Selecting peer reviewers is a crucial stage of the editorial process that ensures the quality of scholarly publications. An alternative to selecting peer reviewers from data bases created with expressions of interest of volunteers consists in systematically searching PubMed for similar articles and inviting their authors to act as peer reviewers. Although this process might identify more appropriate peers, it also can increase the time of the editorial process. In 2018, Pharmacy Practice had to invite 4.70 (SE=0.33) potential reviewers per one accepting. The time from the first reviewer invitation to the last reviewer report received was 61 days (SE=2.1). These figures confirm the existence of a peer review crisis which is significantly increasing the publication delay.
Background: The state of palliative care research is closely linked to the development of palliative care services in a country or region. Objective: To systematically review the current state of palliative care research in the Asia Pacific region and analyze its relationship with the performance of each country in the region on the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2015 Quality of Death Index. Design: Systematic review and bibliographic analysis in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocol 2015 (PRISMA-P). Data Sources: The PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, CINAHL, and PsychiNFO databases were searched on February 4, 2018. Results: One thousand six hundred sixty-seven articles were reviewed. Eighteen out of 32 countries in the region published research. Around 74.15% (1236) of the articles were produced by high-income countries. Research output (articles per 1 m population) was closely linked to country performance on the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2015 Quality of Death Index (adjusted R2= 0.85). Palliative care research in the region is overwhelmingly focused on cancer (80.13% of articles reviewed). The most common themes of research were "palliative care service (24.45%)" and "clinical" (15.38%). Conclusions: Palliative care research in the region is growing but remains largely centered on the high-income countries, with many low- and middle-income countries having little published research output. Much work is required to drive research in these countries to generate the evidence required for the development of palliative care services. The emphasis on cancer in research also indicates that the needs of patients suffering from noncancer-related diseases may be neglected.
Each year the British Journal of Biomedical Science publishes a 'What have we learned' editorial designed to introduce readers within the major disciplines of laboratory medicine to developments outside their immediate area. In addition it is designed to inform a wider readership of the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. To this end, in 2020 the journal published 39 articles covering the disciplines within Biomedical Science in the 4 issues comprising volume 77. These included a review of COVID-19 in this issue, 27 original articles, 6 Biomedical Science 'In Brief' and 4 case histories. 27 of the articles involved molecular techniques, with one of these comparing results with a mass spectrometry based method. The preponderance of molecular genetic studies gives us a good idea of the likely future direction of the disciplines.
Predatory journals and conferences have little or no peer review. Their raison d'être is for making money through the article processing charges and the conference registration fees. Without a critical evaluation, predatory journals publishing flawed results and conclusions would cloud the existing scientific literature. Predatory conferences are the offshoots of predatory publishing. The conferences are not organised by learned societies, but by profit-making event organisers. There is a need for awareness among researchers and clinicians regarding predatory publishing. The scourge of predatory publishing and conferencing should be more often highlighted during scientific meetings and publication courses.
Lameness resulting from claw lesions remains a pressing welfare issue in dairy cows. Claw trimming (CT) is a common practice for prevention and management of clinically lame cows. This review summarizes the results of studies that have investigated various claw trimming (CT) methods, their application in lameness management, and associations with the welfare and production of dairy cows. The papers included in this review fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: published in peer review journal or book chapter within the last 20 years (1999-2019), written in English, and focused on the application of CT for lameness management and the association with either welfare or production variables. Databases used included Google scholar, Web of Science and PubMed. A total of 748 records were assessed and 61 papers were eligible for inclusion and the main objectives and results were used to categorize the results under six topics: CT techniques, association between CT and claw overgrowth/specific claw lesions, timing and frequency of CT, association between CT and behavioral variables, association between CT and physiological parameters, and association between CT and production. The literature findings showed the existence of various CT methods with the common types including the Dutch Five-step, White Line, White Line Atlas, and Kansas techniques. There is data paucity on the efficacy of these techniques in lameness management; however, the slight procedural difference yields varying sole thicknesses and presentations which may influence their prophylactic use. Results regarding the impact of CT on welfare and production were discussed in relation to potential short and long-term benefits. Depending on the lesion type and severity level, CT may induce immediate painful sensation, stress, changes in lying down activities and reduction in milk yield, but the positive impacts were more evident at later stages of lactation following improvement in locomotion score. The majority of the reviewed studies were lacking a detailed description of CT techniques and claw health of the studied animals; thus, reducing the strength of demonstrating CT-related benefits. However, electronic recording of claw health data during every CT visit provides the basis for monitoring hoof health and could assist in curtailing some of these challenges. To elucidate CT-related benefits, certain areas requiring further research were highlighted such as ascertaining the appropriate timing for preventive CT and identifying cows that will benefit more from such intervention during lactation.
In 1877, the major towns of the Straits Settlements-Singapore, George Town, Penang Island and Malacca-suffered a drought of exceptional magnitude. The drought's natural instigator was the El Niño phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, a climatic phenomenon then not understood by contemporary observers. The 1877 event has been explored in some depth for countries including India, China and Australia. Its impact on Southeast Asia however is less well-known and the story of how the event unfolded in Singapore and Malaysia has not been told. This paper explores how the contemporary British government responded to the drought, arguing that its impact on hydraulic management was at best minimal yet, it did have impact on other areas, such as forest reservation with the hope of preserving future rainfall. It also highlights how, in contrast to studies on urban water plans in other British Asian colonies, the colonial authorities in the Straits Settlements had a far less coherent and meaningful relationship with water in their town planning schemes. As this paper is part of a special issue, Water History in the time of COVID-19, it has undergone modified peer review.
This communication analyzed research publications in dentistry in the Institute of Scientific Information Web of Science databases of 10 dental faculties in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) from 2000 to 2009. The term used for the "all-document types" search was "Faculty of Dentistry/College of Dentistry." Abstracts presented at regional meetings were also included in the analysis. The Times Higher Education System QS World University Rankings showed that universities in the region fare poorly in world university rankings. Only the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University appeared in the top 100 in 2009; 19 universities in the region, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, appeared in the top 500. Data from the databases showed that research publications by dental institutes in the region fall short of their Asian counterparts. Singapore and Thailand are the most active in dental research of the ASEAN countries.
If we were given a questionnaire of “How do we measure a researcher as a true scientist? with optional answers like (a) Having a good number of publications, (b) having attending numerous conferences, (c) with a high popularity as always appeared in mass media, and (d) good international networking and good public relations. Options (c) and (d) always come later after option (a) has been achieved, while option (b) can be simply achieved or abstract be accepted for presentation in any conference. Hitherto, publishing in any peer-reviewed journals carry a certain quality since they are highly subjected to peer review evaluation before the paper can be accepted for publication in a journal. Needless to say, those constructive comments given by the reviewers are very crucial in shaping our scientific understanding in our subject area rather than rejection experience (Yap, 2009). Having said so, option (a) will definitely be the best answer. The fact is that option (a) should not be argued whatsoever as the best answer [since publications speaks louder than anything else] and options (a), (b) and (c) are supplementary criteria to option (a) but they are not as vital as option (a). When we are asked ‘What is your scientific research performance or research output?’, the answer could always be ‘Having a good number of publications.’ Then, the next question forwarded is that ‘What is the quality and impact of your published papers to the scientific community?’ Of course, good and high impact factor journals always accept papers with high novelty in the subject area. Therefore, papers published in good journals are always highly cited and subsequently resulting in high impact (or citations) of the research done to the scientific community. However, the last question is sometimes very subjective and difficult to answer until h-index is introduced and discussed among the researchers. This paper aimed to discuss the h-index based on Elsevier’s Scopus database as an indicator of research achievement for young Malaysian scientists.
An activity supportive of the MOH QA Programme, the National EQAS for clinical chemistry monitors for analytical performance in core routine biochemical testing by the pathology laboratories, with unsatisfactory performance scores serving to alert against deficiencies or problems and the scores in subsequent challenges providing the feedback of effectiveness of remedial actions taken. While unacceptable individual analyte performance score (variance index score, VIS) indicated problems in instruments, reagent and calibrators, or the use of inherently poorer methods, repeated occurrence of unsatisfactory OMRVIS was traceable to generally poor laboratory management of usually inadequately-equipment small laboratories. The outcome has been one of slow but gradual improvement in the overall performance of participating laboratories, with a move towards methods upgrading and standardization to achieve greater concordance of results. Presently, the programme is limited to 61 government and 4 private hospital laboratories in the country for 12 commonly assayed clinical biochemistry analytes. It is hoped that the NEQAS could be extended to the other private laboratories and that of academic institutions. However, this is dependent to a large extent on the manpower and financial support obtainable by the organizing body of the programme in the future. Belk and Sunderman, 1947 demonstrated that laboratories participating in an quality assessment scheme could rapidly and dramatically improve their analytical performance. In some countries, participation has become mandatory, and acceptable performance is a requirement in laboratory accreditation. The need and value of the NEQAP is, therefore, evident. While there may be limitations in the national programme. efforts are being made at improving the programme within the means and resources of the organising body. The goals of the NEQAP are not just to monitor performance but also to educate. On this, matters related to and supportive of these goals have also been pursued. The annual workshop/forum on quality controls had allowed exchange of information between representatives of participating laboratories and the organising body. Recently in the 1997 MOH Quality Improvement evaluation, Quality Control has been evaluated together with the other 17 such activities. The study on knowledge, attitude and practice has provided the necessary feedback and will be used for future planning in making efforts at increasing the effectiveness and benefits of the all QC activities including this NEQAP for clinical chemistry. In addition, there is a need to look into areas such as selection of methods and test systems, and improvement of continuing education, training as well as research in quality improvement as suggested by the Quality Improvement evaluation.