Dear Editor,
An editorial in JFMPC had suggested a set of changes in regulations for promotion of medical teachers.[1] Board of Governors, in supersession of the Medical Council of India, has published a notice with regulations called “Minimum Qualifications for Teachers in Medical Institutions (Amendment) Regulations, 2019.”[2] Among the amendments, there are significant changes in research publication criteria, which are shown in Table 1.[2,3,4]
Table 1
Publication requirement for teachers in Indian medical institutions
| Previous[3,4] | Current[2] | |
|---|---|---|
| Journals indexed in | Embase / Excerpta Medica | Citation Index* |
| Index Medicus | Directory of Open Access Journals | |
| Index Copernicus | Embase | |
| MEDLINE | MEDLINE | |
| PubMed | PubMed Central | |
| Scopus | Sciences Citation Index Expanded† | |
| Scopus | ||
| Type of publication | Original article | Original article |
| Meta-analysis | ||
| Systematic reviews | ||
| Case series | ||
| Authorship | First author Corresponding author | First author |
| Second author | ||
| Third author | ||
| Corresponding author | ||
| Number of publication | Two for applying for associate professor | One for applying for associate professor |
| Four for applying for professor (among the four, two should be during the tenure of associate professor) | Three for applying for professor (among the three, two should be during the tenure of associate professor) |
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*“Citation index” is not found to be any single bibliographic database. Web of Science Core Collection includes the Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, and Emerging Sources Citation Index. †In the notice,[2] two bibliographic databases are written as - “Sciences Citation index, Expanded Embase.” However, we presume it to be a typing error and considered the two databases as “Science Citation Index Expanded, Embase.”
Many a time, medical teachers and busy primary care physicians end up publishing in predatory journals. A journal may claim that it is indexed in certain bibliographic databases. However, authors should check the authenticity of the claim before publishing in the journal. In this letter, we are describing the steps of checking the indexing status of a journal in different databases suggested by the Board of Governors.[2]
Directory of Open Access Journals
Go to https://doaj.org
Uncheck the “articles” below the search box
Type the title or International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) of the journal in the search box and click on the search button
The indexed journal will be shown on the search result page; click on the title of the journal to view more details
Embase
Click on the hypertext - “Download the full list of journal titles in Embase”
Save the spreadsheet file (with extension.xlsx) on your computer
Open the file in Microsoft Excel or any other software application (e.g. WPS Office, Open Office)
On the spreadsheet, scroll down or search (Ctrl + F) the journal title or ISSN
On the corresponding row of the journal, the indexed journal shows “Yes” on the “Indexed at Embase” column
MEDLINE
Go to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog
Type the journal title or ISSN on the search box and click on the search button
The journal details will be shown if it is in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) catalog
Check the “Current indexing status.” Indexed journal shows “Currently indexed for MEDLINE”
PubMed Central (PMC)
Go to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals
Type the journal title on the search box below “Search for journals” and click on the search button
On the search result page, the indexed journal shows “Full” in the “Participation level” column
You can also check if the latest volume is present in the PMC archive by clicking on the journal title hypertext
Science Citation Index Expanded
Type the journal title or ISSN on the search box and click on “Search Journals”
On the search result page, indexed journal title shows “Science Citation Index Expanded” against “Web of Science Core Collection”
Scopus
Select “Title” or “ISSN” from the dropdown arrow and type the title or ISSN accordingly and click on the “Find sources” button
From the search result, click on the target journal title
The indexed journal shows the “Scopus coverage years” (e.g. 2009 to 2019) and does not show “(coverage discontinued in Scopus)” below the years
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
References
1. Aggarwal R, Gogtay N, Kumar R, Sahni P for the Indian Association of Medical Journal Editors. The revised guidelines of the medical council of India for academic promotions: Need for a rethink. J Family Med Prim Care. 2015;4:483–6. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
2. Medical Council of India. List of Gazette Notifications. [Last accessed on 2020 Mar 19]. Available from: https://wwwmciindiaorg/ActivitiWebClient/open/getDocumentpath=/Documents/Public/Portal/Gazette/TE Q-17022019pdf .
3. Medical Council of India. List of Gazette Notifications. [Last accessed on 2020 Mar 19]. Available from: https://wwwmciindiaorg/ActivitiWebClient/o pen/getDocumentpath=/Documents/Public/Portal/Gazette/TEQ-07062019pdf .
4. Medical Council of India. TEQ Circulars. [Last accessed on 2020 Mar 19]. Available from: https://wwwmciindiaorg/CMS/w p-content/uploads/2017/10/Cir cular-03092015-TEQ-Promotion-Publicationpdf .
