The journal is entering its 33rd eventful year of publication. It is right time to recount the history of this journal, its transformation into a truly international journal and the reasons to stake its rightful claim amongst the diabetology journals. There is also a personal reason for me to undertake this writing as I lay down the office of the Editor-in-Chief after my participation in the editorial process of this journal for the past 22 years.

Origin and Early years (1981–1990)

The journal was started under the name “Diabetes Bulletin” by late Prof. M.M.S. Ahuja, Professor of Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. Prof. Ahuja’s effort was commendable, as there were not many established medical journals published at that point of time from India. It was meant to be a quarterly journal, it carried an occasional original article and reported a few reviews and abstracts of articles published elsewhere. As the access to literature was limited in those days, the publication of abstracts of current articles was an important function, serving need of the medical and research community. Publication of the journal was an uphill task. Hence, Prof. M.M.S. Ahuja enlisted help of Prof. H. B. Chandalia, Honorary Professor of Medicine, Grant Medical College, Mumbai. The journal’s name was re-christened from Diabetes Bulletin to International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries, in consonance with the expanding vision of the new editors. International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries grew steadily due to excellent selfless academic environment created by the founding fathers and executive patrons of the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India: Prof. M.M.S. Ahuja, Prof. B. B. Tripathy, Prof. O. P. Gupta and in addition, Prof Sam Moses, Prof. H. B. Chandalia, Prof. C. Munichoodappa, Prof. Binode Kumar Sahay and Prof. A. K. Das. The editorial journal of the office was shifted to Mumbai from 1991 onwards; Prof Ahuja and Prof Chandalia continued to edit it, till the demise of Prof. Ahuja in 1998. Thereafter, Prof. H. B. Chandalia continued to be the Editor-in-Chief, till December 2012, when the baton has been passed on to Dr. G. R. Sridhar, of Visakhapatnam. Currently the back office continues to be in Mumbai for logistic reasons to consolidate the editorial process further.

Editorial Process

The current editorial process is a well-set, seamless operation, maintaining standard of ethics and probity in scientific publications (Table 1).

Table 1 Data showing functioning of the Int J Diab Dev Ctries for the past 3 years
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Most contributions are sent to a set of three reviewers, identified by literature search. The editors decisions are almost totally based on peer review, except in a few conflicting situations. If the article is accepted, the authors are requested to revise the article as per the comments of the reviewer. After revision, reviewer is again asked to see if the article has been suitably modified. Thus, the whole process maintains confidentiality and dignity of authors as well as reviewers. In the year 2012, the journal used services of 113 reviewers. The rejection in the years 2010–2012 was 31.17 to 46.15 %. The article submission rate is rising steadily. In the year 2012, (till December 15) 247 articles were submitted for publication.

The Editor-in-Chief is a member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE); an organization enforcing high ethical standards for the editors.

The time-duration from the acceptance of the article to its publication, in the years 2011 and 2012, was 30 days.

Publication process, circulation and accessibility

The publication of the journal was done by RSSDI directly till the year 2005. In 2006 it was passed on to Medknow for a period of 5 years. Springer India is the publisher from 2011 for a period of 5 years. The access to the journal was open during its publication by Medknow; hence, it was possible to lodge it with Pubmed Central without any preview by the abstracting agency for a year. Presently, the journal has dual accessibility; the subscribers can view it through the Springer-link while open access to full length articles continues at RSSDI website www.rssdi.in.

The publication schedule of the journal is regular. Almost 5600 RSSDI members receive the journal free, while there are 2088 paid online subscribers from other countries.

Quality of articles and author base

The quality of articles received by the journal and ultimately accepted for publication is steadily improving. Most articles (>90 %) are original research papers. A few selected Editorials and review articles are commissioned by the journal, the majority being submitted are uncomissioned articles; which makes the process highly competitive and maintains the quality.

The journal has very wide author-base. For example, in the years 2011 and 2012 articles from 32 and 38 countries were received for publication. The journal is developing into a powerful mouthpiece of South-Asia region and Middle East. In fact, it fills up a great void in this regard, as there is no established diabetology journal from this area.

The articles published cover niche areas in diabetology, which is unique to this journal. For example, in the year 2008–2012, 17 articles on the indigenous and herbal antidiabetic drugs appeared in the journal [1–17]. These articles were on well-planned animal experiments or randomized, double-blind control studies in humans. In the same period, 23 articles pertaining to epidemiology of diabetes and its complications, which is unique for the region were published [18–41].

Abstracting, indexing and impact factor

The development of a journal is closely dependent on its visibility. Hence, abstracting and indexing agencies have an important role in this regard. International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries found its way in a large number of these agencies in the year 2006 onwards, during its publication by Medknow. This continues to grow; currently most important agencies abstracting and indexing are:

  • Science Citation Index Expanded

  • Global Health CAB International

  • Academic Search

  • CAB Abstracts

  • Health Reference Center Academic

  • IBIDS

  • SCOPUS

  • Google Scholar

  • EBSCO

  • Current Abstracts,

  • Expanded Academic

  • Index Copernicus

  • Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition

  • OCLC

  • SCImago

  • Summon by Serial Solutions

The impact factor of the journal (Fig. 1) is 0.569. It started rising in the year 2009 and has marginally increased in the year 2011.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Impact Factor Trend

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It is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years.

Future of International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries

The journal is an official publication of Research Society for the Studies of Diabetes in India, which is a vigorously working, powerful academic body in India. As India is hub of diabetes literature and science, this journal has a great promise in future. Each quarterly issue now carries more articles and it may be possible in future to convert it into 6 or 12 issues a year. The quality of articles will improve with increasing submissions and higher rejection rate. Its avowed policy is to continue full and free access. Future of this journal is indeed highly promising.