Updated Criteria for publications as prescribed by national medical commission (NMC PUBLICATION GUIDELINES)

It is very Important to know about the exact rules for publications which are going to be considered for the purpose of promotions in medical colleges in India.

The National Medical Commission for the purpose of defining NMC Criteria for Publications came up with a circular dated 22/02/2022 which  reads like this

Should have Research publications [only original papers, meta analysis, systematic reviews, and case series that are published in journals indexed in Medline, PubMed, Central Science Citation Index, Science Citation Index, Expanded Embase, Scopus, Directory of Open Access Journals (DoAJ) will be considered].

You must consider following facts while you choose a journal particularly if the purpose of publication you want to do is promotions in medical colleges.

The Paper Must be one of the following types

• Original Research Paper.
• Meta-Analysis.
• Systematic Review,
• Case Series.

And The journal Must Be indexed in any of the following Indexing services

• Medline.
• Pubmed.
• Central Citation Index.
• Science citation Index.
• Expanded Embase.
• Scopus.
• Directory Of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Someof the controversies and confusion has arisen out of names of following indexing services

1. Expanded Embase- There is nothing like Expanded Embase and more appropriate term in EMBASE.
2. Science Citation Index- More appropriate term is Science Citation index Expanded.

What Appears to be necessary

1. The paper should be original research paper or Meta Analysis or systematic Review or case series.
2. The Journal should be indexed in Medline or Pubmed or Central citation index or science citation index or Embase Or Scopus Or DOAJ

What Appears to be not necessary

1. Print Journal.
2. Subject Specific Journal

Change from Previous Rules

1. Earlier Index Copernicus Indexed Journal were also valid but now index Copernicus indexed journals are not valid.
2. Earlier Print Journal were compulsory but new notification doesn’t mention print journal so most probably online journals are also valid provided that they fulfill the criteria of indexing

Important Fact.

It is interesting to note that while earlier 1st , 2nd, 3rd and corresponding authors were considered to be valid authors new notification doesn’t talk about number of authors who will get benefit of a paper so it can be safely assumed that all the authors will get benefit of a paper. But its always safe to have your name either as first or second author or corresponding author.