Introduction. Medical education should review online teaching methods so that doctors can use digital information effectively. Virtual education was well received during the pandemic, and teachers and students expressed satisfaction. However, male teachers and students adapted better than female teachers and students. Although online education has advantages, traditional offline education should only be replaced partially. Universities should focus on the development of virtual education and teacher training. Methods. We thoroughly analysed research works published on Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus (...) from the creation of these databases until May 2023. Our search terms included "Distance learning", "Online education", "Medical education", and "Central Asia", and we limited our search to English language articles. We also reviewed the literature lists of all the studies we found to identify potentially relevant articles. We carefully read all the studies and articles we identified, paying attention to the authors' names and publication dates to avoid data duplication. Inclusion and exclusion criteria. To conduct a thorough search, we searched for research articles published in journals that undergo peer review and are written in English. We only included studies that involved medical students and excluded articles that did not relate to distance learning, were published in non-peer-reviewed journals, or needed to be written in English. Conclusion. Higher education faces similar challenges and opportunities in the post-pandemic era, despite variations in cultural backgrounds and educational systems across countries. Improvements are also needed in online medical education, which can be achieved through the development of online training courses, individual tracking, technical control, professional support, and specialised evaluation. Such improvements will make medical training more accessible and sustainable for doctors in all areas. Innovative technologies will be necessary to ensure high-quality medical education in the future. (shrink)

AUTHORSHIP FOR SALE: A THREAT TO THE INTEGRITY OF THE PUBLISHING ENTERPRISE.

The ‘publish or perish’ culture has induced an unhealthy aspect of academic publishing in the biomedical sciences, namely of illegitimate authorship. Such a position can be obtained when an authorship slot is offered as a gift (e.g., to a sponsor, or researcher in a senior position), without their intellectual or scientific participation, or it can be hidden (ghost authorship), in which the paper (or parts thereof) is written by a third party (individual, or company). In a more industrialized setting, ghost (...) authorship takes place via the sale of papers using “paper mills”, including of specific author slots (i.e., positions in a line of authors). While author-based persistent identifiers like ORCID, or authorship attribution schemes like CRediT, sound noble and offer some form of validation, those systems still operate on a culture of blind trust (in submitting authors). This paper debates a few of the authorship-related issues currently plaguing biomedical journals. (shrink)

Scientific authors must become familiar with the key elements of scholarly writing and research to ensure ethical publishing. They should be proficient in writing the different sections of scholarly articles. Their knowledge of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods procedures must be sufficiently deep, including how to develop research questions and hypotheses. The authors must aim to be flawless when drafting scholarly articles to facilitate a deeper understanding of the extracted concepts. They should avoid duplicate publication, plagiarism, and salami science. When (...) conducting research, the authors should ensure protection of human subjects and avoid bias. (shrink)

Background: Hepatitis D virus research has advanced in recent decades. In this study, we aim to quantitatively analyze the scientific data in the field of "hepatitis D virus" by using bibliometric analysis. Methods: Research documents published in the Web of Science database between 1984 and 2022 were included in the study. The search keywords were "hepatitis D" or "hepatitis-D" or "HDV" or "hepatitis virus D." The full record and cited references of documents extracted were converted to a "bibtex" file as (...) well. The R-Studio software's Bibliometrix package and Biblioshinny application are used to perform the bibliometric analysis. Results: A total of 1530 publications written by 6042 authors were identified. Most of the publications were articles (62.81%). The number of published articles increased gradually, especially after 2008. The articles of the authors were mostly published in the United States, Germany, and China. The affiliation where the most studies were conducted was Hannover Medical School (8.82%). Also, the United States and Germany were found to be the main countries in the collaboration network. Mario Rizzetto was the author of the most published articles on HDV. The most frequently used words in the articles were "infection," "prevalence," and "b-virus." Conclusion: Clinical and epidemiological studies on HDV were given more focus, while studies on treatment were less numerous. It can also be predicted that potent treatment options will increase more in the coming years, and the frequency of studies on this will increase. (shrink)

Academics (should) strive to submit to journals which are academically sound and scholarly. To achieve this, they could either submit to journals that appear exclusively on safelists (occasionally referred to as whitelists, although this term tends to be avoided), or avoid submitting to journals on watchlists (occasionally referred to as blacklists, although this term tends to be avoided). The most well-known of these lists was curated by Jeffrey Beall. Beall’s Lists (there are two, one for stand-alone journals and one for (...) publishers) were taken offline by Beall himself in January 2017. Prior to 2017, Beall’s Lists were widely cited and utilized, including to make quantitative claims about scholarly publishing. Even after Beall’s Lists became obsolete (they have not been maintained for the past six years), they continue to be widely cited and used. This paper argues that the use of Beall’s Lists, pre- and post-2017, may constitute a methodological error and, even if papers carry a disclaimer or limitations section noting this weakness, their conclusions cannot always be relied upon. This paper also argues for the need to conduct a detailed post-publication assessment of reports in the literature that used Beall’s Lists to validate their findings and conclusions, assuming that it becomes accepted that Beall’s Lists are not a reliable resource for scientific investigation. Finally, this paper contends that any papers that have identified methodological errors should be corrected. Several lists that were cloned from Beall’s Lists have also emerged and are also being cited. These should also be included in any post-publication investigation that is conducted. (shrink)

The proceeding 2022 multicountry epidemic of Monkeypox emerges as a global health concern. The first death outside of Africa appeared in Brazil on July 29, 2022, and the first death in Europe occurred in Spain on July 29, 2022. As a result, the World Health Organization announced the monkeypox epidemic as a global public health emergency on July 2022. Therefore, we aimed to present a review in light of contemporary facts. We conducted a review of current details on Monkeypox. Close (...) contact is the best-known risk factor for human-to-human transmission; a pregnant woman can pass the virus to the fetus. The approximative incubation period is 10-14 days. Prodromal symptoms are fever, malaise, chills, and lymphadenopathy. Then clinicians observe that rash develops in most patients. Monkeypox usually takes 2-4 weeks on its own. The plurality of monkeypox patients recovers without treatment. However, some patients with complications may need treatment. Children, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals may develop a longer disease because of eye infections, pneumonia, and encephalitis. Physicians use anamnesis, clinical signs, and laboratory tests to diagnose infection. Infected animals and patients should be quarantined. There is no specific vaccine still. Nevertheless, the smallpox vaccine protects 85% against monkeypox, according to early reports. Antiviral drugs, Tecovirimat, Cidofovir, Brincidofovir, and Human Vaccinia Immune Globulin, can potentially treat. Our review centers on clinical knowledge for the efficacious management, prevention, and guidance of monkeypox responders and patients globally. (shrink)

MY LIFE AS A RESEARCHER, ACTIVIST, AND VOLUNTEER.

DYSTOPIAN CASES OF ORCID IDENTIFIERS: ANIMAL-ASSOCIATED ACCOUNTS.

An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) can provide a window into the latent dimensions of a disease, such as Long COVID. Discovering the latent factors of Long COVID enables researchers and clinicians to better conceptualize, study and treat this disease. In this study, participants were recruited from social media sites dedicated to COVID and Long COVID. Among the 480 participants, those who completed at least 90% of the survey, reported symptoms for two or more months since COVID-19 symptom onset, and had (...) not been hospitalized for COVID were used in the EFA. The mean duration since initial symptom onset was 74.0 (37.3) weeks. A new questionnaire called The DePaul Symptom Questionnaire-COVID was used to assess self-reports of the frequency and severity of 38 Long COVID symptoms experienced over the most recent month. The most burdensome symptoms were “Symptoms that get worse after physical or mental activities (also known as Post-Exertional Malaise),” “Fatigue/extreme tiredness,” “Difficulty thinking and/or concentrating,” “Sleep problems,” and “Muscle aches.” The EFA resulted in a three-factor model with factors labeled General, PEM/Fatigue/Cognitive Dysfunction, and Psychological, consisting of 16, 6, and 3 items respectively (25 items in total). The reliability of the items in the EFA was.90 using a split-half reliability test. Finally, participant self-reported level of functional impairment was analyzed across the three EFA factors. Interpretations and applications to research and practice are provided. (shrink)

Day by day, social media are entering our lives changing our every-day life and habits. This could not leave science unaffected. Over the last years, a lot of scientists have started using social media, exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge. Scientific journals have also followed being active participators in the social media world. In this opinion article we provide some arguments about the positive role of social media in the life of a scientist, highlighting at the same time the caveats that (...) are encountered. (shrink)

ACTH is a pituitary hormone important for proper function of adrenal glands, cortisol production as well as human physiology in general. It is involved in the pathogenesis of several endocrine disorders like Cushing syndrome and can be a useful diagnostic tool for diseases like primary adrenal insufficiency. Although popular as a hormone in endocrine system physiology and testing, ACTH has been used as a drug since the 1950s. Except for steroid-releasing properties, its mechanism of action involves a steroid-independent anti-inflammatory and (...) possible immune-modulatory effect. Pharmaceutic ACTH has a wide range of indications approved by FDA and usually comes in the form of subcutaneous injections. In this narrative review, we accumulated what we considered as important data from reviews, cases and trials involving the most basic FDA-approved ACTH indications. A special emphasis was given on rheumatologic indications of ACTH. More large data studies need to be performed to assess ACTH usefulness, efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness as a drug. (shrink)

Introduction: Little is known about the relationship between pain and hypertension (HT). This study aimed to analyze the effect of HT on pain sensitivity in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain complaints. Methods: This analytical, cross-sectional study included 45 patients aged 29–75 years with HT. The control group comprised 44 normo/hypotensive patients aged 19–66 (P = 0.107). Education status, age, gender, height, weight, smoking, presence of diabetes mellitus, physical activity level, blood pressure measurement, anti-HT drug use, vital parameters, including heart rate, (...) respiratory rate, and body temperature, were recorded for all participants. Results: The pain score was significantly higher in the HT group, with a mean of 72.1 ± 30.2 points (P = 0.008). Also, the HT group’s systolic blood pressure and pain score were significantly positively correlated (rho = 0.245, P = 0.02). The pulse rate was found to be significantly related to the pain score and pain threshold (P < 0.001); it was negatively correlated with algometer values (rho = –0.286, P = 0.015). Systolic pressure (P = 0.033) and BMI ( P < 0.001) were significantly different among the groups according to physical activity level. The Spearman correlation analysis showed a positive correlation of diastolic blood pressure with the body mass index (rho = 0.224, P = 0.036) and pain score (rho = 0.456, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The present study showed that the pain complaint increases as the blood pressure and weight increase. Also, the pain threshold decreases as the heart rate increases. The pain threshold was lower in women than in men, independent of tension. (shrink)

Scientific knowledge needs to be widely disseminated across the globe, for it to be critically analyzed or to be built upon for future studies. The conventional publication model has been less accessible due to prohibitive subscription costs and hence the need arose for the open access model where the readers would have free access. The Open Science movement is not only about open-access journals but also includes open source, open data and methodology, open peer review, open-access indexing, and archiving. The (...) prototype open access model is the gold model where researchers (themselves or supported by grants or funding agencies) pay certain article processing charges and the readers have free access to the content without any restrictions. Additionally, there is a need for free-to-use open-access platforms or repositories like PubMed Central to archive the open-access content. Institutional repository is another way for collecting, archiving, and distributing the scholarly contents of an academic institution. Preprint servers allow archiving manuscripts before they are submitted to or undergo review for publication, and they offer an important platform for freely sharing knowledge. While open-access model looks attractive, it has its challenges. Currently, the change to open-access model has meant the transfer of the financial burden, earlier borne by the readers, to the authors in the form of APCs. Irrespective of the model, there is a need to reconsider the high subscription costs and the article processing charges which are often prohibitive for many. Science must be accessible to the researchers and the public at a reasonable cost without delay. (shrink)

Typical interstitial pneumonia (IP) is mainly the fibrotic form of interstitial lung disease. In some cases with typical IP, a certain amount of ground-glass opacity (GGO) can be detected on high-resolution computed tomography, however, some important issues, such as the co-existence of GGO and typical IP, still require further investigation by biopsy. After the diagnosis of typical IP, anti-fibrosis treatment is usually considered. Here, we hypothesized that GGO in typical IP could be a manifestation of an acute inflammatory attack requiring (...) immunosuppressive therapy or an indicator of ongoing contact with trigger factors that initiate pathological reactions in typical IP. (shrink)