Bakoush, Omran

Benamer, Hani T.S.

Bredan, Amin

English

AJOL - African Journals Online

EDITORIALWhy should you choose to publish in theLibyan Journal of Medicine?Libyan Journal of Medicine (LJM) was establishedto increase the opportunities for research findingsfocusing on human health issues in developingnations to be seen along with other internationalscientific publications. Since its establishment in 2006,LJM has progressed steadily and matured. Its ThomsonReuters Impact Factor now stands at 1.429. In thejournal category of general and internal medicine, LJMranks first among journals in the Arab World and secondamong journals in Africa. Moreover, articles in LJM areread and cited by authors from all regions of the world.This testifies to its success in achieving its goal ofdisseminating the research findings of its authors world-wide. Importantly, and as a policy, LJM editors workclosely with authors to help them get their manuscriptspublished.When editors accept a manuscript for peer review,they counsel the authors, when necessary, in how toimprove their manuscripts before external peer review.Such instances can arise when important elements arebypassed, not sufficiently described, or buried within thetext. For example, the editors might provide constructivecomments to improve the description of the rationale forthe research or its contribution to current knowledge.Clarification of such important elements can have apositive impact on how reviewers judge the research.They could also provide the authors with additionalsupportive comments on the presentation of their re-search, such as the quality of the graphs or the language.The advantage of our approach is that it gives the refereesa better impression of the manuscript, makes it easier forthem to evaluate it, diminishes misunderstanding, andanticipates some expected comments.Nevertheless, although we try to assist authors, itis their responsibility to ensure that their manuscriptsare well written in terms of completeness, organization,development, language, and presentation. Poor writingcan mask the quality and the value of good research. Ifthe editors and/or reviewers have to struggle through amanuscript to understand it or its potential value, theymight have doubts about its suitability for publication.In journals worldwide, the process from submission toacceptance can last up to several months. The time ittakes to get suitable referees is a substantial part of thisdelay, and LJM is not an exception. However, we try tospeed up the initial editorial review, and if the manuscriptis not suitable for publication in LJM, we notify theauthors promptly. This is usually done in a matter of daysrather than weeks. In that way, we enable authors tosubmit their manuscript elsewhere without much delay.A primary requirement for getting a paper published inany journal is novelty. But many reputed journals hesitateto publish papers reporting novel findings if they haveonly local or regional significance. At LJM, we publishany good research on epidemiological, clinical, or healthcare issues that aims to improve the health of thepeople anywhere in the world, whether in Africa, Asia,South America, or the developed nations.However, we need to mention a point about novelty.Novelty is frequently described in terms of making acontribution to knowledge, which is a continuum extend-ing from groundbreaking to minimal. Repetition ofpreviously published work with a minor and insignificantmodification is an example of minimal novelty. At LJM,we aim for higher than the minimal. Furthermore, knowl-edge should not be confused with information. Forexample, clinical research data should not be confusedwith clinical audits that simply review patients’ datawithout asking a specific study question to generate newknowledge. The rationale for a study is also importantbecause it is intimately linked to both novelty and sig-nificance. Justifying a study on the sole basis that it has notbeen done in that country is not on its own a convincingreason. If the phenomenon has been firmly established,such a study would be generating information rather thancontributing to knowledge. In such cases, the rationale hasto be convincingly based on current knowledge and/ortheory.The LJM editors and reviewers work as volunteers.Their sole interest is the welfare of the journal, and theironly reward is maintenance and promotion of its success.It is not an easy task because editorial decisions necessa-rily involve some subjectivity. We will continue to provideour support to our authors, who report back a high rateof satisfaction with the quality of the publishing process,and we hope that they, in turn, will support LJM withgood research.Libyan Journal of MedicineLibyan Journal of Medicine 2016. # 2016 Amin Bredan et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproductionin any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.1Citation: Libyan J Med 2016, 11: 32756 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ljm.v11.32756(page number not for citation purpose)The volunteer work of the editors and reviewers, thewaiver support of Co-Action Publishing, and the openaccess funding support to authors from many interna-tional academic institutes make this possible. The gener-ous funding support provided by the BiotechnologyResearch Center of Libya to many authors worldwidedeserves special recognition.Amin BredanDepartment of Biomedical Molecular BiologyGhent University & VIB Inflammation Research CenterGhent, BelgiumEmail: aminbredan@theeditor.beHani T. S. BenamerNeurology DepartmentNew Cross HospitalWolverhampton, UKOmran BakoushDepartment of Internal MedicineCollege of Medicine & Health SciencesUnited Arab Emirates UniversityAl Ain, UAEDepartment of NephrologyLund UniversityLund, SwedenAmin Bredan et al.2(page number not for citation purpose)Citation: Libyan Journal of Medicine 2016, 11: 32756 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ljm.v11.32756

Editorial: Why should you choose to publish in the Libyan Journal of Medicine?

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Editorial: Why should you choose to publish in the Libyan Journal of Medicine?

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