Becoming International
Despite the efforts of several editors, during
the first 25 years, the Journal was not considered to be of an international
standard. It had been considered to be "a medium through which
local (ie regional) medical personnel could communicate with their
colleagues about local problems" with preference given to papers
from the Caribbean.
Then in 1976, Professor Vasil Persaud instituted
major changes with the aim of moving the Journal onto the international
stage. A new Editorial Board was appointed representing all specialties
in the Faculty. There was an expansion of the Advisory Editorial
Board and the Assistant Editors were upgraded to Associate Editors.
The Journal began to appear on time, at the beginning of each quarter,
consistent article formatting was introduced and alterations to
the layout, including the division into seven sections, were instituted.
These changes allowed the contents of the Journal which had previously
only been represented in the Index Medicus to be indexed in the
Clinical Medicine section of Current Contents (Clinical Medicine)
and also in Excerpta Medica.
In 1980, the Journal published its first Supplement,
on Open Heart Surgery, edited by Professor S Sivapragasam. Later
that year, Abstracts of papers presented at the Annual Scientific
Meeting of the CCMRC were included in the December issue of the
Journal but regular publication of these only began in 1983 when
Dr Alan Jackson produced both the Programme and Abstracts as a Supplement.
In 1999, the CCMRC became the Caribbean Health Research Council
(CHRC) and Supplements for the Annual Scientific Meetings continue
to be published by the Journal. Supplements with the Programme and
Abstracts are also now regularly published for the International
Meetings of the University of the West Indies Medical Alumni Association,
the University Diabetes Outreach Project, the Ophthalmological Society
of the West Indies and the Faculty of Medical Sciences Annual Research
Conference.
The Journal itself has undergone other changes
to improve appearance and readability. In 1981, the cover was changed
from blue to white with the full colour logo of the University of
the West Indies crest. In 1983, the Summaries at the end of articles
and case reports were replaced by Abstracts at the beginning and
in 1988 a full index of the volume was bound in the December issue,
a practice that has continued. In 1991, each quarterly issue was
colour coded for easy recognition. In that year, the format was
also changed, to double columns on letter sized pages.
|
