Editorial ONE YEAR OF SUCCESSFUL PUBLICATION OF ANNALS OF AYURVEDIC MEDICINE

Prof. R.H.Singh, Distinguished Professor, Kayachikitsa, Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi President AAPI, Chairman Editorial Board AAM E-mail: rh_singh2001@yahoo.com
Annals Ayurvedic Med. 2013:2 (1-2)1-3

The Annals of Ayurvedic Medicine (AAM), an official organ of the Association of Ayurvedic Physicians of India (AAPI), is a peer reviewed widely abstracted quarterly journal devoted to rapid quality publication of basic and applied researches and reviews in different branches of Ayurvedic medicine. In December 2012 AAM has successfully completed its first year of existence in the field of scientific publishing. AAM has now published the Four issues of its first volume 2012. An overview of its performance in its foundation year has been highly satisfactory .The journal follows a rigorous three tier review of the manuscripts with the help of reputed expert referees aiming to publish only the quality papers. However as a policy AAM adopts a proactive approach and makes all efforts to assist the authors to improve the contents presentations of the submitted articles by way of critical but creative review system where the cooperation of reviewers and the authors is of utmost importance. The Editorial Board admires the patience of the learned reviewers and the authors for their sustained support. Ayurveda being a field of academics where scientific publishing is in maiden stage difficulties are natural and will gradually vanish.

movement possible through their generous support. The volume under review has published three editorials and three guest editorial from outstanding guest editors like Prof. BM Hegde ( 1), Prof. F. Chiappelli ( 2) and Prof. Diana Lurie ( 3) besides Seven original research articles, 10 review papers, two short communications, three life profiles and certain other columns with a total of 42 publications. AAM took the precious help from about 53 learned reviewers in this task. This journal has been accepted well by the readers, reviewers, authors and abstracting agencies which is obvious from over 4000 downloads during the period under review. AAM is already indexed in Google scholar, DHARA and AYUSH Research Portal. Indexing has been applied in DOAJ, Index Scholar and Index Copernicus which is in process. AAM is a member of Committee on Publication Ethics COPE, UK and it follows the guidelines of publication ethics as are endorsed by COPE.

AAM is now entering into its second year struggling hard at many fronts but with optimism because scientific research and publication are the prime needs of Ayurveda today. Inspite of its extraordinarily sound progressive tradition, rich and futuristic conceptual strength and scientific logistics, Ayurveda has not yet been able to find a place in the main stream of health care delivery system. As per records 83 articles were submitted during the year The main reason why we are lagging behind is the lack 2012 out of which 35 articles were accepted, 32 stand of new research and scientific publication (4,11) . published in volume 1. 14 articles had to be rejected while others are in waiting. The acceptance rate is 42.17 percent. On the face of a growing demand of evidence based The overall decision time of this new journal is 20 days. practice of Ayurveda and other forms of Traditional The credit for the success story of this newly launched Medicine, scientific research and publication of new data Journal goes jointly to the editorial board, reviewers and base is essential. After the WHO Alma Ata Declaration the authors and also to the patrons who made this of 1978 there has occurred a tremendous upsurge of public
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Singh R H : One Year of Scuccessful Publication

interest in traditional medicine. WHO in its declaration 1978 declared that Health for All is not possible without the help of Traditional systems of medicine and local resources ( 5). The scenario during the subsequent three decades has not only re-confirmed the Alma Ata declaration, rather has brought out another glaring fact that no one single system of medicine including Allopathy has capability to tackle all problems of human health. Hence there is a need of mutual cooperation of modern medicine and traditional medicine practices at all levels with a true spirit of Medical Pluralism as a health care culture world over ( 6). All this has created an atmosphere to promote Traditional medicine all over the world but this resurgence of interest has brought-in another new slogan asking to transform TM and AYUSH rapidly into an evidence-based system of medicine warranting scientific research and accessible database ( 7). There is no denying that attempts are in progress on this front but the progress is extremely slow and sometimes disappointing especially in AYUSH Sector. Comparably Traditional Chinese medicine has made faster strides with demonstrable results with the help of drastic Policy changes and R &D activities. China now follows the policy of bilateral integration of Traditional and Conventional medicine both in education, research and

practice of medicine in private as well as in public sector. With this China has succeeded to develop a comprehensive proactive Integrated model of health care at all levels. This success story is inspiring the health care planners world over. In contrast India has no clear policy and we still follow only a half hearted unilateral integration( 8). Now there is a need of integrative approach in health science sector with fast track promotion of research in theory and practice of Ayurveda to validate the safety and efficacy of its treatment modalities besides validation of the fundamental principles of Ayurveda ( 9,10). Besides the policy development, research activism in AYUSH sector has to hike the publication of results of recent researches in recognized journals. Till date the efforts in this direction are insufficient and the rate of scientific publications is really disappointing which is obvious from following records from public domain. A look to the comparative citation for Ayurveda and certain other traditional health practices in science data base as recorded in mid 2009 reveals that research in Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese medicine and Yoga have registered much higher appearance than Ayurveda ( 12). Since then there is only a little change.

Comparative citation of Ayurveda and other traditional health practices in science database Health care systems Ayurveda YOGA TCM (China) Acupuncture Scopus 1216 2101 16,096 22,420 Pubmed 451 1250 16,191 14,081 Sciras 80,045 1,014,471 137,414 720,748 Google scholar 23,900 228,000 218,000 190,000

A similar trend is seen in the comparative citations of Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese medicine in high impact journals as noticed during mid 2009( 12) Comparative Citations of Ayurveda and TCM in high impact journals Journal Nature group Science Impact factor 29 to 26 26.372 Ayurveda 66 06 TCM 257 45
2

Annals of Ayurvedic Medicine Vol-2 Issue-1-2 Jan-Jun 2013

Singh R H : One Year of Scuccessful Publication

Lancet JAMA BMJ e-CAM IJMR

28.638 25.547 9.723 2.535 1.67

29 16 62 25 07

629 466 80 23 00 Alternative Medicine : Protocols, problems and potential in Ayurveda. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg. 5. Singh, RH (2010) Exploring larger Evidence base for contemporary Ayurveda. Guest Editorial. International Journal of Ayurveda Research 2010:1(2) 65-66 6. Singh, RH (2012) Trends of Integrative practice of Ayurvedic Medicine. Editorial . Annals of Ayurvedic Medicine. 1/4: 123-125. 7. AYUSH (2012) Ayurveda, The Science of Life. Official Document Department of AYUSH Ministry of Health Govt. of India New Delhi. 8. Chandra, Shailja (2013) Status of India Medicine and Folk Healing Vol. 2, Chapter 3 pp 143- 149 Postgraduate Education in Ayurveda Filling the Gaps. 9. Singh, RH (2005) Advances in Ayurvedic Medicine. Research Monographs in 5 volumes Choukhamba Vishwabharati , Varanasi, India

10. Singh, RH (2010) Exploring issues in developing Ayurvedic research methodology. Thought leadership References article. Jour. Ayurveda and Integrative medicine 1:91 1. Hegde, BM (2012) Ayurveda, the Mother of all 95. Medical Wisdom. Guest Editorial. Annals of 11. Singh, R H (2012) Report of The AYUSH Sector Ayurvedic Medicine. 1/1-2 : 4-6 Innovation Council, Submitted in March 2012 to the 2. Chiappelli, F. et al (2012) Evidence-based clinical Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health, Govt. research ; towards a new conceptualization of the level of India, New Delhi. and quality of the evidence. Guest Editorial Annals 12. Patwardhan, B and Vaidya, Ashok DB (2009) of Ayurvedic Medicine 1/3:60-64 Ayurveda scientific research and publication. 3. Lurie, Diana (2012) Ayurveda and Current Science vol.97/8: 1117-1120 Pharmacogenomics. Guest Editorial. Annals of Ayurvedic Medicine. 1/4 : 126-128 Soure of Support : Nil 4. Rastogi, S., Chiappelli, F. and Singh, RH (2012) Conflict of Intrest : None Declared Evidence based practice in Complementary
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This performance scenario needs all round attention. There is a need to promote science culture and quest for publication. This also suggests the need of more and more publication avenues specially publication of scientific journals. The lack of appearance of Ayush based papers in reviewed journals is largely because of the dearth of quality research besides lack of publication culture in this sector( 12). There is also a dearth of good journals in India and in the world who could create proactive forum for scientific publication in the area of AYUSH. I visualize some improvement in the prevailing situation. Currently some new journals like J-AIM, AYU and AAM seem to be coming up well. It was unfortunate that another good journal named International Journal of Ayurveda Research which started in a very promising manner from Mumbai edited by Dr. Urmila Thatte had to be interrupted because of financial support . But I believe that many such attempts dwindle not always because of financial reasons rather more because of dearth of quality scientific submissions. I take this opportunity to urge upon the young generation to adopt a needed work culture with temper of science and professional activism.