• Author explains why Quality Research Publications in Ayurveda are NEED of the hour and how authors can go about writing research articles.

Scripts of Ayurveda have appreciated such actions and initiatives which are strategic and critically analyzed, aiming to achieve the targeted goal. The success of any initiative depends upon frequent and critical analysis of the facts and on it depends the warranty of achieving probable outcomes.

The term Yukti coined by Charaka, reflects similar thinking and advocates critical analysis of the available facts based on past experiences and information and performing actions based on these clues to achieve the targeted actions. This principle can be applied to any aspect of science, whether research, applied, clinical, or publication. Like research is planned with certain objectives and based on these, the whole protocol is defined, which provides the researcher with a timeline and guidelines for executing the plan.

Moreover if the researcher follows it exactly, and there is no major deviation, the target is achieved as per the objectives and goals. Similarly, in disease management, if a physician critically examines the factors involved in the pathogenesis of the disease like the vitiated Dosha, Ansha (components) of the vitiated Dosha, the state of Dosha, the Ama, Nirama, the Srotasa involved along with its derangement type, and other related factors to the patients status. When all these information is logically well thought and a rigorous thought plan is applied in the form of the management, then only maximum efficacy of the treatment can be expected.

Based on similar thoughts, if one considers publications, especially article publications that too related to research and its outcome, a predefined methodology with appropriate execution is also desirable. There is a mindset of the young researchers that article publication is the additional burden and it is not part and parcel of the research. This is the reason why, after completion of the research trial as a part of postgraduate study, the scholars are reluctant to write and publish the research article.

These young scientists have to be educated that writing a good article is an art to showcase the efforts the researcher has done to complete the task of the clinical trial or any other type of the study. This is to make the results of research to be accessible to other professionals and have a potential effect on the scientific community. The decent presentation of the article with scientific content reflects the stringent methodology, which was applied to execute this task.

Furthermore, if the research has been planned properly with an idea to end up the project with the publication, then the task of writing an article becomes easier. As it is rightly mentioned that every minute that is spent in planning saves 10 min in execution; this gives a 100% return on energy. Hence, researchers shall keep in mind that a clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives a feeling of confidence and self-satisfaction.

Another reason for poor quality publications may be that there is no formal training of the students regarding how to write a research article, and hence, most of the time, new authors are in a dilemma that how and what to write in an article. The difficulty while writing a research article is in deciding the topic of the article, lack of good knowledge of the methodology, inability of finding related references, lack of interest in research, lack of understanding of the subject matter, lack of time, and research guiding.

This may be the reason why authors take clues from the published articles related to the topic concerned and that many a time, ends up in the case of plagiarism. Although article writing and its methodology are included in the syllabus of postgraduate students of Ayurveda, and the related points are been taught, but most of the time, there are no practical training sessions to allow the students to write a research paper of their own.

To curtail these challenges, the students of postgraduate should be trained regarding writing research proposals and projects and help them do well in the earlier stage of the post-graduation. There should be more focus on academic writing with more activities and tasks and training workshops. Supervisors should provide students with good guidance and help them in selecting the topics which are of interest of scientist and Ayurveda community.

A competition of writing a research article can motivate students to do well in writing good research projects. To make the research process successful starting with selecting topics till finalizing the results, guides can conduct small groups for research and training workshops about research issues and help students participate in paper presentations and article writing workshops. Such an assignment from supervisors will motivate scholars and make them familiar with the research. Research-based teaching will further help to provide a mindset for the need of carrying out scientific works with standard publications.

A trend has to be made popular among Ayurveda scientists that merely writing an article for the sake of an increasing number of published articles to get grades or incentives for promotion or interviews is of no use. Quality papers or articles which add some new information or contribution and fulfil the quests of the medical fraternity are the actual need. Now a day, most of the quality journals are publishing online issues, and the guidelines and instructions to be followed by the authors are well displayed on the website of the journal, many times along with the predefined templates for article types. The author has just to stick to these guidelines and design articles accordingly.

However, this will only possible if the author had planned about the study as per the standards of scientific research. EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research), https://www.equator-network.org/library/guidance-on-scientific-writing/provide reporting guidelines for main study types and the scholars can take help of this while planning to publish a scientific research article. Even the website of AYU journal provides detailed information regarding the guidelines for publishing articles, and authors willing to publish the articles can visit http://www.ayujournal.org/for related details of their article type. If the authors follow these guidelines, unnecessary delay in the process of reviewing the article can be avoided and chances of rejection will also be less.

The authors must also keep in mind that the review process of the article is an advantageous action done by the peer review journals as it helps to improve the writing skill and shape the article in the standard format.

In short, a step of willingness to write an article opens a vast arena to the researcher. A systematic approach of planning a scientific study and its appropriate execution and updating the information related to the subject and its skilful presentation as a published article in a peer-reviewed indexed journal yield the reward of hard work to the researcher at one click as it can be now accessed by the global scientific community. The high citations of the article give an actual award of the pain, the author had taken to complete the task. Young scientists of Ayurveda shall come forward and train themselves to write and publish quality articles, which will take the science of Ayurveda to new heights.

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Source of Support: None, Conflict of interest: None

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About Author: Department of Kayachikitsa, IPGT and RA, Jamnagar-361 008, Gujarat, India.

Article available online/offline on: AYU, Vol. 40, Issue 3, October to December  2019, Page no.207-208, for more details please visit: www.ayujournal.org

Address for correspondence: Mandip Goyal, Department of Kayachikitsa, IPGT and RA, Jamnagar-361008, Gujarat, India. 
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