IndMed : An Evaluative Study on the Coverage of Indian Medical Literature

India has the legacy of Susrutha and Charaka, its ancient medical practioners but the scholarly literature on modern medicine is scanty. The bibliographic work carried out by Dr John Shaw Billings is unmatched. Due to his contribution the Index Medicus (now-MEDLINE) stands as the most important database of biomedical literature. The services of MEDLINE were extended to all countries over the years and India had its services through MEDLARS Centre at NIC. The coverage of Indian medical literature in MEDLINE was not comprehensive and this affects visibility of Indian medical research output. So Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) launched IndMed and MedInd. There are no studies investigating the coverage, the services and the gaps in coverage of IndMed. This study seeks to assess the extent of Indian medical journals covered by the IndMed comparing the list of medical and allied sciences journals covered by Indian Science Abstracts. Suggestions are made as to how the IndMed can improve its coverage.