ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
In Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, at Holiday hotel on November 14th, 2020 was organized 11th annual scientific meeting of the Academy of Health Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina “Days of AMNuBiH 2020” and 3rd Seminar about Writing, Editing and Publishing – “SWEP 2020”.
Topics of the conferences were:
Speakers at the conferences were from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Izet Masic, Sarajevo (Medical, Social and Ethical Dilemmas in COVID-19 Times: How to Decide Who and What to Do and The Basic Principles of Editing Biomedical Scientific Journals), Muharem Zildzic, Gracanica (The Importance of Nutrition in Boosting Immunity for Prevention and Treatment COVID-19), Osman Sinanovic, Tuzla (COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychiatric and Neurological Consequences), Sefik Hasukic, Tuzla (The Elective Diagnostic Laparoscopy in Chronic Abdominal Disorders in Pandemic Conditions), Senaid Trnacevic (Organ Transplantation in Bosnia and Herzegovina Within Limiting Circumstances Cased by COVID-19 Pandemic), and Emir Mujanovic (Organization of the Work of the Medical Institute Bayer in Tuzla During the COVID-10 Pandemic).
During SWEP 2020 particpants have possibility to attend Short course in research design – five key components / phases:
Presidency of the “Days of AMNuBiH 2020” and “SWEP 2020” were academicians: Izet Masic, President, and Muharem Zildzic and Slobodan Jankovic, members, who excellent co-ordinated and administrated Webinar using Zoom ICT with particpinats in Dubrovnik (Asim Kurjak and Milan Stanojevic), Split (Izet Hozo), Skopje (Doncho Donev), Memphis (Kenan Arnautovic), Tuzla (Osman Sinanovic, Sefik Hasukic, Emir Mujanovic and Senaid Trnacevic), Sarajevo (Mirza Biscevic) and Gracanica (Nizama Salihefendic).
During “SWEP 2020” in Sarajevo members of AMNuBiH accepted as official strategic documents of Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina: “The Basic Principles of Editing Biomedical Scientific Journals” and “Importance of Adequate Research Design in Biomedicine”, as Guidelines which will be published in the next issue of Acta Informatica Medica journal and distributed to other medical journals in former Yugoslav countries, similarly we have done it at “SWEP 2016”, when 17 editors of Medical journals from South Eastern Europe countries adopted “Sarajevo Declaration on Integrity and visibility of Scholarly Publications”. This publication primarily was published in the Croatian Medical Journal and translated in several other languages..
The first document is useful for improving editing of medical journals, both on regional and global level, because numerous studies, editorials, expert opinions and other types of publications direct our attention to weaknesses and mistakes of editing that have or will have adverse consequences to ultimate goal of writing in health sciences. Just in one study of highly ranked orthopedic journals citation error rate of 41% was found, as we noticed during presentation this Guidelines at “SWEP 2020”. Editors of medical journals are faced with a number of problems that are mostly caused by ignorance or inexperience of the authors: duplicate submissions, inadequately prepared submissions, insufficient availability of competent and knowledgeable reviewers, low methodological quality of the submissions, etc. It is reason that editors of medical journals are left without evidence-based practical guidelines how to conduct their job with success and avoid many pitfalls in their way.
The second document used analytical method for explanation of five most important steps and phases which are obligatory to use in process of making of appropriate and qualitative research design for providing study investigation in biomedical research. It will be very useful for validity of a study results depends directly on appropriateness of its design, because it is only through careful planning that bias is minimized and the aims set in advance achieved. If all five essential steps are thoroughly completed, as described in this document, the study that was designed will be most likely free of critical methodological errors.
Finally, this our annual meeting was organized in very bad and difficult Corona time, when almost 1000 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina daily suffered by COVID-19 infection. Unfortunately, schools, faculties, universities, libraries, other important institutions and educational and social associations are closed. We are happy that our Academy didn’t break our activity and its members at the “Days of AMNuBiH 2020” and “SWEP 2020” conferences in Sarajevo have given a small contributions to medical science for continuing the fight with corona virus.
