What is Submitted and What Gets Accepted in Indian Pediatrics: Analysis of Submissions, Review Process, Decision Making, and Criteria for Rejection.
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Date
2013-01
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Abstract
Objectives: To identify the characteristics of the manuscripts
submitted to the Indian Pediatrics; attributes of the peer-review
process and decision-making; and factors associated with their
acceptance or rejection.
Methods: All submissions to Indian Pediatrics during 2002 were
analyzed by a retrospective review of records. Manuscripts were
categorized by their place of origin (Indian vs. foreign), geographic
region of India (north, south, east, west, central), submitting
institution (teaching vs. non-teaching), subject (general
pediatrics, systemic pediatrics, neonatology, genetic syndrome,
allied sub-specialities, etc.), and type of article (research paper,
case report, images, letter to editor, review, etc.). Manuscript
details were recorded in a database that also included information
on peer reviewer assignment, editorial and reviewer comments,
and final disposition of the manuscript. Characteristics of
accepted and rejected manuscripts were compared.
Results: Indian Pediatrics received 687 manuscripts for
consideration in the year 2002; mostly from Indian authors (89%).
Maximum contributions were received from North India (236,
39%) followed by 165 (27%) from South, 95 (16%) from West, 90
(15%) from Central and 26 (4%) from Eastern part of India. Of 687
papers, 457 (66%) articles qualified for peer review. Agreement
between the reviewers was not significantly greater than that
expected by chance; kappa for inter-rater agreement was 0.35,
0.17 and 0.21 between any two sets of reviewers for 431, 228 and
203 articles, respectively (P <0.005). Of 687 submitted
manuscripts, 294(43%) were accepted, 347(50%) were rejected
and no decision was possible on 46(7%) manuscripts. The top
reasons for rejection were 'absence of a message', 'lack of
originality', 'inadequate methods', 'not relevant to journal', 'overinterpretation
of results', 'unsatisfactory writing style', 'inaccurate/
inconsistent/insufficient data', and 'inappropriate statistical
analysis', in that order. Median number of days (IQR) needed to
reach the final decision was 81 (25-210) d; ranging from 8 (3-29.5)
d for Images to180 (90-341) d for Research papers. No
preference for acceptance was noted for foreign articles,
geographic region of India, type of institution, or a particular topic,
on both univariate and multivariate analysis.
Conclusion: Indian Pediatrics is receiving contributions from all
over India. Majority of the manuscripts are peer-reviewed. Of
every 10 articles submitted, almost 4 are accepted. Median time
interval from submission to final decision is less than 3 months.
The decision-making is not influenced by the place of origin of
manuscript.
Description
Keywords
Acceptance, Journal, Indian Pediatrics, Peer-review
Citation
Gupta Piyush, Kaur Geetinder, Sharma Bhawna, Shah Dheeraj, Choudhury Panna. What is Submitted and What Gets Accepted in Indian Pediatrics: Analysis of Submissions, Review Process, Decision Making, and Criteria for Rejection. Indian Pediatrics. 2013 January; 50(1): 77-83.