The readability of editorials in popular Indian medical journals

INTRODUCTION: The essence of communication is to convey a message, and readability tests have been developed to quantify this aspect of language. There is limited research on the readability tests of journal contents from India. In this study, we performed readability tests on the editorials of four popular Indian medical journals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The readability tests (Flesch score, Flesch grade, and text statistics) were calculated from the following journals: Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism (IJEM), Journal of Association of Physicians of India (JAPI), Journal of Indian Medical Association (JIMA), and International Journal of Diabetes in Developing Countries (IJDDC). The editorials published in these journals over the last 2 tears were included in this analysis. RESULTS: A total of 64 editorials (IJEM – 19, JAPI – 18, JIMA – 16, IJDDC – 11) were analyzed in this study. The mean readability score was (IJEM 34.8 ± 9.5; JAPI 31.4 ± 11.4; JIMA 29.6 ± 10.1; IJDDC 26.1 ± 17.7) not different between the journals (P = 0.2666). Flesch score was less variable in IJEM an d JIMA than in JAPI and IJDDC (P = 0.0167). The editorials from IJEM and JAPI had a lower Flesch grade than the remaining two journals (P = 0.0253). The readability score was directly proportional to the sentence count and inversely proportional to the words per sentence (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the editorials from all the medical journals have equal readability scores. The sentence count and words per sentence are important to achieve a high readability score while writing for a journal.