One Small Step

It is with much pride (and with some trepidation!) that I launch this, the first issue of the Nitte University Journal of Health Science. The nascent university has, through this publication, made a bold foray into the world of publishing. The space and leverage in the scientific research publishing world is limited and already crowded. The sole factor that determines stature, standing and tenure of any technical publication is the relevance, readability and reference-worthiness of articles: the ultimate position NUJHS occupies will depend on the quality and range of articles it carries. Towards reaching our self-set targets, we have set ourselves rigorous benchmarks - a vigorous review process being one among the cardinal.

The need for a readily accessible forum for interaction and exchange of knowledge and scientific information on health and disease, especially in developing and under-developed third world countries, long been felt as desirable, is today become, imperative. With the launch of NUJHS it is our hope that this long-felt vacuum will, at least partially, be now be partially filled.

The domain of science, unfortunately, has remained an exclusive turf for academicians and researchers operating from economically privileged locales. The abysmal lack of finance and poor funding has strapped growth of scientific temper and stymied the third world from participating as equals with their contemporaries and counterparts, blessed to be based in advanced hi-tech set-ups, in richer countries¹.

The odious system of mandating a ‘publication fee’ from contributors (even afflicting the open access to information and its dissemination) has effectively nullified the third world researcher from being heard or read, no matter how positive the quality of contribution is to the sum knowledge on health sciences². Hopefully, NUJHS will span that divide by providing free space for meaningful scientifically sound submissions from less renowned or more remote research centers.

Rapid processing and quick publication are the ideals we aim for — ingenious ideas, novel innovations or astute scientific observations are as vital to information banks as are scholarly reviews and seminal original treatises. The laboratory is not, nor needs to be the sole sanctum for spewing and spawning papers: even random bedside observations, seemingly trivial diagnostic aids or ridiculously simple therapeutic ideas add to the sum total of information on healthy related issues.

Have your say -if you have something interesting to say and can say it well enough — your voice will find ears and eyes on the pages of NUJHS. To the extent of our limited expertise can, we offer to help anyone, especially young medical or health science students — in polishing your presentation and submission skills, provided that what you submit contains any stimulating, educative or thought-provoking idea³.

As a postscript, I caution the ‘in-a-hurry to-publish’ novice author: there are no detours or shortcuts in the dog-eat-dog medical world — so beware and be-warned: the perils of plagiarism and pitfalls of unethical journalistic ambitions are very real.