Brief Statement on Papers Published in “Iranian J Publ Health” During 2012

Abstract

Following indexing and citing the Iranian J Publ Health in ISI Thomson and PubMedCentral (PMC) and PubMed databases, the Journal has been faced with an increasing trend of receiving articles from different parts of the world. Considering this increasment and to fulfill the need of improving the level of scientific outcomes, the Journal authorities decided to release it monthly, instead of quarterly publishing of a 40 yr history. The total number of manuscripts received during 2012 was 850 from 40 countries. Obviously, Iran, the homeland of the Journal, has acquired the first rank of the list, followed by China and Turkey (Table I). Out of total submission of 850 articles during 2012, 11 manuscripts were rejected after initial screening or later checking for plagiarism. According to the policy of the Journal, authors of minor cases of plagiarism are given a chance to amend their articles totally and exactly but major cases are rejected. Considering that the Journal publishes more or less papers form non-native English countries, the issue of plagiarism sounds outstandingly in submitted articles to this Journal. Therefore, not mention of above-mentioned rates of rejected cases of plagiarism, many other authors received warning on plagiarism and were asked to revise their papers. The Journal follows a policy of in-house evaluation followed by double blind peer review system. As for foreigner authors we try to exert an open peer review system. Normally 2–3 referees evaluate a manuscript. The reasons for rejecting a manuscript during in-house evaluation are various but the most important cases are over flow of manuscripts, out of scope cases, poor outcome, local studies, clinical contents etc. According to Table 1, Turkey encompasses the highest rate of rejecting as 89%, followed by Pakistan as 85%. Altogether, manuscripts received from other countries than Iran, were 313 of which 233 cases (74%) were rejected. Cases reported as 100% rejection clearly are out of scientific conclusion. Total number of papers published during 2012 was 181 of which 123 cases belonged to Iran followed by 11 cases from China (Table 2). The types of articles published during 2012 are shown in Table 3. Accordingly, Original Articles with 74.5% rate show the highest rate of publication. As for corresponding authors’ organizations mentioned in articles published during 2012, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, where the Journal is affiliated and published, encompasses the highest rate of publishing as 31.1% (Table 4).