India trailing in medical research, says BMJ editor

She, along with a team from BMJ, is in the city to attend the fifth edition of the BMJ South Asia Awards 2018 to be held on Saturday.

Adding to this, the EiC admitted the presence of bias in big medical journals, resulting in the high rejection rate of Indian researches. “The bias is one of the main reasons why Indian researchers face rejection from big journals. However, we are hoping that in the next few years, India will be receiving more visibility for its studies.” “Despite huge international demand for medical studies, India continues to face a high rejection rate when it comes to its papers getting published in international journals.”

Opining that India lacked research culture, she said, “The dearth of motivation, funds and encouragement, are the key factors behind the lack of medical research in the country. Hence, the country continues to face a number of challenges despite the presence of a couple of excellent researchers in the field.”

She said that, unlike India, China has been growing rapidly in its studies and continues to publish hundreds of medical articles every year. She attributed it mainly to the funds it continues to receive.

While India is known to have a large number of medical colleges and hospitals, it is found to be severely lacking in its researches. “Over the course of a 10-year study published in one of the journals from Algeria conducted by researcher Dr Sandra Nandi, it was found that only four institutes in India are recognised for their studies – both in the National and International forums. 332 medical colleges – almost 57 per cent – did not have a single publication during the study period. We had referred to this study to understand the status in our country,” said Prashant Mishra, Managing Director, BMJ, India and South Asia, stressing on the need for India to pick up in its research.