is the
relatively recent Index Journal, which has gained a great reputation, within a
very short period of time and it is popular with scholars in the field of
biomedical science. It was founded in 1958 by the Institute for Scientific
Information of Philadelphia – ISI, Pennsylvania, (USA). It analyzes 4500
primary biomedical publications and informs users about basic bibliographic
data, through the “Current Contents”, (i.e. practically immediately after
publishing of primary publications (mainly journals)). “Current Contents” is
classified into seven sections and it is published weekly. Each of its volumes
contain the most important publications in the world and, as such, bring the
author(s) index(es) in addition to the address book of authors who should be
contacted for full texts. In conclusion, there is also the subject index
consisting of the keywords from the titles of each article (8). Current Contents/Clinical Medicine® provides
easy access to the complete tables of contents, abstracts, bibliographic
information and all other significant items in recently published editions of
over 1,120 leading biomedical Journals. The web version titled the “Current
Contents Connect”, offers daily updates and data from evaluated web sites and
documents.
In this
way, users in the biomedical science are promptly informed about the latest
documents and information from the immediate area of their interest. Unlike the
Index Medicus that selects articles, according to the opinion of specialists:
(i.e. doctors, librarians and editor(s) of the journal(s)), Current Contents
bases its selection, primarily according to the frequency of their citations,
(i.e. according to the impact factor–(IF)).
Index–abstract
journals
This
category of journals, in addition to the bibliographic data, offers the user a
brief “abstract” (summary). In the literature for this kind of journals, other
terms, such as: (i.e. bibliographic–references, bibliographies–abstracts are
used, which, in essence, have the same meaning). Short summary – abstracts,
from the primary publications of the original authors’ articles are sufficient
for the users to understand the essence of the authors’ messages. Recently,
indexed–abstract journals have become more attractive, because, due to the
nature of financial difficulties, the printing of complete primary documents
becomes quite a difficult proposition ().
The first
journal of this kind has been printed long ago, in 1830, and today there are
3000 such journals world wide. At the same time, around 500 indexed –
abstract-journals are published in the biomedical field.
Excerpta
Medica or
journal abstracts, (“Abstract Journal “) is an indexed – abstract-journal with
the highest reputation, which now attracts the majority of users within the
biomedical field. It is published by the “Elsevier Science Publishers, a Dutch
company from Amsterdam, which begun publishing from 1946 on. Typical for this
journal is that it is quite expensive, but in return offers the abstracts as
the supplements to the bibliographic data, and therefore has a big advantage
when compared to other journals of this kind. Finding information for users is
facilitated by “Excerpta Medica”, published by sections or the professions. At
the end of each volume, the “cumulative number” is given. That number gives an
overview of the whole sum of matter treated in all issues of the same volume.
Today, the journal analyzes, either totally or selectively, around 3500 primary
publications in the field of biomedical science. The Search Criteria is
utilized by the topic, the significance of the article and its contained
information. In preparing of summaries, about 4,000 associates are involved
around the world, including well known researchers in the specific areas, who
are familiar with the language in which the article was written (8, 14). “Medicinskij referativnij” journal, is by
its very conception, very similar with the journal “Excerpta Medica”. This
journal was launched by the Ministry of Health of the USSR in 1957. Similarly
to Excerpta Medica, it is published by sections – professions, (i.e.”Russian
razdeli“),and analyzes 2500 primary publications in the field of biomedical
science. In a similar fashion, like Excerpta Medica, along with the basic
bibliographic information, this journal publishes short abstracts- (summaries).
Undoubtedly,
the abstract–indexed journals are used today in the world, and even in a
certain sense they determine the fate of the primary publications. Thanks to
the abstracts of articles that are published in these journals, searching and
reading of journals, in which these articles were published can be improved.
Below
listed types of publications belong in this category (i.e. specific literature,
encyclopedia, manuals, dictionaries, lexicons, etc.). This bibliography does
not have the importance, which is usually given to the secondary publications
(some of them are called “tertiary publications”) ). It is important to note that for the most of
the users, these publications ensure faster, easier and more immediate access
to the scientific and technical information. These publications are more used
for consultation in the process of information retrieval.
Indexed–Citation
Journals
The most
famous indexed–Journal is “Citation’s Science Citation Index (SCI)”, which has
been issued by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), since 1964. Science
Citation Index (SCI) is a list of scientific texts from all over the world. It
displays the information about the author, the title, the subject, etc. for
each scientific paper. All this information is taken from more than 4,000 of
scientific journals. SCI is based on the concept of indexing citations of the
literature quoted in some scientific papers. It contains four interconnected
indices ():
•
Citation Index” – organized in alphabetical order of cited authors or
chronological order of their cited papers. Every author and his article are
quoted as the statement list of authors, the title, subject etc.
•
“Source Index”– brings all newly published papers, with the first authors’
names, according to the alphabetical order, in the processed journals for the
certain year of indexing;
•
“Permuterm Subject Index”– creates a permutation of the words, according to
their meaning from the title articles that are contained in the Source Index;
•
“Corporative Index”– includes the geographical and organizational section and
then sorts the authors of works that are covered by the Source Index, according
to the states, cities and organizations, in which the authors work.
SCI is
very important source for the “Scientometrics research” ,in the framework of
Scientometrics, “which is defined as a quantitative process of studying the
science of the information’s significance” . Specifically, SCI publishes a large number of
information on authors, institutions, countries, etc. (.
HistCite
Software
HistCite
is a software to aid researchers in visualizing the results of literature
searches in the Web of Science. HistCite lets one analyze and organize
the results of a search to obtain various views of the topic’s structure,
history, and relationships. It is easy way to provides perspectives and
information not otherwise available ).
HistCite
is a software implementation of algorithmic historiography, and has been
developed by Dr Eugene Garfield, founder of the Institute for Scientific
Information and the inventor of the Science Citation Index©. The main purpose
of this software is to make it easier for individuals to perform bibliometric
analysis and visualization tasks. Bibliometric analysis is the use of the
bibliographic information (titles, authors, dates, author addresses,
references, etc.) that describes published items to measure and otherwise study
various aspects of a specific field of scholarly endeavor.
Frequent
questions asked by bibliometricians and others that can be answered by HistCite
analysis are: How much literature has been published in this field? When and in
what countries has it been published? What countries are the major contributors
to this field? What are the languages most frequently used by the items
published in this field? Who are the key authors in this field? What
institutions do these authors represent? Which articles are the most important?
The answers to such questions are valuable to researchers, librarians, and
administrators.
This
software can be downloaded free of charge at Thomson Reuter’s web site. To take
full advantage of the software’s features you will need access to the Web of
Sciences. To learn more about HistCite visit their Web Site at
3. BASIC COMPONENTS OF THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE
3.1. Title of the article
Title of
the paper/article contains a set of terms in the shortest form describing the
content of the scientific research. Title has a function, which accurately
describes the content of the paper. There are two types of titles: Indicative
title – is the type of title about the work that covers, for example,
“Treatment of mild and moderate inflammation of the urinary bladder with
Bactrim tablets”. An informative title – represents the type of title where one
sentence conveys the message of the article and it is recommended for the
beginners. In this case, the article conveys the message to the reader about
all the major elements–,such as “One drug in a combination with another drug is
effective in treating a mild and moderate forms of the disease, although it
seems that only the first medicine implies to be working” (.
When
writing the article, the title should be borne in mind, so that the reader
understands the title through the prism of their past experiences and
knowledge. Also, the title tends to animate readers to take an interest in this
topic and that the he or she wants to read the paper. Title can be viewed as „a
summary of the summary“. The title is formed to meet all the requirements that
are necessary and that were the subject of the research. Often, the process of
thinking about the title is long and tedious, because it is difficult to
satisfy „its demands“.
A good
title should be:
a) the shortest possible, the most in two rows and less than 100 characters, b)
correct, and must not imply to deceive or confuse; c) clear, because the reader
does not wonder what it means, d) the shortest possible, but the most complete,
e) to inform and d) to attract attention, in order to be easily remembered.
A good
title should have the following characteristics: a) contains the main
characteristics of the article, b) shows what is of the utmost importance in
the work, c) uses the same terms as: the purpose, methodology or results d)
does not contain any abbreviations and d) may be in the form of question.
3.2. Authors of the article
Under the
title of the paper, it outlines the names of the authors or researchers who
have created work that is accomplished by the research. The real author is
listed immediately below the title’s work and other investigators who also
participated in the survey may be indicated either at the end of the work, or
in the credits.
3.3. Afillations of authors
They are
listed, in order to represent the author of the work and coauthors. In
particular, they contain the information about the correspondent, with the
editorial board, which communicates as needed, or are interested in seeking an
article in its entirety (in extenso).
3.4. Summary
As in the
title, the abstract also has two modes:
•
Indicative, which are extremely rare in practice and
•
Informational.
The
summary is written in the national and English version, (such as Abstract or
Summary), where each part of the article should be represented with a few
sentences. For clinical studies’ journals, we often want a more detailed
summary structure, which consists of: a) introduction, b) goal, c) subjects and
working methods, d) the place of study, e) measure of the study’s outcome(s),
f) results of the study and g) conclusions. Such a summary view is important to
convey your message to the reader, in the clearest possible terms. Sometimes,
the summary is, for example, omitted in the editorial. Most of the indexed
journals give their instructions with the examples, as to how to write a
SUMMARY/ABSTRACT.
Summary (U.S. abstract) presents a concise
distillation of the article and, as such, should emphasize what was done, the
way it is done, how and what results were obtained and the author’s
interpretation. Abstracts will be acceptable if they are precise and clear. The
acronym “KISS” means, „Keep it Simple and Succinct“, and, as such, it is an
excellent guideline for the summary writing. Its length is determined by the
organizer of the meeting/ journal. Typically they are 200-250 words or one
typed A4 page of double spaced text long.
Summary
is: a) a distillate of what will be
presented and must be shown, b) what has been done; c) how it was done; d) what
are the results and e) what the results mean.
Abstracts must be grammatically correct in
punctuation and writing and that means: a.) a written text must be free of
grammatical and spelling errors, b.) to observe the commas and word order and
c.) the final text must be edited.
The abstract
should: a) be
written as short, b) preserve the integrity of each part of the summary; c)
avoid mixing parts: (i.e. material and methods with results and conclusions)
and d) avoid (approximate) terms: (e.g. work in progress, is about to be done,
the results will be displayed, etc.)
With every
subsequent redaction, (the subsequent checks of the summary text), the abstract
gets better, shorter, clearer, and it is recommended to start with summary
writing „before“and not “a day before” the deadline for its submission.
Each
abstract must have its constituent parts, well linked into one logical unit: a)
Title, b) Introduction c) Materials and Methods, d) Results and e) Conclusions.
When creating a summary the order is not important. It is only important that,
at the end, the summary contains all necessary elements.
3.5. Introduction
Introduction should be comprehensive and must
gradually introduce the reader(s) to the core of future topics and parts/facts
that will later be thoroughly analyzed and described in a paper. Introduction
is very important part of the text, because it gives insight into the skill of
the author, as the researcher and the narrator. Introduction shows the general
part of the paper, (wide context), it communicates what it is already known and
what is not yet known, the problems, according to the hypotheses and what the
author(s) want/s to investigate. There are the following rules as to what to
write in the introduction:
•
Clearly define the issue that attempts to answer,
•
It should be stated as to why the investigation began,
•
There is no need to explain what can be found in any textbook,
•
Do not need to explain terms from the title.
Authors
should write in the present time. Introduction should be brief and clear, with
a maximum of two or three-sentence of introduction. It must also introduce the
reader to the subject of the research. The introduction is usually given to the
definition of a problem or writes a short history compared to the previously
published results of a test, experiment or treatment of the patient, include
the interpretation of abbreviations and it ought to determine the objective/s
of the research.
•
Basic rules for writing an introduction
•
Must be focused to the definitions of certain problem,
•
Should indicate the review and the meaning of the abbreviation(s),
•
Specify the purpose/s of the research.
•
The main role of the introduction
•
To clearly show what is the part of the problem,
•
To highlight why this particular part is investigated,
•
To motivate the reader to read the text.
•
The meaning of the introduction is:
•
To facilitate the reading of the text,
•
To be short, because, if it is too long, the introduction can imply that it was
written by those who wish to show that they have done a lot of reading.
The
meaning of the introduction is to facilitate the reading of the text and to
prepare readers to easily review the methods, results and conclusions. Never
allow the introduction to be too broad. Introduction should be written, so that
it stimulates the reader to read it.
3.6. Materials and methods
The
chapter “Material and Methods” describes how the research is to be conducted
and the research subjects (respondents), which in clinical trials are
represented, by either sick and/or healthy people. It is very important and
significant to examine in detail and describe the subjects included in the
study/research, so that the degree of variation between subjects became more
visible. Specifically, the research must be a complex study of selected
subjects per cohort, and must be conducted under very strict criteria, in order
to avoid the effect of individual variation. Ethical standards for consent of
subjects must be included in the work and participants must give their informed
consent. Materials and Methods must describe all types of medications,
treatments, laboratory diagnosis, diagnosis and they depend upon the topic of
work, definitions and goals/objectives of the research. It also alleges, as to
which group of subjects the focus should be on. Finally, it characterizes the
work and timing, which was performed in the clinic/institute/ laboratory as the
source of data. In conclusion, it gives an overview of all procedures that are
related to a selected group of patients, particularly the new ones, which
should be described in more detail, including as to how to assess their
validity. Part of the chapter that tells about the material that was used and
the methods used must be fairly comprehensive. Its content must answer
important questions. It should be written in the past tense.
•
It is necessary to explain what was studied, asked and evaluated, as follows:
•
Sampling method (random, consecutive and/or representative),
•
Sample size (patient: gender, age),
•
Criteria for exclusion from the study,
•
What is the control group–if there is one.
•
Should describe how the research was done:
•
Type of the study: a) prospective, b) retrospective and/or c) combined.
•
What are the methods of data collection: a) survey, b) a list and/or c) the
control examination.
•
What was the technique for measuring results: a) surgical treatments and/or
b) laboratory tests.
It is
necessary to specify where the research was done, that is the territorial framework
of studies of patients’ city area, canton, at the international level, or,
institution or institutions, in which the testing was conducted.
3.7. Results
The mail
goal of the scientific or professional article is to show the results. That is
also the most important part of the text, whether it is written on the laboratory
research, experimental research or clinical study. The research results, as a
rule, are part of the article to be read the most carefully, so it should be: a)
elaborated, b) well documented and/or c) at the optimal dose.
The
results are showing new findings of the study and follow the logic of the
research. In this section all respondents are to be described, (those who
entered the initial group and all who for some reason were excluded). Often,
the calculated results show – the ratio of the initial group as compared to the
other group of respondents who finished the study. Then it presents the
findings and the differences of the experimental groups. This section also
provides a concise and logical story on the results. Text cannot recount the results
from tables and figures, but should give a summary and critical review of
important findings. It is important that the results are shown in only one way,
(i.e. a figure or text and not in several ways).
•
The results should be displayed in the following way:
•
Measurements must be clearly defined,
Instead of
a multitude of descriptive sentences, make easy-to-read tables and charts,
levels of statistical significance must be clearly defined (e.g. p < 0.5).
3.8. Discussion
The
essence of the discussion is the critical review of the data described in the
results, where, after summarizing, the results are needed to determine the
limits and deviations. The results need to be compared with other findings and
to discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the research.
Conclusions must be made carefully and they should propose the future research.
They should show what is new in the research and how its results fit into the
wider area, which is the described in the beginning of the article in the
Introduction.
3.9. Conclusion
The
conclusion is the logical conclusion of what are the results of a work.
Experienced readers, typically, read the conclusions immediately after the
title and later decide whether to read the entire summary. Therefore, the
conclusions of the work must be short, clear, precise, and/or be the final
statement of what logically follows from the results of the work. Only then we
should single out only the most important parts and give a message.
Conclusions
are written so that they:
a) must respond to the issues raised through the introduction, goals and
general work setting, b) do not need to recount and repeat the results and c)
must be clear and concise and written in the present tense. Good conclusions
should not surprise a careful reader of the text; on the contrary, the reader
should get the impression from the conclusions that he would write them as
such.
3.10. References
Literature
serves as the representation of the author’s inspiration, and also provides us
with an insight of how the author is really interested in its topic(s).
However, it often happens that authors lose the thread in the process of
writing of their work. To write a scientific paper should be a: God’s gift for
writing, knowledge and/or experience. No one can write an article in one night,
the writing requires weeks or even months. In order that certain article(s)
is/are written, it/they also require(s) an extensive literature and the
knowledge so the article(s) contain style, spirituality and harmony that
capture the reader. Quality articles are usually created in cooperation with
the capable mentors who will suggest how to start, implement and prepare them
for the final publication. Specifying (citation) references, in the paper (the
article), must be in accordance with instructions which, as a rule, are
enclosed in the magazines or other publications indexed in printed or
electronic form. The most commonly used are the Vancouver Convention’s rules
for citing literature and some ask to apply Harvard University’s Convention
citations (author and year of publication).
4. PRESENTATION OF THE ARTICLE
There are
certain rules
to be followed in the preparation and presentation in order for the
presentation to be successful. Opinions vary, on whether the work should be
read during the presentation or not. There is a dilemma. whether the speaker
should carry the written manuscript on stage or written notes. For instance,
the Surgical Research Society in the UK prohibits the use of the manuscript. It
is allowed to be used only if the presentation is in a foreign language. In the
U.S. the presentations, even at the national conventions are often read from
the manuscripts. Opinions on this issue are still divided. However, the
prevailing attitude is that the work is read only, if the language, in which
the work is presented, is not native.
Rules to
follow during the presentation are as follows: a) should be borne in mind that
the presentation of the work is not the manuscript to be read at the Congress,
b) do not need to say all that was written in the paper during the
presentation, c) leave something to users/participants to read by themselves,
which is not to be boring, d) it should be an interesting presentation and e)
use modern tools, paints, animation, sound, video and CD.
Duties of
speakers during the presentation are to explain: a.) Why the paper is written (the Aims),
b.) What was done (the Material and Methods); c.) What was the obtained
response (the Results) and d.) what it actually means (the Conclusion)? Slides
for the presentation must be well designed, concise, clear (with the message),
with easy to read background as well as large and legible letters and numbers.
Sequence
of the presentation is very important. In principle, one should observe the following sequence: a)
make a brief introduction, b) describe the material and methods, c) give an
overview of the results, d) give the message–the conclusion.
Frequent
errors during the presentation are: a.) the speech is usually too long (time factor), b.)
unclear presentation (language, terminology and/or acronyms), c.) redundancy in
the presentation of work (introduction, materials and/or methods) and d.)
insignificant conclusion (conclusion must be specific, clear and prominent).
The main
goal is to follow the following rules at the presentation of the article: It is necessary to speak slowly, to
avoid unusual words and acronyms, (to give listeners the obvious examples,
interpret results and not only offer to the audience the mass of numbers), not
to rush at a presentation, but rather, to leave something for the discussion.
It is essential not to forget that public’s attention should be focused on work
and not to look at the speaker. However, the visual impression that the speaker
leaves is very important. People often unconsciously associate the poorly
presentable individuals, as careless in work and vice versa. On the contrary,
the ones who look decent, even before they began speaking are usually
respected. Experience shows that the words give the impression in 7 percent of
cases, 38 percent is given out by the voice, while face and body contribute up
to 55 percent of the total perception. During presentation, the work should
flow seamlessly, (i.e. presentation effort should take care by itself) by
maintaining the professional attitude, position, gestures and visual contact
with the audience.
5. JOURNALS IN B&H
In the
former Yugoslavia first medical journal was „Domestic physician“ (Domaci
lekar): journal for cherishing and safeguarding public health, published in
Pancevo 1971-73. The first scientific journal was the Serbian archives for all
physicians (established in Belgrade, 1874). In Croatia was established in 1877
the Medical News Journal (Medicinski vjesnik), as part of the Association of
physicians in Slavonia and the Croatia Kingdom. In Ljubljana in 1929 was
published Health News (Zdravstveni vestnik). In Sarajevo in 1947 the Medical
Archives (Medicinski arhiv), Journal of the Medical Assembly of B&H
physicians. Jahrbuch des Bosnisch-Herzegowinischen Landesspitales in Sarajevo -
Annual of the National Hospital in Sarajevo which was established in 1897
(published in German) was the oldest medical journal in B&H.
In 1987 in
the former Yugoslavia during 140 scientific and professional journals was published
in the field of medicine and similar disciplines, of which in B&H 39
(1). From this number only 30 of them were
involved in secondary and tertiary indexed publications (from B&H only
Medical Archives and Folia Anatomica Iugoslavica). According to ISI
Philadelphia, which each year publishes the publication “Who is publishing in
science - WIPIS” in 1979 from former Yugoslav countries, was registered more
than 60 authors who have their works published two or three times in the
indexed journals, and in Garfield list of 1000 most cited authors until 1984
there was not an author from the former Yugoslavia, but Yugoslavia was a
country with the largest number of academicians to population, and of 1000
researchers was about 0.18 journals or one journal on 5000 researchers, while
the number in developed countries was 1.2 journals on 1000 researchers.
In
December 2009 within the databases of indexed biomedical literature were recorded
19.3 million cited papers. From the cities of the former Yugoslavia was cited
the articles of scientists and researchers in the following figures: Zagreb -
5002, Ljubljana - 4097, Beograd - 2598, Nis - 959, Rijeka - 687 Split - 609,
Sarajevo - 563, Skopje - 332, Maribor - 301, Osijek - 297, Tuzla - 240,
Kragujevac - 231, Subotica - 93, Pristina - 75, Mostar - 70, Banja Luka
- 20, Podgorica - 9, Bihac – 5. So it means, from the following cities:
Sarajevo, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Mostar and Bihac - five university centers in
B&H, in PubMed/Medline database in late 2009 there was 898 cited articles
from the primary scientific journals, which is 7.3 times less than in
Croatia, 4.9 times less than in Slovenia and 4.3 times less than in Serbia.
Currently
in B&H is published 14 scientific and professional journals and to 3 are
indexed in PubMed, 3 in ISI Web Knowledge, 1 in EMBASE, 9 in EBSCO database, 8
in Index Copernicus - IC based, 2 in CAB abstracts, etc. table 2
Indexed journals in Bosnia and
Herzegovina in the year the 2011
During 2006
in the oldest Medical Faculty in B&H worked 32 full time professors (they
had 543 articles cited in PubMed, of which 508 were published in local
languages and 35 in international journals), which is in average 16 papers in
domestic or 1.1 articles in international journals. Associate professors of the
Medical Faculty in Sarajevo published during the same year 495 scientific and
professional articles, cited in PubMed, of which 31 in international journals.
Assistant professors (33 of them) published 374 articles cited in
PubMed, of which 15 published in international journals. Also given is the
comparative review on the number and structure of papers published in B&H
journals, which are listed in PubMed.
Analyzed
are three B&H journals indexed in MEDLINE database: Medical Archives
(Medicinski Arhiv), Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences (BJBMS) and
Medical Gazette (Medicinki Glasnik) in 2010. As shown in figure 2 the largest number
of original papers was published in the Medical Archives (Chi square - 130.646,
DF 10, significanse level p<0.0001, contigency coefficient - 0.728). there
is a statistically significant difference in the number of papers published by
local authors in relation to international journals in favor of the Medical
Archives (Chi-square - 11.644, DF-2, Significanse level - p=0.0030, Contigency
coefficient-0, 226). True, the Journal BJBMS does not categorize the articles
and we could not make comparisons. Journal Medical Arhchives and BJBMS by
percentage published the largest number of articles by authors from Sarajevo
and Tuzla, the two oldest and largest university medical centers in B&H.
The author believes that it is necessary to make qualitative changes in the
reception and reviewing of papers for publication in B&H medical journals
which should be the responsibility of the separate scientific
authority/committee composed of experts in the field of medicine at the state
level.
figure
Distribution of the published
articles in three indexed B&H journals in PubMed/Medline in 2010
figure 2
The ratio of published articles by
domestic or international authors in journals in Medline
figure 3
The ratio of published articles in
the journals indexed in Medline by authors in B&H centers
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