Recognition of systematic reviews is vital for scientific and clinical practice.

Abstract

problems plaguing medical research in Pakistan, which may be very difficult to resolve in view of the limited available resources, particularly in terms of lack of adequate institutional, trained manpower and financial resources required for conducting original research studies in a developing country like Pakistan. However, a serious issue: the lack of quality review articles submitted and published in Pakistan medical journals - can be better dealt with. Readers of the medical journals in Pakistan may have noticed a declining trend in the publication of good quality review articles. It is ironic to note that although quality review articles do not require immense resources for the conduct of an original clinical study, they are less often undertaken by scientists in Pakistan. This, however, does not imply that review articles involve less work or less scientific rigor in adding to the scientific knowledge pool but existing systems in Pakistan disallow members of the scientific community to engage in the publishing review articles. A major reason for the lack of good review articles in recent years is the fact that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has not given any recognition to the review articles, while considering the publications of faculty members for promotion in teaching institutions.3 It is understandable if the faculty members are not going to get the recognition for their review articles, they are unlikely to write review articles. The decision by PMDC to disregard review articles for any credit has been the subject of much debate4 and is long-overdue for revision. The PMDC decision may have been the result of poor quality review articles published in most journals in the past which unfortunately represented the CPR format i.e. cut, paste, review ‐ the latter being a direct violation to plagiarism rules. Unfortunately, the PMDC decision of not recognizing review articles for credit has had serious, deleterious and unintended consequences. This has serious implications towards scientific research methods in general and in particular to evidence-based medical practice in Pakistan.