PUBLICATION GUIDELINES & MONITORING COMMITTEE (PGMC)

Publication Guidelines & Monitoring Committee demonstrates the commitment of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research to promote high ethical standards in academic publications of the students , faculty members and researchers of the Deemed to be University. This committee will also play an advisory role to facilitate compliance to essential ethical practices to all concerned in publications throughout the Deemed to be University. This Committee was earlier called Publication Oversight Committee (POC). On revision of the Standing Operative Procedures/Guidelines. The version-III of the revised SOP/Guidelines has expanded the roles and responsibilities of the Committee and hence called. Publication Guidelines & Monitoring Committee (PGMC)

The objective of the Publication Guidelines & Monitoring Committee is to ensure quality and ethical practice of all the submitted academic publications in accordance with the ICMR and international ethical guidelines for publications.

Facilities Available:

1. Office of Central Research Facility, Basement of the Building of the Faculty of Dental Sciences
2. Conference room of the Central Research Facility(CRF) for conducting the regular committee meetings
3. Computer with printer, online software for plagiarism check and e-governance portal of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research
4. A Biostatiscian-half a day on all working days
5. A Manuscript editor
6. Junior assistant of the CRF for all the administrative support

Governance

Guidelines

• Publication Guidelines & Monitoring Committee shall follow the recommended national and international best practices as mentioned below for scrutiny and approval of manuscripts of publications:
  • Indian Council of Medical Research. Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research on Human Subjects. New Delhi : 2006 (Page number:32-33)
  • Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication. Updated April 2010; Details regarding the Publication Ethics: Sponsorship, Authorship, and oAccountability; International Committee of Medical Journal Editors is given – (www.icmje.org )

• The corresponding author will be responsible for the submission of necessary documents through the online portal of the institute, www.portal.sriramachandra.edu.in and follow the guidance till the stage of final approval. All scientific writings [ research, case report, review,etc] which involve resources of the institute should be subjected to the process of POC. The corresponding author shall usually be the faculty who is the supervisor of the researcher/student or the faculty who designed and took lead in data collection and analysis. In circumstances where the student who designed the study and conducted the study has left the institution and showed no interest to publish the work, the Supervisor/Guide/Head of the Department concerned can take up the responsibility of publishing the work as corresponding author.

• The first author of the submitted work should be the researcher/student/faculty in whose name ethics approval is obtained and who has actually conducted the study[or] the lead person who did the study ( for research which do not require ethics approval)

• Authorship can be given to other collaborators/investigators who have participated in the conduct of the study and the order of authorship can be decided by the primary researcher/student/faculty and the supervisor/Head of the department.

• Required Documents for successful fast-track clearance by PGMC:
  • The corresponding author should upload the manuscript for plagiarism check through the portal webpage through the PGMC/faculty link as per the norms and guidelines provided in the UGC (Plagiarism) Regulations,2018
  • On receipt of the plagiarism report assessed by the software “URKUND”, the author should see if the percentage is > 15 % including references of the manuscript. If so, the author shall re-write the highlighted plagiarized phrases and resubmit at portal for re-assessment. Once the plagiarism percentage of <15% is reached, the corresponding author can proceed to next step.
  • The corresponding author should submit the following documents at portal following the instructions given by the respective web page.
  • 1. Letter to PGMC Chairperson forwarded by Head of Department / Guide cum Supervisor.
    2. Letter of undertaking from all the authors from SRIHER in the format downloadable at portal.
    3. Copy of plagiarism report.
    4. Manuscript in word format which follows the respective journal house of style.
    5. Ethical Clearance Letter to be submitted for the publication from a research project (biomedical research, animal research and clinical trials).
    6. For studies based on information on health records of SRIHER (medical records, laboratory registries, outpatient registries, etc) prior permission should have been obtained from Medical Director/Chief Operating Officer/Dean of the Medical College/Medical Superindent before initiating data collection. A copy of the approval letter should be enclosed.
  • Upon submission, the above mentioned documents will be scrutinized by the concerned PGMC member who will then approve/ suggest revision of the manuscript.
  • Once approved by PGMC member, the submission file moves to the stage of language correction and final approval by PGMC Chairperson.
  • The authors are advised to submit their manuscript to Journals indexed in SCOPUS/PubMed/Web of Sciences/ UGC approved list of journals as per the BOM approved SRIHER norms and can get assistance from the concerned PGMC member who initially approved the manuscript for guidance on selecting suitable journal for publication.
  • The BioStatistician and the Manuscript Editor at CRF shall assist in every stage of the publication process, including selection of suitable journals.
  • Authors are also requested to inform the committee if the manuscript gets accepted/rejected and their plans of submitting to another journal with or without revision.

Key review considerations

• Author ship
• Plagiarism report
• Fabrication and falsification clearance of data
• Protection of patient confidentiality
• Informed consent process
• Inclusion of the names of concerned department, Faculty like Medicine, Dental sciences etc., and the name of the Deemed to be University as Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher education and Research.
• Appropriate approval/ permissions from required authorities like IEC, Medical Director, forwarding letters etc. as mentioned above in the guidelines

Composition of PGMC members

• The duration of appointment of the members is for a period of 2 years and extendable
• PGMC shall report to the Vice-chancellor periodically

Governance

The PGMC shall maintain the following records.

1. Manuscript (hard copy as well as soft copy).
2. Copy of all the enclosed documents, like ethical clearance letter, other permission letters as mentioned in the guidelines.
3. Minutes of all meetings duly signed by the Chairperson / Member secretary.
4. Copy of all existing relevant national and international guidelines on publication ethics.
5. Copy of all correspondence with the authors other regulatory bodies.
6. Final report of the accepted/rejected publications as informed by the authors
7. Database of the reprints

Quality Evaluation of SRIHER publications-yearwise:

The PGMC, as approved by the Deemed to be University, shall conduct the ‘Quality evaluation of all the SRIHER publications’ for parameters like indexed/non-indexed status, type of the indexing database (Scopus/PubMed/Web of Science/UGC approved list of Journals/Index Copernicus), Impact Factor of the Journal in which the article is published and overall “h” factor of the Department/Faculty/SRIHER as a whole, using a software of an outsourced agency. Yearly report shall be submitted to the IQAC for consolidation and report preparation.

Quality Evaluation of SRIHER publications-yearwise:

PGMC - Guidelines - Link to PDF file - To be added

PGMC - List of Members

• ICMR document
• ICJME document
• Consolidated standards of reporting trials
• Letter of Undertaking by Faculty
• Letter of Undertaking by Post graduates