[A survey on the publication process and quality of articles of journal of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences during 2001-2006]

ABSTRACT

One of the most important ways to promote the quality and attractiveness for readers is the accurate evaluation of the published articles in the journals. Therefore the present study was carried out by some of members of the editorial board in order to determine the quality and publication process of articles of the Journal of Rafsanjani University of Medical Sciences [JRUMS]. In this self-audit survey, the information of each published paper in the JRUMS through the years 2001-2006 using a checklist collected by two of the team members separately. Then the completed checklists were compared with one another, and in case of any inconsistencies, the issue was examined and settled down by another member of the team. Throughout the given period, 21 volumes of the JRUMS have been published which comprised of 189 articles in total. In about one third of the published articles i.e. 59 articles [31.2%], the first author had been from Rafsanjani University. In 90 articles [47.6%] the type of study had not been mentioned. The mean numbers of the words used in the texts, the Persian and English abstracts were varied to a great extent. Furthermore, the mean and standard deviation of the time of receiving an article till its publication had been 238.15 +/- 98.54 days. Based on these results it can be concluded that 1. The possibility of receiving papers from outside of the university should be increased with more invitations. 2. The report of the type of study, the number of the articles' words and the number of words used in Persian and English abstracts should be practiced accurately and in a more standard way by a close coordination among the writers, reviewers, and editors of the Journal. 3. More efforts should be put into practice to reduce the time span of receiving a paper until its publication