Pune: The Armed Forces Medical College at Pune hosted an online conference cum workshop IMPACT 2022 from 15-17 Sep 2022. The conference was organized by the Medical Journal Armed Forces India, one of the oldest surviving multi-specialty research journals of the country. Published from the portals of AFMC Pune, MJAFI is celebrating its 78th publishing volume this year. Over the years, the journal has become a well indexed medical publication with researchers from all across the globe submitting articles with the cite score of 2.6.
The conference was inaugurated online by Surgeon Vice Admiral Rajat Datta, AVSM, SM, VSM PHS, Director General Armed Forces Medical Services. The DGAFMS stressed upon the importance of learning the art of medical writing and reviewing specially when the recent guidelines for teachership has mandated basic minimum publications. The Admiral also highlighted the virtues of adapting to an online platform in this digital era.
Air Vice Mshl Rajesh Vaidya, VSM Dean & Deputy Commandant, Armed Forces Medical College, welcomed and congratulated the delegates for showing such keen enthusiasm in participating in a whole new format. Apart from the importance of learning the skills of medical writing and editing, the deputy Commandant also emphasized on the ethics in publishing and how one should not fall in the traps of publishing in predatory journals.
The three day event featured deliberations from distinguished faculty who conducted interactive sessions on contemporary issues in medical publishing. Workshops on medical writing, peer review, biostatistics and ethics were conducted in order to guide the young authors in refining their skills in medical publishing. Contemporary topics like the challenges of plagiarism and predatory journals were also discussed. On the last day, a guest lecture on “Nuances of good scientific writing” was delivered by Dr Gagandeep Kang, Professor Microbiology and Laboratory Director, Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory, Christian Medical College, Vellore.
Around 120 delegates from around the country attended the conference. The attendees included mainly budding authors, reviewers and editors who will contribute to successful publishing in the future. The tagline of the conference was ‘Academic excellence through effective research and publication’ and focussed on providing impetus to the scientists in the field to effectively communicate their research across the world and provide the scientific basis to upgrade medical practice and policies.