A Decade with the Journal of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care (JNACC): Reminiscing the Chronicles

Every academic society desires to have an official mouthpiece in the form of a scientific journal. The Indian Society of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care (ISNACC), established in 1999 and registered with the Society of Registrar at Delhi-NCR on October 24, 2001, is no different. The decision to start a journal by the ISNACC was not a very smooth affair. It took 15 long years after ISNACC was established to make a decision in this context. The usual concerns of possible failure in maintaining continuity after initiation were there in the minds of the members. For the first time, it was discussed at length during the general body meeting (GBM) at the Convention Center of National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, on the side lines of the 5th Annual Conference of the ISNACC (2004). The first Newsletter Editor of ISNACC, Dr. Neelam Ganguly of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, mentioned that the newsletter would be converted to a regular journal in the future. It was also decided to publish scientific articles twice a year in the newsletter as part of that plan. Subsequently, Prof. Hari Hara Dash, Founder President of ISNACC, was tasked with creating a newsletter that formulated the idea of a journal. After a long gap, in the 2011 ISNACC mid-term executive meeting at Bhopal, Dr. Pragati Ganjoo of GB Pant Hospital, Delhi, raised the issue; however, most members felt it was too early to initiate a journal.

It was feared that the financial burden to society with the cost incurred on publication, lack of continued submission of good quality scientific papers, and inadequate participation of a group of academicians without any financial benefit for peer review and editorial management could be the possible hindrances. During the GBM of the 13th annual conference of ISNACC at Bhopal (2012), Dr. Girija Prasad Rath of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, emphasized the benefits of launching a neuroanesthesia journal in India. He argued that many newer scientific bodies had already started their journals, so ISNACC should not be left behind, as the advantages could be many. Prof. HH Dash underlined that every member wants a journal for the society, but there are several reasons for the delay in the initiation. According to him, the most important reason was the unavailability of standard scientific articles even for the existing ISNACC newsletter. Past President Prof. GS Umamaheswara Rao cautioned that it is “easy to start a journal but could be difficult to continue” without submission of a sufficient number of quality manuscripts. Most of the members of the society were skeptical about the timing. Overseas ISNACC member Dr. Deepak Sharma (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) mentioned that the Journal of Neurosurgical Anesthesiology (JNA), the only neuroanesthesia journal available at that time, was also not getting a good number of impactful articles, and ISNACC members need to keep these things in mind. It was acknowledged that submission of quality papers was a major constraint as the journal, to begin with, would not be indexed by renowned international agencies. After much deliberation, a journal committee was constituted to look into the logistics, and in principle, the decision to start a journal by the ISNACC was taken. The matter was referred to the newly elected ISNACC Secretariat led by Dr. Hemanshu Prabhakar and Dr. Girija Prasad Rath of AIIMS, New Delhi, being the Secretary and Treasurer, respectively, for further decisions. Subsequently, it was decided to start a neuroanesthesia journal of our own; the goal was to publish peer-reviewed and impactful articles on neuroanesthesia, neurocritical care, pain management, and perioperative neurosciences. The title of the journal was proposed as “Journal of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care (JNACC).”

Based on the executive body meeting of the ISNACC at Varanasi (2013), and subsequent deliberations, Prof. Parmod Kumar Bithal, the then Head of the Department of Neuroanaesthesiology at AIIMS, New Delhi, Founder Secretary, and Past President of ISNACC, was nominated unanimously as the Editor-in-Chief of the JNACC. The ISNACC Secretariat notified it on March 8, 2013, and Dr. Girija Prasad Rath and Dr. Hemanshu Prabhakar were nominated as the executive editors to prepare the groundwork for the JNACC. Later, a publishing proposal was submitted to Medknow Publications and Media Pvt Ltd (A Wolters Kluwer Company), Mumbai, India. The publication house unconditionally approved the publication on March 28, 2013, and both parties signed a memorandum of understanding. On July 3, 2013, JNACC was registered with the Registrar at News Papers of India, facilitated by the Medknow Publications. The Web site of JNACC became live (www.journalonweb.com/jnacc) for the public on November 8, 2013, before the release of the first edition, the print version, in January 2014. The remarkable journey began with baby steps, and Prof. Bithal wrote the first editorial.[1] JNACC was the second neuroanesthesia journal, after JNA, available to the world readership. The journal subsequently got indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) on June 14, 2016. However, there were a lot of communication gaps with the publication house, and there was not much progress on the indexing aspects with other agencies apart from DOAJ. A decision to proceed with another international publisher, Thieme Medical Publishers Pvt Ltd, was taken with Dr. Sunny Duttagupta as the Acquisition Editor representing the publication house. Hence, the year 2018 was significant for the JNACC. In the ensuing years, the JNACC got indexed with Index Copernicus International (ICI), Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), and Scopus in quick succession between 2019 and 2021. JNACC was included in ICI on December 11, 2019 with a retrospective effect from 2018. It was included in the Scopus on January 29, 2021. On April 16, 2021, the journal was selected for inclusion in the Web of Science, and articles published after January 1, 2019 were retrospectively included in the ESCI.

Meanwhile, the JNACC has also been indexed with several abstracting agencies over the years. However, indexing with PubMed Central remains a challenge till now, and groundwork in this regard has been prepared. Several academic milestones, including increased readership, were achieved with the publication of a special issue on neuromonitoring in 2015. Similarly, two consecutive issues on neurocritical care were published with eight articles from international contributors (2019). Furthermore, during the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019, the journal continued with regular publications and published two well-appreciated consensus statements for the clinical practice of neuroanesthesia and neurocritical care.[2] [3] Meanwhile, the number of articles submitted is constantly increasing, with authors contributing from across the globe.

In the Indian context, the continuous expansion of the neuroanesthesia and neurocritical care landscape is a welcome sign. It cannot be emphasized enough that the successful conduct of residency and fellowship programs in the institutes of national importance and various multispecialty hospitals in the country will lead to quality research and result in mutually exclusive benefits for the neuroanesthesia family and the journal. The future of JNACC is bright, with the yearning to maintain the pace of this journey that began a decade ago!

Conflict of Interest

Dr. Girija Prasad Rath is the Executive Editor of the JNACC since its inception in 2013–14, Secretary of ISNACC, Executive Member (India) of the Asian Society for Neuroanesthesia and Critical Care (ASNACC), and Secretary-Treasurer of Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care (SNACC).

Note

This editorial has been prepared based on email communications and documents available with the ISNACC Secretariat and JNACC Editorial Office.

• References

• 1 Bithal PK. Journey begins with small steps…!. J Neuroanaesth Crit Care 2014; 1: 1
• 2 Vanamoorthy P, Singh GP, Bidkar P. et al. The Neurocritical Care Society of India (NCSI) and the Indian Society of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care (ISNACC) Joint Position Statement and Advisory on the Practice of Neurocritical Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Neuroanaesth Crit Care 2020; 7: 118-127
• 3 Jangra K, Bidkar PU, Manohar N. et al. Indian Society of Neuroanaesthesiologists and Critical Care Position Statement and Advisory for the Practice of Neuroanesthesiology during COVID-19 Pandemic. J Neuroanaesth Crit Care 2020; 7: 128-139

Publication History

Article published online:
07 June 2023