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

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.