The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of India1

All learned professional societies publish an academic Journal for the promotion of science, especially relating to their own speciality, for the benefit of their members. The Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) is no exception. From the very beginning of its birth in the year 1950, FOGSI has been publishing its own official journal or its own mouthpiece, the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of India (JOGI). The Journal is over 56-year-old now and this is the story of the Journal.

The Madras Obstetric and Gynaecological Society was the first of its kind in India to be formed in the beginning of 1934. The Bombay Obstetric and Gynaecological Society came into existence in February 1934 and was followed by Bengal Obstetric and Gynaecological Society at Calcutta. These three societies organized the first All India Obstetric and Gynaecological Congress (AICOG) in 1936 at Madras. Eminent Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of India participated in this Congress and decided to form similar societies in their areas of the country and to organize AICOGs regularly. The 2nd AICOG was held in Bombay in 1938 and the 3rd one in Calcutta in 1941, the second world war interfered with regularity of holding these congresses. The 4th AICOG had to wait till 1945 and was held in Lahore. The 5th AICOG was held in Bombay in 1947.

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By now two more societies, one at Ahmedabad and the other of North India in Punjab were in existence. These five societies formed the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India on 6th January 1950 during this congress and the federation decided to publish its own Journal.

Eversince the 1st AICOG the feasibility of publishing a Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology was under some consideration. The idea of publishing an Indian Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology was seriously mooted during the 3rd AICOG in 1941 by late Dr. NA Purandare during his Presidential Address. During the 5th AICOG held in Bombay in 1947 late Dr. Laxmanswamy Mudliar undertook the responsibility of publishing the Journal from Madras. Since not much progress was made in this direction, FOGSI, at its birth, entrusted the responsibility of publishing the Journal from Bombay to Dr. J Jhirad by appointing her as Editor to be supported by Dr. KM Masani as Associate Editor and Dr. Gool N. Vazifdar as Secretary of the Journal.

Publishing a Journal should be looked upon as a business enterprise to be conducted with professional skill. For academic societies like FOGSI indulgence in publishing a Journal is like walking on a tight rope because of financial implications and liabilities. Dr. Jhirad, Dr. Masani, and Dr. Vazifdar were fully aware of their financial responsibilities. They did meticulous planning, looked into every minute detail, carefully balanced their expenses to match the income, and avoided financial pitfalls. Not that they always had a carefree time. In those days good quality paper had to be imported. Paper was often scarce in the market. Prices fluctuated. They had to purchase and stock the paper blocking their meager finances. Inflation has been a permanent key feature of our life in the last 60 years. For JOGI costs of paper, blocks for printing, salaries, office equipments, etc. have been perpetually rising. Expenses were increasing year after year. The Journal had to approach FOGSI at regular intervals for increasing the members payment of the subscription for the Journal. FOGSI had to acceed to the request, usually grudgingly, and over the years the yearly subscription gradually rose from Rs. 9/- in 1950 to Rs. 300/- in 2001. It is interesting to look at the yearly subscription from the point of skyrocketing inflation and the consistenly decreasing value of rupee since 1951 (Table 1.1).

Recovery of dues is a perpetual problem with all publishers. The editors had to make persistent efforts to recover advertisement money from defaulting parties occasionally resorting to legal action. Inspite of all these, bad debts had to be written off at regular intervals. Apart from advertisers, sometimes authors refused to pay costs of block making and occasionally institutional subscriptions also had to be written off. Incidentally, the only serious police and court action by JOGI was against one of its employee who had indulged in criminal syphoning off its funds.

Ever since the mid-fifties it was considered desirable that the Journal should have a reserve fund to fall back upon in times of financial deficits. Issuing debentures for the purpose was considered but was not found practical considering the credibility, rather the lack credibility, of the Journal. Efforts were made to solicit voluntary donations from FOGSI 7members. But no donations materialised. Creation of a “Trust” for the Journal was discussed without any positive result. Ultimately the Journal had to fall back upon its day-to-day resources and periodic increases in subscription rates.

The workload of the Editors went on increasing year after year. This needed additions to the Editorial Board at regular intervals. The position of Assistant Editor was created in 1964, Associate Editor in 1972 and Joint Associate Editor in 1987. On the administrative side the post of Jt. Assistant Secretary was created in 1979, and of Assistant Secretary in 1981. Table 1.2 gives full details of those who worked on the Editorial Board in various capacities over the years.

The 1st issue of the Journal was published in September 1950. It was a quarterly publication with 4 issues in a year. Hence, one volume consisted of September, December, March and June issues and belonged partly to each of the two consecutive calendar years. This went on till volume No.11 of 1960-61. It was felt more appropriate to have the 4 issues of a volume published in one calendar year. To achieve this volume 12 was spread over 1½ years (second half of 1961 and entire 1962) and consisted of 6 quarterly issues. In 1963 the 4 quarterly issues of volume 13 were published and the practice maintained in 1964. However, with increasing number of good articles being received for publication the need for more frequent publication of the Journal was acutely felt. Hence, it was decided to publish JOGI bimonthly from 1965 and volume 15 of 1965 had 6 bimonthly issues. This practice continues till today. In 1975 a Silver Jubilee number was published. The constantly increasing load of papers needed consideration of monthly publication which was seriously debated in 1974, in 1982, and again a few years back. But financial considerations prevented monthly publication and the backlog of piled up papers was cleared by periodically increasing the number of pages in a issue to enable printing of more papers. Finally the situation became so acute that in 1982 rescrutinisation and fresh strict editing of even accepted papers was suggested by FOGSI. The editors wisely turned down the suggestion. In 1984 the backlog of papers reached 950 papers! It was gradually cleared by increasing the number of pages in each issue. In the latter half of the nineties JOGI published three special issues at the cost of accepted papers.

These special issues were – (1) FOGSI Guidelines (December 1998), (2) Breastfeeding (August 1999), and (3) Adolescent Girl (October 1999). This created a chaotic pile up of accepted papers awaiting publication. It was decided not to publish any 9more special issues and the backlog was gradually cleared up. In 2000 a Golden Jubilee number was published. Since 2003, the number of pages in every issue of a volume of the Journal is predetermined and fixed, and the number of papers pending publication is kept under control.

From the very beginning the editors had decided not to compromise on the quality of the cover and the paper, and the number of pages just to reduce the cost. The cover was initially printed on the card paper but from the year 1988 art paper is in use for the cover. The cover design has undergone many changes in the last 56 years as can be seen from Figure 1.1.

Proof-reading is an important aspect of every publication. Journals usually send the proofs coming from the press to the authors. But the authors most often fail to return the proofs promptly. The editors have to shoulder the responsibility of correcting the proofs. Correcting the proofs is not such a simple job as it appears to be. In fact this a specialised job to be done by the professional proof readers. JOGI felt the need for a professional proof reader since the early years of its publication. But for financial reasons it could not afford it. In 1974 and subsequently in 1985 serious efforts were made to get a competent proof reader. Competent proof readers conversant with medical literature are hard to get and the Journal could not get one within its means. Finally in June 1998 one doctor having experience with a medical journal was appointed at a salary of Rs.10,000- per month as business manager with proof correction as an important part of his duties. However, he resigned and left within 3 months. Since 2003, the Journal has appointed a competent and experienced copy editor who looks after proof-reading besides paying attention to the english language and grammar, and designing of the text. But all said and done, ultimately the editor does the final proof corrections and shoulders all the responsibilities connected with publication of the papers.

Mailing the Journal to reach the subscribers has been a complex problem due to the delayed receipt of members subscriptions through their societies, and incomplete and old addresses provided by them. Attempt was made 12to ensure receipt of Journals by sending them under certificate of posting. But in the year 1990 the cost of certification of posting was raised 10 fold by the postal department and hence this practice was discontinued. In 1983 the idea of sending the to the societies copies of all their members in bulk was mooted but was not accepted. In 1988 Muzaffarpur Society accepted bulk mailing for a short-time. Currently just two societies are accepting bulk mailing. Since 2003 JOGI has appointed professional mailers. The postage for mailing is enhanced at intervals by the postal department upsetting the finances of the Journal. Initially, paper wrappers were used for mailing. They were changed to plastic pouches since the last 10 years.

Right from its inception the Editors are persistently striving to improve the academic value of JOGI. Initially papers read at the AICOG were published in the first couple of issues of the year. A few good papers presented at member societies meetings were also considered for publication. Besides articles were solicited from professors, research workers, and experts in India and abroad. In addition good and relevant articles published in reputed foreign Journals from USA, UK, France, etc. were abstracted and published as was also done, in those days by some highly esteemed Journals in the world.

Getting the Journal Indexed in PubMed is the goal of every Medical Journal. Our Journal is no exception. As long as the Cumulative Index was being published our Journal was regularly included in that publication. With the change over to PubMed our Journal continued to be Indexed in PubMed and was available on Medline until 1983. With National Library of Medicine (USA) developing stricter criteria for inclusion of Journals in PubMed our Journal got deleted from PubMed in 1984. Eversince then we are making persistent efforts to get our Journal back in PubMed. Our efforts in that direction are reflected by the ratings received by our Journal from time-to-time (Table 1.3).

FOGSI and JOGI were born together and grew together. For over 25 years of its existence, the main source of FOGSI's income was part of the surplus generated by AICOGs and FOGSI was dependent on the Journal for much of its expenses. JOGI and AICOGs were its only main activities. In fact, until recent years 80% of the staff salaries was paid from the Journal account. For close co-ordination between FOGSI and JOGI the editor was made a member of the managing committee of FOGSI since 1961.

With continuous growth of JOGI the Editorial Board needed periodic expansion both on editorial side and on managerial side. A complete picture of the Editorial Board personnel over the years is already given in Table 1.2. It must be emphasised that each and every member of the editorial board has always rendered dedicated and honorary services 15without any compensation, monetary or otherwise. This has enabled the Journal survive and grow over the years.

The Journal has been very efficiently serving FOGSI as its mouthpiece and is its official publication. It has the highest circulation amongst all speciality medical Journals in India. Besides providing an excellent platform for research workers and clinicians for publishing their scientific work it provides the readers updated information and developments in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and related superspecialities. It also provides readers necessary information about the various activities of FOGSI from time-to-time. Since 2003 the Journal is becoming more and more reader centric. Its academic content is constantly improving in quality and will continue to do so. The Journal is aspiring to achieve international standards and will achieve its goal in near future. Lastly, the Journal owes a tremendous debt to its pioneers Dr.J. Jhirad, Dr.K.M. Masani and Dr. Gool Vazifdar for their dedicated services of 18, 36 and 40 long years respectively.