Background: Journals are indexed to promote accessibility and visibility of research output. It is unclear the extent to which Nigerian Biomedical Journals are indexed online. This could limit the visibility of research that could contribute to the advancement of science locally and globally. In conducting systematic reviews and other forms of evidence synthesis, studies published in such journals may not be easily retrieved and could contribute to missed studies. In order to aid identification and visibility of research published in non-indexed journal, we sought to identify and document Nigerian Biomedical Journals and their indexing status on online Biomedical databases.
Objectives: To document Nigerian Biomedical Journals and identify journals indexed online.
Methods: We searched the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) Portal (a database of serials published globally), using the search term “Nigeria” in April 2022. Two authors independently screened the titles to identify biomedical journals. We extracted data from journals identified, including Publisher, indexing status on PubMed, African Journals Online (AJOL) or other online databases, Access (Free or Fee based), and medium. This research is ongoing, so, in addition to the above, we plan to send out a short survey to Nigerian health professionals to list Nigerian Biomedical Journals they are aware of. The survey will be disseminated via the networks of National Professional Medical Associations. We used simple descriptive statistics to report our findings. Results (preliminary findings): We identified a total of 657 Nigerian Biomedical Journals. Most were not indexed online (58.3%). Only 10% and 6.8% were indexed on PubMed and AJOL, respectively (see Table 1). Almost half of the journals were free to access.
Conclusions: Very few Nigerian Journals are indexed on PubMed or AJOL. A greater number are indexed on other databases. In doing systematic reviews of diseases endemic to Nigeria or using regional data (prevalence reviews) it may be useful to search additional databases like Google scholar and consider handsearching. There is need to promote indexing of local journals in PubMed or AJOL to improve visibility. Patient, public, and/or healthcare consumer involvement: We will engage the public to identify journals they know through a survey.