What is submitted and what gets accepted in Indian Pediatrics: analysis of submissions, review process, decision making, and criteria for rejection

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', 'over-interpretation 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 to 180 (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.