Perception Of Indian Medical Teachers Towards Publication Related Criteria For Academic Promotion In India

Perception Of Medical Teachers Towards Publication Related Criteria

Abstract

Background: This survey study assessed the perception of Indian medical teachers towards publication related academic promotion criteria prescribed by Medical Council of India (MCI). It focused on perception of teachers for indexing agencies/database, articles types, journal types, authorship numbers, drawbacks and suggestions to improve existing criteria. Material and Methods: The survey was conducted from February 2018 to April 2018. A total of 25 item semi-structured pre-validated survey questionnaire was disseminated among faculties as a Google form. Collected responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Result: Total 444 medical faculties’ responses were evaluated. Majority viewed that current criteria hinders the multidisciplinary research (74.2%), have increased predatory journals (91.0%) and lack the clarity on categorization of international journal (65.8%). Majority viewed to credit ‘all authors’ than ‘first and corresponding authors’ (40.5% vs. 5.9%). The faculties perceived PubMed/Medline, PubMed Central and Scopus have higher quality among indexing agencies/databases. Almost half of faculties advocated keeping all major Indexing agencies. Most participants opined to consider original research (98.4%) and meta-analysis (73.9%). The faculties rated equal quality for print and E-journal. The faculties suggested to devise weightage/score based promotion criteria. Conclusion: MCI needs to redefine the academic publication criteria. [Barvalia M Natl J Integr Res Med, 2019; 10(6):77-86]