Correspondence Address:
Yogesh S Deole
Assistant Professor, Department of Kayachikitsa, GJ Patel Institute of Ayurvedic Studies and Research, New Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand and Associate Editor, AYU, Gujarat
India

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A national workshop on scientific writing and reviewing process for researches in Ayurveda was organized at Institute for Post Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar, India on 20 th -21 st July 2013 on the occasion of its 58 th foundation day. This workshop aimed at developing scientific writing skills. The workshop educated scholars about scientific writing, publication process, ethical and scientific aspects of publication, peer-review process. It also focused on the current status of Ayurveda research journals and quality improvement of publication. Many international dignitaries graced the workshop by their presence and eloquence. The workshop was attended by more than 150 participants including post graduate and Ph.D. scholars, faculty from other institutes, research officers from organizations across India. On the 1 st day, the workshop started under the chairmanship of Shri. R.M. Jhala, I/c Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar with inauguration by Smt. Vasuben Trivedi, Hon'ble Minister of State, education, women and children's welfare, Government of Gujarat. She also inaugurated first ever World Health Organization collaborative center for Ayurveda in India at I.P.G.T and R.A., Jamnagar.

Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan, Director, interdisciplinary school of research delivered the PM Mehta memorial oration on evidence based medicine and Ayurveda. He discussed the influence of Ayurveda in present society, epistemology and ontology, difference between basic principles of Ayurveda and western medicine, need for exploring new research methodology for Ayurveda, experimental-clinical-external evidence and expectations of patients. He directed the house to map ahead for success of Ayurveda in the global scenario.

Dr. Anand Chaudhary, in his presentation, precisely reviewed the development of Ayurveda journals since 1907 up to current status of Ayurveda journals. He made an observation about increasing commercialization in the form of mushroom growth of journals leading to decrement in quality of research articles. Dr. Urmila Thatte, in her eloquent manner, graciously made the house aware about ethical issues and plagiarism in the field of scientific publication. She also elaborately explained the authorship criteria and ethics for nominating authorship in publication of article. In the next scientific session, Prof. R.R. Dwivedi delivered his speech on guidelines for writing a review article. Prof. Alex Hankey enlightened the audience about gestalt principle of scientific writing. In the last session of 1 st day, Dr. P. Ram Manohar, informed the house about the structure of a research paper.

On the 2 nd day, the workshop started with informative speech by Dr. Supriya Bhalerao about the standard for reporting experimental studies in Ayurveda. Dr. Pawankumar Godatwar took the audience to a journey of referencing and abstracting style. Prof. Abhimanyu Kumar explained the authors about peer review and how to respond to reviewer queries. Dr. Manoj Nesari clarified the role and responsibilities of reviewers in his deliberation. Prof. Suresh Kumar made the audience aware about different problems in managing journal and their solutions. In the last session, panel discussion followed by valedictory ceremony was held. Prof. M.S. Baghel chaired the session in which he guided and inspired the audience about the need of quality research publication in Ayurveda with following ethics and scientific guidelines. The workshop ended with the vote of thanks by Organizing Secretary, Dr. R.N. Acharya.

A meeting of Indian Ayurveda journal editors was coordinated by Prof. Nishteswar, excecutive editor of 'AYU' journal during the workshop. All chief editors of reputed Ayurvedic journals in India discussed the possibility of a forum working for regulation and up gradation of quality of Ayurvedic research publications. It was decided to initiate a forum named "Round table for Ayurveda Journal Editors [RAJE]' " to have a common platform for handling various problems in editing, reviewing and publication. It was decided to conduct a workshop for training of writing, reviewing research articles to Post Graduate, Ph.D. Scholars and teachers of Ayurveda. Ethical guidelines for journals to uplift the standards of writing and publications, protocol for the formation of editors guild and its role, sharing database of reviewers across journals, development of minimum standards for acceptance of clinical and experimental studies, standardization of referencing styles, terminologies, spelling of Ayurvedic words, use of diacritical marks were also discussed in the meeting. The forum will aim towards assurance of quality of research publications. Dr. Supriya Bhalerao and Dr. P. Ram Manohar will co-ordinate the work related with the forum.

An initiative to improve the quality of scientific publications in Ayurveda is taken up through this workshop. The workshop module not only benefitted the authors, but it also trained editors and reviewers about scrutinizing the quality of research articles. The workshop fulfilled the objective of enlightening the lamp to start eminent writing in Ayurveda.