Ray J, Berkwits M, Davidoff F
Annals of Internal Medicine (JR, MB, FD), Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Am J Med. 2000 Aug 1;109(2):131-5. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9343(00)00450-2.
The fate of research manuscripts that have been rejected by medical journals is of interest to authors, editors, and peer reviewers, but previous studies were conducted before the widespread availability of computerized literature searches. We update the previous investigations of the fate of rejected research manuscripts by using an electronic literature search and a larger sample, a longer follow-up, and more descriptive journal indexes.
Using a retrospective cohort study design, we examined 350 manuscripts rejected by the Annals of Internal Medicine, a general medical journal, during 1993 and 1994. We assessed the number of manuscripts that were published after initial rejection, time to eventual publication, journal type (general versus specialty), and journal impact factor (higher scores indicated greater impact) and immediacy index.
Of 350 rejected manuscripts, 240 (69%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 64% to 73%) were eventually published after a mean of 552 days (95% CI: 479 to 544 days, range 121 to 1, 792 days). Of 226 rejected research articles and reviews, 159 (70%, 95% CI: 64% to 76%) were subsequently published in specialty journals. During 1993 and 1994, the mean impact factor for articles published in the Annals was 9.60 (95% CI: 9.56 to 9.64), compared with a mean of 3.09 (95% CI: 2.80 to 3.37) for the journals in which the rejected articles were subsequently published (mean difference 6. 52, 95% CI: 6.24 to 6.81, P < 0.0001). The immediacy index was also lower for these journals. Time to publication had a weak negative correlation with the impact factor of the journal in which the article was published (correlation coefficient -0.15, P = 0.007).
The majority of the manuscripts that were rejected from a large general medical journal were eventually published after an average of 18 months. Most were published in specialty journals with lower impact factor and immediacy index ratings.
医学期刊拒稿后研究稿件的去向受到作者、编辑和同行评审人员的关注，但以往的研究是在计算机化文献检索广泛普及之前进行的。我们通过电子文献检索、更大的样本量、更长的随访时间和更具描述性的期刊索引，更新了对被拒研究稿件去向的先前调查。
采用回顾性队列研究设计，我们检查了1993年和1994年期间被综合性医学期刊《内科学年鉴》拒稿的350篇稿件。我们评估了初次拒稿后发表的稿件数量、最终发表的时间、期刊类型（综合性与专业性）、期刊影响因子（分数越高影响越大）和即时指数。
在350篇被拒稿件中，240篇（69%，95%置信区间[CI]：64%至73%）最终在平均552天（95%CI：479至544天，范围121至1792天）后发表。在226篇被拒的研究文章和综述中，159篇（70%，95%CI：64%至76%）随后发表在专业期刊上。1993年和1994年期间，在《内科学年鉴》上发表文章的平均影响因子为9.60（95%CI：9.56至9.64），而被拒文章随后发表的期刊的平均影响因子为3.09（95%CI：2.80至3.37）（平均差值6.52，95%CI：6.24至6.81，P<0.0001）。这些期刊的即时指数也较低。发表时间与文章发表期刊的影响因子呈弱负相关（相关系数-0.15，P=0.007）。
从一本大型综合性医学期刊被拒的稿件中，大多数最终在平均18个月后发表。大多数发表在影响因子和即时指数评级较低的专业期刊上。
