Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences: 2006– 2010

Abstract

There are several national and international journals devoted to Neurosurgery and quite a few specially dedicated to Pediatric Neurosurgery. So, when the Indian Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (IndSPN) made an announcement in 2006 to start its own periodic publication, the response like “Why a new journal?” was not completely unreasonable. For Edgardo Schijman, however, the answer was very clear – “because Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences ought to be from 2006 onwards, the voice, the speech, the carry-through and the spirit of the Indian Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery.”[1] The late renowned pediatric neurosurgeon from Argentina had actually described this as “a great opportunity for all colleagues in India to have their intellectual creation reach every office and home in the world”! By 2006, pediatric neurosurgery in India had already got its momentum. Over 150 members of the, by then 16-year-old, IndSPN needed a forum from where they could tell the world about their personal experiences in a familiar language, which is recognized and understood by all those who know and share the difficulties that they have in a developing country like ours with a population of more than 1000 million.[2] The idea of a new journal Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences (JPN) was aimed at addressing this and other similar issues. Unfortunately, the beginning was unexpectedly slow. Despite full support from the members of IndSPN, the first issue could see only seven articles. Perhaps our colleagues in India were not ready for it so soon or were just anxiously observing the initial response. Many from the larger institutions, and particularly the younger authors continued their preference for the internationally recognized and indexed journals for obvious reasons. Quite a few were still hesitant to publish their work in an unknown periodical like JPN. However, the trends changed soon and the popularity of JPN increased in the next few years, with a considerable increase in the number of articles received each year from 27 in 2006 to over 80 in 2010 [Figure 1]. A user-friendly online submission system and proactive website made it attractive and easier for the authors, reviewers, and others to participate. The journal was made available online from 2008 and that further helped spread its readership in India and abroad. Some of the articles from the last few issues have been visited by thousands of viewers from all over the world. Figure 1 Graph showing the number of articles received for publication each year from 2006 to 2010 By 2008, we were fortunate to have a regular influx of high-quality scientific material to publish in various categories like original articles, review articles, operative nuances, technical reports, case reports, and short letters. The abstracts of all scientific presentations made in the annual conferences of IndSPN are published in the July–December issue of JPN every year. The first topic-based issue on “Epilepsy” was published in 2009 with huge success. The editorial board also has plans to publish more such topic-based issues in future. A supplementary issue on the “Pediatric Neurosurgery – Indian Perspective” is actually in process and will be released later this year. In last few years, the journal has also been able to generate great interest in colleagues from other countries. Approximately 17% of the articles published in last 5 years came from the overseas contributors. The JPN was indexed (PubMed) in 2009. With a successful journal, also came the responsibilities. The Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences, with its increasing overseas subscriptions and online availability, is like a huge window through which the international scientific community can have a direct look into the state of pediatric neurosurgery in India. The editorial board, therefore, has a hard task ahead to maintain high level quality of this journal which would directly reflect on the standard of pediatric neurosurgery in this country. We all have this collective responsibility to present to the world not only the developments and progress in pediatric neurosurgery, but also the difficulties and the challenges that we face in this part of the world. Only hard work and dedication will help us achieve the goals of taking this journal to a global level and making it a reference journal for the international pediatric neurosurgery community.