Editor's note
Ethics in research and publication
Focusing on ethics is a fitting ending to our 12-part Research Notes series. In this issue CJ Ng (page 74) highlighted common ethical problems that researchers, both novice and seasoned, may be trapped into. In Professor LM Looi’s editorial (page 50), the need for research ethics and the important role of peer review are emphasised. It behoves us to reflect on our own ethical standard with regard to research and publication, hence the rationale for the cover picture of this issue: Is our ethical stance veering too dangerously to the wrong side?
Our contribution to world literature
In this issue we continue to highlight selected Malaysian primary care research papers (page 67-69) that gain entrance to non-Malaysian journals. Our selection of non-Malaysian journals is deliberate – our presence there suggests recognition of others for our original works, which, not surprisingly, remain ruefully unknown to many of us. The abstracts included here are all provided by the original authors. Noteworthy in this selection is a paper written by KC Leong et al, a multicentre randomised controlled trial that was conducted in both public and private primary care settings.
Reflection and sharing
As is usual for a general medical journal, the Malaysian Family Physician serves two functions: as a journal of record (publishing original works) and as a journal of education (publishing reviews and CME articles). In this issue, however, we are pleased to present several pieces where the writers share observations of a more personal nature. First, SM Liew’s close encounter with CPR in a hotel lobby (page 91), then we get to learn about what Verna Lee has learnt from her Sabbatical in Singapore (page 94), next we have Zainal Fitri reporting his first working visit to Mukah on board a Twin Otter (page 97), and finally KY Loh’s musing about human’s retina as he peered at the Milky Way through his Canon SLR (page 99).
Online issue
Due to the unexpected delay in the publication of our inaugural issue in August, we have decided to complete the year 2006 with a combined issue 2&3. The online issue will be published ahead of print in our website (www.ejournal.afpm.org.my). As before, most articles in the online version will have web links either to the [PubMed] (and via this to the full text, where available) or directly to the internet’s webpage [HTML] or full text documents [PDF]. To open the PDF, you can down the free Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website (http://www.adobe.com).
Thanks to our reviewers
Publishing a journal is impossible without the help of many reviewers who tirelessly helped us to check the content and to improve the submitted manuscripts. Please accept our heartfelt thanks. A full list of the reviewers for 2006 is given on page 101.
A note on the cover
The ethical balance was designed by our webmaster (Mr Kim Teng, http://www.ejireh.net) with contribution from the Editorial Board. The picture of fundus and CT scan of neck are part of the submissions from SH Keah (see page 54 and page 88, respectively). The Ishihara chart was downloaded from internet (www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html); if you see the number “2” (instead of “5”) you could be suffering from red-green colour blindness!