Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women's Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2012 Sep 5;94(17):e130. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.L.00078.
Of the many manuscripts that are submitted to The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American Volume) (JBJS-A) for publication, the majority are not accepted. However, little is known about the outcome of these rejected submissions. To determine the fate of studies rejected by JBJS-A, we conducted a follow-up investigation of all clinical and basic science manuscripts that were submitted to The Journal between January 2004 and June 2005 but were not accepted.
For each rejected manuscript, data were extracted on a wide variety of scientific and nonscientific characteristics, which were plausibly related to subsequent publication. PubMed searches were conducted to determine which manuscripts achieved full publication within five years, and logistic regression was used to identify the factors associated with publication. To further elucidate the factors associated with publication, a survey was administered to the corresponding author of each rejected manuscript.
At five years following rejection by JBJS-A, 75.8% (696 of 918) of manuscripts had reached full publication. In the multivariate analysis, factors associated with a higher likelihood of subsequent publication included grade of initial review by JBJS-A (p = 0.029), disclosure of a for-profit or nonprofit conflict of interest (p = 0.028 and 0.027, respectively), and a greater number of prior publications in frequently cited orthopaedic journals by the corresponding author (p < 0.0001). Manuscripts were less likely to reach full publication if the corresponding author was from Asia or the Middle East (p = 0.004) or was a woman (p = 0.003). Among survey respondents who indicated that their study had not yet reached full publication, the most commonly cited reason was lack of time (reported by 51.4% of respondents [thirty-eight of seventy-four]).
Most manuscripts (75.8%) not accepted by JBJS-A were published elsewhere within five years of rejection. The factors predictive of subsequent publication were primarily investigator-related as opposed to study-related. Given this low threshold for eventual publication, readers are encouraged to use criteria other than inclusion in the PubMed database to identify high-quality papers.
在提交给《骨科与关节外科杂志（美国卷）》（JBJS-A）发表的众多稿件中，大多数未被接受。然而，对于这些被拒稿的结果却知之甚少。为了确定 JBJS-A 拒稿的研究的命运，我们对 2004 年 1 月至 2005 年 6 月期间提交给该杂志的所有临床和基础科学稿件进行了随访调查，但未被接受。
对于每份被拒稿的手稿，我们提取了广泛的科学和非科学特征的数据，这些特征与随后的发表有一定的关联。通过 PubMed 搜索确定哪些手稿在五年内实现了全文发表，并使用逻辑回归确定与发表相关的因素。为了进一步阐明与发表相关的因素，我们向每份被拒稿的通讯作者进行了问卷调查。
在 JBJS-A 拒稿五年后，918 份手稿中有 75.8%（696 份）达到了全文发表。在多变量分析中，与随后发表的可能性更高相关的因素包括 JBJS-A 的初步审查等级（p = 0.029）、披露营利或非营利性利益冲突（p = 0.028 和 0.027），以及通讯作者之前在经常被引用的骨科期刊上发表的文章数量较多（p<0.0001）。如果通讯作者来自亚洲或中东（p = 0.004）或为女性（p = 0.003），则手稿更不可能达到全文发表。在表示其研究尚未达到全文发表的调查受访者中，最常被引用的原因是缺乏时间（51.4%的受访者[七十四人中的三十八人]报告）。
JBJS-A 未接受的大多数手稿（75.8%）在被拒稿五年内被其他地方发表。随后发表的预测因素主要是与研究者相关，而不是与研究相关。鉴于最终发表的门槛较低，鼓励读者使用除纳入 PubMed 数据库之外的标准来识别高质量的论文。
