Covid-19 refereeing duration and impact in major medical journals

Two partly conflicting academic pressures from the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic are the need for faster peer review of Covid-19 health-related research and greater scrutiny of its findings. This paper investigates whether decreases in peer review durations for Covid-19 articles were universal across 97 major medical journals, Nature, Science, and Cell. The results suggest that on average, Covid-19 articles submitted during 2020 were reviewed 1.7–2.1 times faster than non-Covid-19 articles submitted during 2017–2020. Nevertheless, whilst the review speed of Covid-19 research was particularly fast during the first five months (1.9–3.4 times faster) of the pandemic (January–May 2020), this speed advantage was no longer evident for articles submitted November–December 2020. Faster peer review also associates with higher citation impact for Covid-19 articles in the same journals, suggesting it did not usually compromise the scholarly impact of important Covid-19 research. Overall, then, it seems that core medical and general journals responded quickly but carefully to the pandemic, although the situation returned closer to normal within a year. Peer Review https://publons.com/publon/10.1162/qss_a_00176

The Four Prominent Indicators of Diagnostic Testing: Consistency among their Values Reported in Saudi Medical Journals

We provide a novel method for validating any purported set of the four most prominent indicators of diagnostic testing (Sensitivity, Specificity, Positive Predictive Value, and Negative Predictive Value), by observing that these indicators constitute three rather than four independent quantities. This observation has virtually been unheard of in the open medical literature. We defined two functions, which serve as consistency criteria, since each of them checks consistency for any set of four numerical values claimed to be the four basic diagnostic indicators. Most of the data we came across in various Saudi medical journals met our criteria for consistency, but in a few cases, there were obvious unexplained blunders. We relate our present findings to the more general issue of detection and ramifications of flawed, fabricated or wrong data. We observe that the research field handling the detection of flawed data is still in its infancy, and hope that this field will reach maturity very soon.

Top 50 medical journals from Balkan countries: A bibliometric analysis, 2000–2020

Background: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) is one of the most important indexes that medical journals aspire to be covered by. Currently, SCIE indexes 14,840 peer-reviewed journals across 178 disciplines. Among these journals are 3445 medical journals, divided into more than 40 subject categories. Objectives: To reveal the impact and contribution of medical journals from Balkan countries through the Journal Impact Factor of those journals, the number of articles published by them, and the number of times those articles have been cited. Methods: Balkan countries are countries that fall or fully or partly within the Balkan peninsula. All medical journals from those countries listed in the SCIE were ranked based on cumulative citations between 2000 and 2020. Among them, the top 50 journals in terms of cumulative citations were chosen for the study, which analysed the data on 129,259 research articles and reviews that covered 27 different subject categories within the broad field of medicine. The countries were Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey Results: The top 50 journals included those published from eight Balkan countries. Turkey had the most journals (21) in the Web of Science (WoS) and Greece had 13 but, when ranked in terms of the number of journals in WoS per million people, Croatia topped the list, with 1.22 journals per million of its population, followed by Greece (1.21 journals). The top-cited journals were Anticancer Research (206,226 citations), International Journal of Oncology (171,654), Oncology Reports (157,467), Molecular Medicine Reports (82,009), and Oncology Letters (69,161). Oncology was the most cited subject category and Croatia, the country with maximum interaction with other Balkan countries, that is, papers in Croatian journals cited journals published from the maximum number of Balkan counties. Conclusion: The study provides insights into the last two decades of progress in academic publishing and in the performances of medical journals published from Balkan countries.

Acute inflammatory transverse myelitis post-Pfizer-BioNTech-COVID-19 vaccine in 16-year-old

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) originated in China in early March 2019. Saudi Food and Drug Authority approved the registration of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Saudi Arabia on December 10, 2020, and on May 10, 2021, Pfizer-BioNTech was given an authorized emergency use in 12–15-years-old children. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health started Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination for 12–18-years-old on June 27, 2021. Here, we have a case of a 16-year-old female admitted to the medical ward diagnosed with acute inflammatory transverse myelitis after 2 weeks from second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The diagnosis was based on normal laboratory workup but significant radiological findings. She was discharged after a full recovery. There are multiple cases of post-vaccine acute inflammatory transverse myelitis shared by medical journals, but due to lack of literature review for the teenager population, we think our case may be the first case of acute inflammatory transverse myelitis following second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in this population.

PROFIL IKLAN SUSU FORMULA SEBAGAI PRODUK PENGGANTI ASI YANG DIMUAT PADA MAJALAH KEDOKTERAN

The rampant marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes products, especially infant formula in various mass media has caused many mothers to stop providing breast milk for their babies. One of the media used to market Breastmilk Substitutes products is medical journals. Marketing of infant formula and other Breastmilk Substitutes products is regulated by regulations that are still applicable until now. The purpose of this study was to determine how the profile of infant formula advertisements as Breastmilk Substitutes product in medical journals, as well as the level of compliance with the applicable regulations. In addition, researcher also wanted to know about the level of knowledge of health workers regarding the regulations governing the marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes products. This study used a descriptive design with a cross-sectional approach and included 24 advertisements for infant formula and 27 health workers. The sampling technique used was simple random sampling and data collection was carried out online from December 2020 to January 2021. The instruments used were a checklist contains the suitability of the infant formula advertisement with the applicable regulations governing it and also a questionnaire. 15 out of 24 advertisements of infant formula (62.50%) were categorized at the moderate level of conformity, which fulfilled 6 to 8 predetermined criteria. There were 21 out of 27 health workers (77.78%) who had a sufficient level of knowledge, which fulfilled 2 to 5 of the total 8 questions on the questionnaire. Overall, the conformity level of the infant formula advertisements with the Breastmilk Substitutes regulations is moderate; and the health workers’ knowledge about the Breastmilk Substitutes regulations is sufficient.Maraknya pemasaran produk Pengganti ASI, khususnya susu formula di berbagai media massa menyebabkan banyak ibu yang tidak lagi memberi ASI kepada bayinya. Salah satu media yang digunakan untuk memasarkan produk Pengganti ASI adalah majalah kedokteran. Pemasaran susu formula beserta produk Pengganti ASI lainnya diatur dalam peraturan-peraturan yang masih berlaku sampai saat ini. Tujuan daripada penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana profil iklan susu formula sebagai produk Pengganti ASI pada majalah kedokteran, serta tingkat kesesuaiannya dengan ketentuan yang mengatur mengenai pemasaran produk Pengganti ASI. Selain itu peneliti juga ingin mengetahui mengenai tingkat pengetahuan tenaga kesehatan mengenai peraturan yang mengatur tentang pemasaran Pengganti ASI. Penelitian ini menggunakan desain deskriptif dengan pendekatan cross-sectional dan mengikutsertakan 24 iklan susu formula bayi serta 27 tenaga kesehatan. Teknik pengambilan sampel yang digunakan adalah simple random sampling dan seluruh pengambilan data dilakukan secara daring pada bulan Desember 2020 sampai Januari 2021. Instrumen yang digunakan berupa daftar tilik kesesuaian iklan susu formula bayi dengan peraturan yang berlaku beserta kuesioner. Sebanyak 15 dari 24 iklan susu formula bayi (62,5%) dikategorikan pada tingkat kesesuaian sedang, dimana memenuhi 6 hingga 8 kriteria yang telah ditentukan. Terdapat 21 dari 27 orang tenaga kesehatan (77,78%) memiliki tingkat pengetahuan cukup, dimana memenuhi 2 hingga 5 dari total 8 pertanyaan pada kuesioner. Secara keseluruhan, tingkat kesesuaian iklan susu formula bayi dengan ketentuan yang mengatur mengenai pemasarannya adalah sedang; dan tingkat pengetahuan tenaga kesehatan mengenai peraturan pemasaran produk Pengganti ASI adalah cukup.

Acute pancreatitis following Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) discovered in China in early December 2019. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority approved the registration of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Saudi Arabia on December 10, 2020, and on May 10, 2021, Pfizer-BioNTech was given emergency authorization for use of the vaccine in children aged 12 to 15 years. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health started the vaccination phase for ages 12 to 18 years for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on June 27, 2021. An insulin-dependent diabetic 15-year-old female patient admitted to the medical ward diagnosed with acute pancreatitis nine days after being administered her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. She presented with an amylase level of 340 U/L, lipase level of 937 U/L. She was discharged after eight days of hospitalization with no complications. Medical investigations were unable to link the diagnosis to any known etiology. Medical journals have reported numerous cases of acute pancreatitis in the adult population after Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination. We believe that our case is the first to present with acute pancreatitis after the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a teenager population.