Dear Friends,
Greetings from Chandigarh!
I welcome all of you to the March 2023 issue of the Indian Journal of Rheumatology (IJR). I thank the leadership of the Indian Rheumatology Association for reposing faith in me as Editor-in-Chief. I must start by complimenting and thanking Prof. Vikas Agarwal and his team for putting in a great effort during the last 4 years. Their hard work has resulted in a significant improvement in visibility and readership of the journal. The number and quality of submissions has also gone up significantly, with submissions not only from India but also from all across the globe. This speaks of increasing popularity of the journal. The current impact score 2021 of IJR has increased to 0.58 from 0.2 in 2018 and 0.38 in 2020. If the current trend is maintained, then it will rise further. According to the SCImago Journal Rank, IJR is ranked 0.215.
As I begin my journey, I am thankful to the existing editorial board members and I warmly welcome new members for taking up the responsibility as an editorial team member. I wish to share that as mandated during the IJR Editorial board meeting held at Indore, IRACON, the editorial board has been expanded. The new members have been invited based purely on their academic standing. Special attention has been paid to maintain regional and gender representation. The academicians from both teaching hospitals and corporate sector have been included to make the journal more inclusive and vibrant.
I would like to emphasize that our journal follows a strict peer review process and firmly adheres to the principles prescribed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the Committee on Publication Ethics.
The social medial team is also active in highlighting key messages from journal publications on Twitter (@ijrheum), Instagram (ijrheum), and Facebook (IJR) accounts.
Since we have a platinum open-access model, neither the authors nor the readers need to pay either to publish or read the articles. Online access is also free for everyone from across the globe. The journal recently got indexed in the prestigious Emerging Sources Citation Index, a new edition of “Web of Science” besides the “Scopus” which it already is indexed in. I am very aware of everyone’s aspiration, and our next target, of getting the journal indexed in “Medline.” Here, I seek cooperation and help from each one of you to submit your valuable original work to IJR. I am very hopeful of making it happen.
God bless us all.
