The imperative of repositioning Journal of Medical Research and Practice: The birth of Annals of Medical Research and Practice

Until mid-2019, the journal existed by the title Journal of Medical Research and Practice. Unfortunately, about 2 years into its existence, we realized that another journal (online based) had adopted the same title despite the fact that the title was duly registered with the National Library with a valid ISSN number and was already in use. To worsen the situation, that journal was classified as one of the predator journals, for reasons unknown to us. These situations created a very embarrassing profile to our journal, as our integrity and reputation were at stake. Complaints and fears were being expressed passionately by authors who had already published in the journal. We, therefore, felt that an urgent action needed to be taken to avert the impending catastrophe of being erroneously tagged a predator journal. Consequently, we stopped further production for some time.

The above constraints, which resulted in a near-total absence of a long term of new issues of the journal from circulation, necessitated approaching the National Library for a possible way out. Based on the advice of the National Library, a change in the title was imperative and inevitable. We were, therefore, left with no choice than to relaunch the journal. Journal of Medical Research and Practice is now titled Annals of Medical Research and Practice (AnMRP), from 2019 issue onward. The title was carefully chosen to reflect the journal’s broad coverage of clinical management, medical and related researches, and contemporary issues relating to health.

The cover of the journal has been redesigned, in addition to the change in the title, as part of rebrandishing policy. Another major change in the journal’s policy is that the content will be published using a continuous publication model (CP), starting from 2020. The Editorial Board believes that the CP model is major step forward in the scientific publication system, joining other medical journals that have used this model for over a decade.^[1] By joining this movement of the community of medical journal publishers, we hope to improve the AnMRPs contribution to ongoing scientific knowledge.

One of the primary advantages of this model is that it permits faster publication of the articles that no longer need to wait for the issue to be completed and allowing the authors to see their work published as soon as possible. Since the CP model benefits from the online system, it allows the immediate publication of an article as soon as it is ready,^[1] having been peer reviewed, approved by the Editorial Board, copyedited, typeset, and proofread. The shortened time to have the final version of the articles available to the scientific community means that an accepted article does not need to wait until a particular issue of the journal is completed, providing a better service to writers and readers by securing faster publishing to the scientific community.^[2]

This model will not change the way the articles are being grouped in sections, namely, Original Article, Review Articles, Meta-Analysis, Editorial, Letter to the Editor, Clinical Case Reports, and so on, which will be maintained. The digital object identifier (DOI) and the way the article will be cited will no longer contain the page numbers, but will be cited with the year, volume, issue, and an electronic number.

Articles will have their complete citation information at the time of online publication. Authors and readers wishing to cite a particular article will not need to wait for the final issue-based page numbers to have the complete reference. Instead of page numbers, each article will have an article ID that is related to its unique DOI number. The article ID is a substantial recent advance in publishing. In this model, readers will be guided on the “how to cite” information, which is published in every article just below the authors’ names, whenever they cite an AnMRP article.

The journal will continue to gather articles for two issues per year for now (which will hopefully increase in the nearest future). A new online issue will become available at the beginning of each issue period, and articles will be published directly into the current issue with their complete citation information as soon as the article’s production process is complete. At the end of each issue period, that particular issue will be closed, and the completed issue will be mailed to the print subscribers. Although the total number of articles will remain the same over the course of a year, they will now be organized into 6 monthly issues, unless there is a need for a change in issue frequency. The online journal’s website (http://www.anmrp.com) will be continuously fed throughout the year. When the deadline of an issue has passed, it is closed and the next issue starts to be fed.

We also considered it imperative to reposition the journal toward a wider academically minded audience. We are conscious of the increased pressure on our authors to publish in internationally renowned outlets that are listed in the appropriate rankings. By hosting the journal with one of the modern academic publishers in the world, we are positioned to participate in the dynamics of medical and scientific knowledge, practice, research, and health-related contemporary issues.

Apart from the aforementioned restructuring, nothing has changed in the instructions to authors on the journal’s website regarding the rules for article acceptance as well as the journal’s preferences. Its our hope that you enjoy and patronize the rebranded journal.