Journal of the IMA, popularly known as JIMA has been the face of Indian Medical Association since its inception. So, to say about the history of JIMA, it is necessary to say about IMA first.
Prior to the formation of the Association, four All India Medical Conferences had been held, the first at Calcutta in 1917 under the Presidentship of Lt. Col. Raghavendra Rao, the second at Delhi in 1918 with Sir Nil Ratan Sircar as the President, the third in 1919 with Dr. M. N. Odedar as its President and the Fourth at Nagpur in 1920 under the Presidentship of Rao Bahadur Dr. Maharaj Krishnan Kapur. It was at the 5th conference held at Calcutta on 28th December, 1928 under the Presidentship of Dr. G. V. Deshmukh of Bombay, that a resolution was adopted forming an All-India Medical Association with the objects of promotion and advancement of medical and allied sciences in their different branches, the improvement of public health and medical education in India and the maintenance of honour and dignity of the medical profession. In the year 1930, the All-Indian Medical Association and the body was duly registered under the Societies Registration Act, XXI of 1860.
Though the Association was formed with only 222 members. Yet even with this numerical strength, it could achieve its position of strength and command respect from the British rulers. It could prevent the appointment of British rulers. It could prevent the appointment of British IMS Officer as a Commissioner of Medical Education in 1929 and it could achieve to organize an all-India Medical Register and include the licentiates in it. The Medical Council of India Act was got amended to have an elected President in place of a nominated one and it was a matter of a pride that Dr. B. C. Roy, one of the most illustrious past Presidents of IMA, became the first elected President of Medical Council of India followed by many other illustrious presidents of IMA gracing the exalted chair including the past president of the Medical Council of India Late Dr. A. K. N. Sinha.
The Headquarters Office of the IMA was originally located in Calcutta. At the suggestion of Dr. S. C. Sen supported by Dr. B. V. Mulay, Dr. Chamanlal C. Mehta and Maj. General Amirchand, the IMA Headquarters was shifted to Delhi in January 1949, after the attainment of Independence. The Journal of IMA continued to be published from Calcutta. Dr. S. C. Sen also obtained a plot of land in Indraprastha Estate, New Delhi at the concessional rates from the Government and the project of construction of IMA Building thereon was undertaken, supported by Dr. B. V. Mulay, Dr. Chamanlal Mehta, Dr. C.S.Thakar, Dr.A.P.Mitra, Dr. Ved Prakash, Dr. R.C.Goulatia, Dr. P.C. Bhatia and Dr. D.S. Mehra. The foundation stone of IMA House was laid by the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad on September 19, 1958 and the construction of the building was started under the supervision of Dr. P.C.Bhatia who supervised it brick by brick. With his untiring efforts, the building was completed and opened on September 6, 1964 by the then President of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.
During the British Rule, some selected members of the profession were members of the British Medical Association which had branches in India. The stalwarts of IMA ultimately succeeded in reaching an agreement with British Medical Association that they would have no branches in India and got mutually affiliated, which relationship continues even today. In the year 1964, IMA helped in the organization of the world body viz., the World Medical Association and thus became its founder member through the efforts of Dr. S.C.Sen, Dr. R.V.Sathe, the then President, IMA held the chair of the President of WMA when the WMA met in New Delhi in 1962. It’s a matter of pride that another illustrious Past President of IMA Dr. A.K.N. Sinha also held the office of the WMA. The IMA has been playing an important role in the deliberations of the World Medical Association at New Delhi in the year 1966. later developments, however, forced us to take decision to withdraw from World Medical Association in 1985, since the organization refused to expel South Africa despite its dismal record of racial discrimination. The Indian Medical Association after consideration of all aspects of the matter decided in February, 1993 that IMA may again become a member of the World Medical Association. In pursuance of the above, 45th General Assembly of the World Medical Association at its meeting held on October 2-5, 1993 approved IMA’s membership of the WMA. The IMA has continued to play an important role in the affairs of the Commonwealth Medical Association.
In that conference on the historic day of 28th December, 1928, All India Medical Association was born. Dr. G. V. Deshpande became the first president and Bharat Ratna Dr B.C. Roy and Sir Nil Ratan Sircar became Vice President. Dr. K.S. Roy (Calcutta), Dr. A.N. Ghose (Calcutta) and Dr. D.D. Sathe (Bombay) became joint General Secretaries.
All India Medical Association was renamed as “Indian Medical Association” in the year 1930. Till Association Year 1933-34 there was no State or Local branches. The members were directly under IMA Headquarters. During the session 1934-35 it was decided to form Local and State branches. On 29th June, 1935, the first local branch of IMA, that is “IMA Calcutta Branch” was formed. The first president was late Lt. Col. Prof K.K. Chatterjee and Hony. Secretary was Dr Giris Banerjee.
Headquarter of IMA was at Calcutta from its inception in 1928 till 1948, after that it was shifted to New Delhi.
Indian Medical Association launched its own journal in the name of “Indian Medical World”. The first issue was published in March in the year 1930, under the able Editorship of Sir Nil Ratan Sircar, while Dr. A. N. Ghosh was made the Secretary. An All-India Editorial Board of 21 members was also formed.
All together 18 monthly issues of the “Indian Medical World” in two Volumes of 12 issues and six issues were published. The last issue of the Indian Medical World was dated August 1931.
Change of Name — In the 7th All India Conference, which was held in Poona, under the Presidentship of Dr. Jivraj N. Mehta, it was resolved to change the name of the journal as “Journal of the Indian Medical Association”. The change was made effective from September, 1931 issue. The change of the name did not connote any change in the policy of the journal.
The first JIMA was published in March 1930 from Calcutta. JIMA got indexed in “Index Medicus” (USA). Due to unavoidable circumstances the publication of JIMA was stopped for the period March, 2014 to July, 2015. Due to this it lost its indexing. Then from August, 2015 JIMA resumed its publication again from Kolkata.
After a long struggle JIMA initially got indexed under “Index Copernicus” in 2019. But our target was to index JIMA in SCOPUS, PUBMED & DJOA. We are happy to let you know that since August 2021 JIMA is indexed with “SCOPUS” also. We publish both in Print and online version. JIMA is now full online. Website and portal for Online article submission is working well. The journal is being peer reviewed thoroughly. Some of the Reviewer supported in an excellent way. We have invited Reviewer from National and International fraternity in all across specialities.
We follow a strict protocol to check PLAGIARISM before publication. We follow a guideline to select the article for Publication
- Date of Acceptance of Article, Date when sent to Reviewer, Accepted or Rejected by Reviewer, Date when ready for publication.
- Current topic/ Issues particularly of present era.
- Original Research work which may influence present medical practice.
- Interesting / Rare Case Series which may attract attention of different specialities.
- Young Authors & IMA Members are always prioritised.
- Pan India selection to maintain its national character.
- At present due to heavy load minimum of 12 months is required for a paper to be published.
Issues to be Addressed
- We must receive a greater number of original articles from all over India and from International Author. IMA HQs should ask its members to submit original papers to JIMA online.
- Working meticulously for indexing in PUBMED and DJOA.
- Need a strong team of Reviewer who are computer friendly.
The World Health Organisation has accepted & published a paper from JIMA “Surgeon’s Dilemma during COVID-19” as GLOBAL LITERATURE in their website and this is a small example of quality control of JIMA.
The JIMA Websites: We are regularly uploading it in www.ejima.in (cover to cover, maintained by Galaxy Publications, Indore), www.ima-india.org(by IMA Headquarters) and www.jimaonline.com(only articles & indexing, maintained by Evangel) EVANGEL PUBLICATIONS are maintaining the portal of online article submission and all related work on behalf of JIMA.
Jio Mag: Digital JIMA is already available in Jio-Mag (in your mobile phones) and all our official websites & linking sites. JIMA issues are also available in the National Library, Kolkata.
DIGITAL JIMA: Now Digital JIMA has become a reality. We are in the process of creating an E-library by Digitalising all JIMA issues since 1930. In the E-library all past issues of JIMA will be available in digital format since its inception. It will also be available online through our official website. ALL THE ISSUES SINCE 1930 HAS BEEN DIGITALIZED.Kindly note this big step is taken by JIMA Committee which will improve the Citation Score or Impact Factor by linking the metadata of all original articles in future and will also help us to get the PUBMED& DOJA indexing. We are planning to inaugurate the DIGITAL JIMA in a befitting manner shortly during the 3rd Editors’ Conference to be held at Kolkata in 2024.
I have been working in different category with the upliftment of JIMA since last 5 years. It is a proud moment to say that JIMA is completely digitalised in all respect and every work is now through web portal. It has been a great achievement for “TEAM JIMA” to revive this oldest journal of India and I am proud to be one of them. Lastly, I must thank each and every member of “Team JIMA” (past & present office bearers) for this achievement.
Long Live “Team JIMA”
Dr. Sanjoy Banerjee
Hony. Editor, JIMA