Do Indian Researchers Read Indian Research?

It is the authors' experience that papers in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry (IJP) under-reference relevant research previously published in the journal. To empirically address this issue, four volumes of the IJP, from 1989 to 1992 (both years inclusive), were surveyed. It was found that of 292 articles examined, 133 articles (45.5%) had neglected to cite relevant articles previously published in the IJP. The overall ratio of IJP reference included to IJP reference omitted was 1:1. Surprisingly, four articles were found to have been published twice in the IJP without the duplicate publication having been noticed and recorded. These findings suggest a need for introspection at author, referee and editorial levels.