Saudi Medical Journal (SMJ) is one of the leading general medical educational journals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in the Eastern Mediterranean region countries. As the journal has long greatly supported medical research and delivering medical knowledge, we are constantly attracting papers and submissions from all over the world, while still maintaining the identity of the journal. However, with success comes great responsibility, thus we are always thriving to improve further.
The journal has taken noteworthy strides in digital preservation. We are pleased to announce that our archives from 1999 to 1991 is now available online. Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. The files are fully downloadable in PDF versions. While it is still an ongoing project, we hope to publish the remaining volumes in the coming months and to submit them to PubMed for indexing. We invite our readers to check these important resources in their digital versions.
Also this year, the National Library of Medicine PubMed Linkout feature is now available for SMJ 2015 and 2016 abstracts in PubMed. By clicking the journal’s icon, users will be able to access the full text material through the journal’s website.
The journal’s latest impact factor has slightly decreased to 0.56. However, we are constantly striving to improve its status with our social media efforts to promote the journal content. As part of creating awareness and promoting the articles, the Editors will select from the recently published articles to highlight as an Image Challenge feature in the website.
In the third quarter of this year, keywords were required and added in the metadata section of each article in the journal’s website. Keywords are essential information in every content, and are an important element to search engine optimization and social media marketing, especially in this modern day of hashtags as it increases the visibility and citability of all manuscripts.
Saudi Medical Journal contribution to the scientific community does not stop at publishing medical articles, but also introduces secrets to successful publishing of medical research papers through holding workshops on medical publications with insights to topics, such as: “Writing a Manuscript Evidence Based Medicine”, “Publication Ethics”, “How to Optimize the Chance of Manuscript Acceptance”, and “Common Reasons for Rejection”. After receiving positive compliments and overwhelming demands, the journal was incited to offer a similar workshop in 2016 as part of our commitment to our readers.
Annual statistics
This year we received 991 manuscripts from which we processed 474 articles that have complied with the journal requirements (Figure 1). Forty-nine percent of the papers we published were from Saudi Arabia (Table 1).
Type of manuscripts received for the year 2016.
Origin of “peer-reviewed” articles published in the Saudi Medical Journal for the year 2016.
Our total rejection rate was 83% of which 52% were rejected at initial review by the editors. Papers from initial submission are screened for similarity and plagiarism. Papers with a similarity rate of more than 20% are not considered for further process.
The number of ethical cases arising during provisional acceptance has decreased by 32% since we initiated the withdrawal policy. With the initiation of Cross Check for the detection of plagiarism, duplication, and article similarity, this has enabled us to be meticulous in detecting ethical misconduct.
The journal noted great decline in the number of peer review response, which we found was a common challenge facing other leading journals as well. Our latest statistics demonstrate our struggle in finding appropriate and competent reviewers to complete the reviewing process. Approximately, only one-fourth of the total number of invited reviewers responded to our communications (Figure 2).
Reviewers reply for the year 2016.
And as insufficient reviewer numbers and slow response rate lead to delay in editorial decision-making and publication, it also affects the journal’s time frame. This issue is to be sorted out, by offering some form of incentives or encouragements to express recognition and gratitude to their time and effort.
The average processing time frame of original articles in the year 2016 from received date to acceptance was 3.3 months, from acceptance to publication (2.4 months), and from received to publication (5.7 months).
The Saudi Medical Journal is adapting new technologies to allow the platform to evolve, and the rising cost of editorial improvements and maintenance along with other considerations in terms of competitive market conditions necessitates funding. In consequence, the board elected adjustments for the publication fees.
In 2017, we will be including Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) in the author’s metadata. The ORCID is a unique identifier that aims to resolve name ambiguity among researchers, such as name similarity.
We are very grateful for the invaluable contribution of our board members. And we are pleased to welcome the new elected board who will join the SMJ team for the coming year: Dr. Mohammed Dhafer AlAhmari, Dr. Amal AlHemidan, Dr. Manal AlSheddi, Dr. Arif Adnan Shaukat, Dr. Samira Awaji, and Dr. Ohoud Owaidhah. We are honored to have them and we look forward to working with them in the coming year.
Lastly, we would also like to thank our valued readers and authors for their support, and we greatly appreciate the reviewers who by volunteering time and effort, assisted the journal in evaluating manuscripts throughout the years.
Editorial Message
Our thanks goes to the reviewers who have participated in the excellent review of manuscripts and books for the year 2016.
Abdel Hady El-Gilany
Abdulaziz Al-Shaer*
Abdulghani Al-Saeed*
Abdulla Alnakshabandi
Abdullah Al Hamid
Abdullah Al Qarni
Abdullah Al-Kenizan
Abdullah Alabassi
Abdullah Farhan
Abdullatif D. Ali
Abdulmohsen Al-Elq*
Abdulohsen Alkushi
Abdulrahman Al-Asmari*
Abdulrahman Alsanosi
Abeer Alharbi
Abeer Alshukairi
Abimbola Osoba*
Adel Al-Harf
Adel Mishriky
Adem Emrah Coguplugil
Adnan Awada
Ahmad Khaleghnejad Tabari
Ahmed Al Fagih*
Ahmed El-Sakka
Ahmed Ibrahim
Ahmed Nooh
Ahmet Erbaycu
Aisha Yousafzai
Ajay Panwar
Akiki Alain
Akram Al-Ibraheem
Alaa Ezzat
Alamin Berhanu
Alan Fujii
Albert Moore
Aldona Pietrzak
Alejandro Diaz
Alexandru Anca
Alexis Borg Sapiano
Ali Al-Bshabshe
Ali Albenmousa
Ali AlMasood
Ali Bouslama
Ali Omrani*
Allauddin Siddiqi
Altini Corinna
Alvaro Proano
Alyaa Almutairy
Alyson Endicott
Amal Alhashem
Amal Nimir
Amal Tazzite
Amanda Hill
Amir Khaliq
Amirhossein Moaddab
Amr M. Elnaghy
Ana Carolina Xavier
Ana Claudia Conti
Ana Conti
Ana Hernandez
Anand Jain
Anastasios Papadimitriou
Anders Voldby
Andrea Ciorba
Andrea Lukacs
Andrea Monte Alto Costa
Andreas Kronbichler
Andrei Joaquim
Andres Tirado Scanchez
Andrew Blazar
Andrés Vélez-Pereira
Anil Patil
Anirudh B. Acharya
Anjali Ganjre
Annika Reintam Blaser
Anroop Anirdhan
Antonio Brunetti
Antonio Facciorusso
Antonio Teixeira Rodrigues
Anusak Kerdsin
Anwar Bathieha
Aoife Kilcoyne
Aretxabala Xabier
Ashish Dongara
Ashraf Abdrabulnabi*
Assaad Kesrouani
Assad Movahed
Astrit Kuci
Atef Shibl
Atsushi Sakuma
Attilio Di Spiezio Sardo
Avinandan Saha
Ayman Zayed
Ayse Dicle Turhanoglu
Ayub Jat
Balkees Taha Garib
Bannakji Lojanapiwat
Baran Sarikaya
Barr Ronald
Basant Kumar
Basil Elnazir*
Basmah Alwahhabi
Batool Shamshir
Beate Heym
Bedowra Zabeen
Behice Erci
Ben-Abda Imene
BenShian Huang
Beril ozdemir
Bernardo Bonanni
Bernardo Hontanilla
Bhakti Patil
Bhat Suprabha
Bob Anderson
Bobby Meshkat
Bore Bakota
Brian J. Morris
Bryan Bolling
Bucky Jones
Bugra Ozen
Carlos Cuello
Carlos Garcia Vasquez
Carlos Restrepo
Carmen Patricia Perez Matute
Caryn Chan
Chandra Kant Pandey
Chang Hoon Yim
Charalambos Neocleous
Cheng-Wei Lu
Chih Hao Lin
Chii-Min Hwu
Chong Huat Siar
Chu Lim
Claudio Gambardella
Damodaran Chen
Daniel Boston
Daniel Pang
Danuta Kosik Bogacka
Dario Didona
David Aboulafia
David Alonso
Davis Ferreira
Dayanand C.D
Deepak Sharma
Dehua Derel Yu
Denzel Zhang
Dianne Crellin
Dibart Serge
Didac Mauricio
Didier Raoult
Dietrich Doll
Dolores Toro
Dominique Salmon
Dongchoon Uhm
Edet E Udo
Edward Wright
Efrain Perez
Elizabete Loureiro
Elvira Montanez-Heredia
Eman Alnamankani
Emiia Falcone
Emilio Rodrigo
Emina Kasumagic-Halilovic
Emma Hall Scullin
Emmanuel Silva
Enas Batubara
Eric J Shiroma
Eric Marcotte
Erica Frank
Esam Halboub
Eskild Petersen
Esra Duran
Esra Mercanoglu Efe
Eugene Waterval
Eun-Ju Lee
Eusebio Crespo Romero
Evan cherniack
Fadel Al Rowaie
Fadi Titinchi
Fahim Vohra
Faisal Alem
Faiza Qari
Farhat Ullah
Fatehi Elzein
Fatih Sahiner
Fatma El-Demerdash
Felipe Cunha
Felix Campos-Juanatery
Femi Olaniyan
Feng Xianqiong
Flavia Claro da Silva
Florence Robert-Gangneux
Francesco Bertoni
Frank Feng
Fuwen Luo
Giacomo Batignani
Giovanna Di Nardo
Giovanni D’Alessandro
H Schiffl
Habiba Ali
Haitham Al-Ashry
Haitham Odat
Halil Buldu
Hanadi Hamadi
Hanan Al Kadri
Hanan Al Kadri
Hann-Chorng Kuo
Hann-Chorng Kuo
Hasan Ekin
Hasan Isa
Hashim Mohammed Bin Salleeh
Hassan Chamsi-Pasha
Hela Baccouche
Helmut Niederhofer
Hemant Kumar
Henna Karvonen
Hermizi Hapidin
Hiba Makarem
Hirmerova Jana
Hiroshi Doi
Hisham El Batawi
Hossein Rafiei
Huda Basaleem
Huseyin Ortak
Hussein Algahtani
Ian Smith
Ibrahim Arziman
Ibrahim Bello
Ibrahim Durak
Ibrahim Salti
Ifeoma Ulasi
Ihsan Muneer Ahmed
Ilker Ercan
Imran Jalbani
Indalecio Cano
Irene Morales Bozo
Irmak Sayin
Ismael Abdelmonem
Itrat Mehdi
Ivana Stojanovic
Ivo Brosens
J Sunitha
J. Dayre McNally
Jabaudon Gandet
Jacek Wilczynski
Jacques How
Jae Woo Jang
James Mehaffey
Jayne Cutter
Jean Hollowell
Jeanette M. Jerrell
Jeannete Zurita
Jeong Lee
Jermaine Dambi
Jesus Mula
Jian Lu
Jike Lu
Jinan Usta
Jing Yuan Luan
Jintana Sirivarasai
Johanna Wiersum-Osselton
Johannes Honekpp
John Friesen
John Taylor
Jon Townend
Jordi Blasco
Jorg Jrg-Heukelbach
Jorge Dias
Jose Lopez Lopez
Josep Maria Ramon Torrell
Juan Aurrekoetxea
Juan Sanchis-Gimeno
Jui-Kun Chiang
Juliana Arid
Julie Darbyshire
Jun Wada
Jung woo Park
K. Dipla
Kai-Sheng Hsieh
Kamal Kumar
Kamel Ajlouni
Kannan Maharaj
Karen Jetter
Karim Fawzy El-Sayed
Karol Zelenik
Kassem Kassak
Kaushik Majumdar
Kazim Duman
Keiichi Ito
Kenneth Dawson
Kenneth Iczkowski
Khairulnissa Ajani
Khaled AlKattan
Khaled Hamed Salem
Khalid Almas
Khathutshelo Percy Mashige
Khawla Al-Kuraya
Khodabakhshi Reza
Klaus Mohnike
Kohei Fujita
Kokkonen Kristiina
Korgun Okmen
Kosala Marambe
KS. Nigi
Kuang-ming Kuo
Kursat Okuyucu
Lama Elbahlawan
lamia ElGarhy
Lefteris Zolotas
Lei Ding
Li Wang
Lien Wan Ching
Lily Tang
Linden Wolfgang
Liqun Xu
Lisa Merlo
Ljilana Zmak
Lluis Guirado
Louise Laberge
Luca Mascitelli
Luca Rolle
Luigi Angrisani
Luisa Pierro
Luisiana Aranda
M Hasan
M. Hassan Murad
Maarten Beinema
Maen Aljezawi
Magboul Magboul
Maged El-Ghannam
Magumi Yamamuro
Mahendra Singh
Mahmood Al Mendalawi
Mai Albaik
Maisa AlSebaei
Majdy Idrees
Majid Alabbood
Malene Landbo Borresen
Mamdoh Eskandar
Mamta Karani
Manal Al Sheddi
Mandy Schierz
Manuel De la Ocavazos
Manuel Ugarte Gil
Marcelo Coelho
Marcia da Costa
Marco Ciccone
Marco Milone
Mari Giulio
Maria Grazia Cagetti
Maria Guadalupe Zavala
Maria Iciar Arteagoitia
Marianna Cancela
Mariano Socolovsky
Mario Polo
Marius irimie
Mark Behrendt
Mark Slaughter
Mark Wax
Markus Peck-Radosavljevic
Marouf Chaymaa
Marta Bottagisio
Martin De Bock
Martin Eichler
Martin Miller
Masahiko Tsuchiya
Masood Umer
Maurice Meade
Mawya Khafaji
Mayuresh Naik
Mazamaesso Joseph Tchaou
Mazhar Alzoubi
Meena Syed
Meiyan Jiang
Merita Rroji
Mersiha Mahmic-Kaknjo
Michael Grandner
Michael Grigg
Michael Jones
Michael Teske
Michael Teut
Michel Jadoul
Micol Alkabes
Mikkel Malby Schoos
Milton Wainwright
Min-Woong Sohn
Mindi Feilmeier
Miodrag Perić
Misbahul Arfin
Mohamad Al-Tannir
Mohamed AO Bakheit
Mohamed Tariq
Mohammad Al-Qudah
Mohammad Arabi
Mohammad Malik
Mohammad Younis Hajeer
Mohammed Abomelha
Mohammed Al-Ahdal
Mohammed Aljawad
Mohammed Rady
Mona El Sheikh
Mona Shehata
Morten Schmidt
Muataz Abdulhameed Alani
Muhammad Jawad
Muhammad Rafiq
Muhammed Majeed-Saidan
Muneer Al-Ali
Muneera Al-Mssallem
Murat Oncel
Mustafa Suat Bolat
Mutsumi Miyauchi
Muwafak Al-Eithan
N Prepageran
Nada Binmadi
Nader Honjol
Nadira Al-Baghli
Nadr Jomha
Nafisa Abbas Abdellhafeez
Nagat Elshmaa
Naim Maalouf
Naji Jameel Aljohani
Nashalie Andrade de Alencar
Neha Bhati
Nezih Akkapulu
Nidal Jaradat
Nikhil Gupta
Nikhil Gupta
Nikos Zavras
Ning Yu
Nizar Abazid
Norman Ab Rahman
Nour Hammami
Nuray Bayar Muluk
Oduche Onwuanyi
Olufemi Ayenif
Omar Fathaldin
Omar Mohammed Dubai
Oreste Marrone
Ossama Zakaria
Pablo Cardinal
Pantelis Kraniotis
Paolo Chieco
Patrick Kesteven
Paul Brunton
Paula Watts
Pedro Arcos
Pedro Llorente
Petar Avramovski
Petchara Sundarathiti
Peter Marckmann
Peter Okuma
Petr Krepelka
Petra Urbanova
PH Quax
Phil Cady
Philip Benson
Philippe Gautret
Pia Lopez-Jornet
Ping Ma
PR Koduri
Pradeep Bhatia
Preeti Katyayan
Prem Sharma
Prezemslaw Tomasik
Punj Jyotsna
Qamariya Ambusaidi
Qian Hong Liu
Qian Li
Qin Lang
Qiu Wenqi
Rachel Nadif
Radwan Kassir
Rafael Castro
Raimondo Gabriele
Raj Samra
Raja Dhanasekraraja
Rajiv Goyal
Rajiv Khandekar
Raju Vaishya
Raman Bedi
Ramliza Ramli
Rana Traboulsi
Raquel Frenedoso da Silva
Ravinder Goswami
Rayaz A Malik
Rebeca Garcia Agudo
Recep Yildizhan
Reeta Lamminpaa
Rema Oliver
Remacle Marc
Rene Rizzoli
Rianne Bouwmeester
Ricardo Cruz
Richard Jones
Rima Sayed-Hassan
Rob Sawyer
Robert Chatterton
Robert Froemke
Roberto Nerla
Romy Lauche
Roya Farhadi
Ruchir Gupta
Ruth Mabry
RV Acharya
Saad Al-Dahmash
Sadek Alomran
Saed H Zyoud
Saee Deshpande Deshmukh
Sageena George
Sagrika Shukla*
Sahar N Saleem
Saika Sharmeen
Salah Moghraby
Salisu Abubakar
Salma Guraya
Salman Mroueh
Salwa El-Sobkey
Samantha Ashby
Samar Muwakkit
Sameer Khan
Samir Atmani
Sammy Al Shammari
Sampath Chandra Prasad
Sampath Rao
Sana Chala
Sandro Contini*
Sangeeta Sawant
Sanjay Vikrant
Santiago Vallasciani
Sara Ebada
Saud Alobaidi
Saurabh kumar Das
Seema Devi
Serdar Ozkan
Serge Brand
Serhan Kupeli
Serhat Unal
Serpil Aydin Demirag
Shafaq Noori
Shahriar Jalali Mazlouman
Shahzad Raja
Shakir Bakkari
Shalini Nooyi
Shamyr Castro
Shankar Patil
Shashi Seshia
Shashikiran Umakanth
Shilpa Warhekar
Shingo Tsujinaka
Shinta Nishioka
Shireen Nah
Shriprasad Deshpande
Silke Weineck
Simona Lattanzi
Simona Sitia
Sittana Shamseldin Elshafie
Slawomir Poletajew
Slim Charfi
Sohail Bakkar
Solveig Lerch
Songlin Wan
Sonia Najjar
Spiezia Luca
Srdjsn Denic
Srikanth Parsi
Srinivas Subramanian
Srirangaraj Sreenivasan
Stanley Goldberg
Stepan Jan
Steve Arshinoff
Steven Salvatore
Stijn Blot
Sudhir Singh
Sujita Shrestha
Suman Rao
Suna Emir
Sung Jae Yang
Suriani Ismail
Susanne Roff
Sushant Sud
Suzan Attar*
Syed Rizwanuddin Ahmad
T Yeshaswini
Tadej Battelino
Taisuke Ito
Takis Katsoris
Tan Jczjh
Tanya Augustine
Tanya Franzen
Tariq Altokhais
Tatiane Mota
Taysir Garadah
Tejal Sheth
Thanara Perera
Thomas Hone
Thomas Lehnert
Thorsten Kessler
Till Bechtold
Tomas Sanchez-Tamayo
Tommaso Lombardi
Triveni Gowda
Turan Tunc
Tziakas Dimitrios
Ulrika Zagai
Umar Yagoub
Ursula Quitterer
Vadim Brjalin
Vaidyanathan Gowri
Valerio Stefano
Vanitha Sukesh
Vatcharapan Umpaichitra
Verbraecken Johan
Vinod Namana
Virginia a Livolsi
Volkan Turunc
Vykuntaraju K Gowda
Wael Lateef Jebur
Walid Hassan
Weil Gregoire
Wen-Chieh Chen
Wesam Kurdi
Wuxiang Xie
Xiaodong Zhang
Xiongbing Zu
Ya Fang
Yahya Ahmed
Yanfei Ma
Yang Yu
Yap Te-Lu
Yara Fragoso
Yasir Elhassan
Yasuji Inamo
Yigit Sirin
Yoshio Nakata
Youguo Chen
Youssef Mohamed Mosaad Ali
Yu Zhou
Yucel Karaman
Yuchen Qin
Yulong Bai
Yutaka Kishida
Zafer Demirer
Zahra Alahmed
Zaid AlHamdan
Zaid Baqain*
Zainap AlJufairi
Zhiliang Wei
Footnotes
↵* Reviewers who reviewed 3 or more articles for the year 2016
- Copyright: © Saudi Medical Journal
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