In another first for Pakistan and a major milestone for local midwifery research, the
Journal of Asian Midwives, JAM, one of the only two research journals hosted by The Aga Khan University at
eCommons, the University's Institutional Repository, has been accepted for inclusion in
Scopus – the world’s largest electronic database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings.
Scopus, owned by the larger publishing house
Elsevier, covers more than 34,000 peer-reviewed journals in top-level subject fields: life sciences, social sciences, physical sciences, and health sciences.
AKU-SONAM, under the stewardship of Dr Rafat Jan, professor and associate dean, outreach and policy unit, had launched the JAM in 2014 as the first-ever peer-reviewed midwifery journal in south and central Asia covering publications from five countries including Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The journal was established resulting from the need to promote midwifery research findings of the region to an international healthcare audience.
Soon after inception it received attention from international scholars and was indexed in EBSCO CINAHL in 2015 which significantly raised its citation index and download rates.
According to the Scopus Content & Advisory Board, CSAB, “(the journal) has scholarly relevance as evidenced by citations in other journals currently covered by Scopus. The scope of this journal is narrow but addresses the need of an important niche audience, while contributing to a key global community”.
The Journal of Asian Midwives boasts of a strong
editorial board with members from more than nine countries, including researchers from Bournemouth University, McMaster University, University of Saskatchewan, University of New Mexico, Australian College of Midwives, AKU, and others.
"It is a proper well-run peer-reviewed journal, and I know that from personal experience, as one of the papers on which I was a co-author a few years ago was rejected after peer review!” comments Dr Edwin Van Teijlingen, one of the lead editors and co-founders of the Journal.
“This is a manifestation of years of hard work and dedication, and a huge step forward for midwifery in the region. I am grateful to the mentorship of Dr Teijlingen, the support of The Aga Khan University Library team and leadership, and my own team of faculty members who have put their sweat and blood into the creation and success of this journal. I now look forward to even more local and international healthcare professionals being published in JAM,” says co-editor Dr Rafat Jan.