The Publication Division of the Institute has been publishing a quarterly periodical, the Indian Journal of Chest Diseases and Allied Sciences (IJCDAS). The Division is also responsible for documentation of the research output of the Institute in the form of Annual Reports and other scientific publications of the Institute.
The Indian Journal of Chest Diseases and Allied Sciences was founded in 1959 by late Prof. Raman Vishwanathan, the Founder-Director of the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute (VPCI) as an official publication of the VPCI and the Indian Association for Chest Diseases [renamed as National College of Chest Physicians (India) in 1976]. The journal was published as “Indian Journal of Chest Diseases” from 1959 to 1975 and it was renamed as “Indian Journal of Chest Diseases and Allied Sciences” in 1976. Professor Viswanathan single handedly nurtured this journal to make it an authoritative medical journal in chest medicine. The publication of a journal 50 years ago when there were no computers and other technologies of today was a Herculean task. It would also have been an uphill task to have quality scientific papers when only very few medical institutions in India were engaged in serious medical research. The first issue of the Indian Journal of Chest Diseases was released in July 1959 under the Chairmanship of Prof. R. Viswanathan. His efforts can be evidenced by the fact that IJCDAS is one of the few medical journals from India which has been fully indexed in Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed since 1965. After the demise of Prof. Viswanathan, Prof. Autar Singh Paintal, an eminent physiologist and former Director of VPCI was the Editor-in-Chief of the journal from 1983 to 1998. He continued the tradition set up by Prof. Viswanathan and took this journal to new heights. Dr V.K. Vijayan was the Editor-in-Chief of this journal from 1999 to June 2011. Prof. S.N. Gaur was the Editor-in-Chief from July 2011 to 20/11/2012 and 01.03.2015 to 31.05.2017. Dr Rajendra Prasad was Editor-in-Chief from 21/11/2012 to 28.02.2015. Prof. Arunabha Ray became Editor-in-Chief from 01.06.2017 to 31.10.2017. Presently, Prof. Raj Kumar is the Editor-in-Chief from 01.11.2017.
Many eminent scientists and clinicians have served as Editors and Editorial Board Members and Reviewers of the journal and all of them have contributed immensely to the growth of the journal. The Publication Division had published a special supplement in September 1974 on the occasion of 75th birthday of Prof. R Viswanathan.Another special number on “Smoking and Health” was released in 1982.
The Journal has a wide national and international circulation and is indexed in Index Medicus, Medline, IndMed, INSEAR, and Ulrich’s Directory, etc.
Full text articles published in the Journal (July-September 2003 onwards) can be accessed online through the following sites; V.P. Chest Institute’s site: http://www.vpci.org.in/journals.asp and http://medind.nic.in. Annual Reports can be accessed online through: http://www.vpci.org.in