How to Publish Before Perishing

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How to Publish Before Perishing

• AcademyHealth
• June 6, 2004

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Publishing Without Perishing

• Select the right journal for your paper
• Write your paper for that journal
• Make the editors and reviewers lives as easy as
  possible
• Lack of enthusiasm is the expected outcome,
  rejection is common, acceptance very rare
• Consider the critiques carefully
• Improve, revise, and resubmit, quickly
• (See Flood and Luft, From Manuscript Submission
  to Accepted Article HSR Aug. 2003)

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Understanding the Process

• Your manuscript is one of many, handled mostly by
  researchers largely volunteering their time
• Two of the key questions always asked are
• Whats the turnaround time?
• What are my manuscripts chances of success?
• Simple questions, but complicated answers

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Turnaround Time Author and Editor Perspectives
Outcomes of the 2001 Cohort of Manuscript
Submissions
Graphic after Minard in Tufte, see HSR Feb. 04
(also see HSR Aug. 03)
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Health Services Research
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HSR
Owned by Health Research and Educational Trust
(HRET) Published by Blackwell Publishers, Inc. An
official journal of AcademyHealth Founded in
1965 Co-Editors Ann Barry Flood Harold S. Luft
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Awards and Visibility

• HSR is scores high in terms of citations
• 2nd to NEJM in terms of perceived influence in a
  recent paper published in MCRR
• Winner of Golden Emerald Awards for the last 3
  years
• Strong history of winning AHSR and AcademyHealth
  Best Articles of the Year

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HSR Subscribers December 2003
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HSRs Niche

• Broad range of health and health services
  research
• Generally empirically-based manuscripts
• No methodological or disciplinary preference
• Plus factors for an editors interest
• Accessible to a wide range of readers
• Policy-relevant (little and big p policy)
• Innovative methods and presentation (w/in 25
  pages)
• Useful for teaching

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Manuscript Processing Statistics
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Initial Outcomes of Submissions(percentages)
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Observations re Decisions

• We seem to be passing on a higher percentage of
  manuscripts for review
• There are some artifacts in this figure
• SAEs may decide not to reviewclassification
  problem
• Steve tended to avoid single site studies
• Somewhat fewer of these are subsequently rejected
  at the end of the 1st round
• This may reflect our use of major and minor
  revisions
• Perhaps more willingness to work with authors
• Expect a higher rejection rate at round two and
  beyond
• Quality does not appear to be compromised

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How to Reach Us

• For submittals, reviewer signups, and status of
  manuscripts submitted
• http//hsr.manuscriptcentral.com
• For more info about HSR and our archives
• http//www.hsr.org
• For our Managing Editor, Meighan Schreiber
• hsr_at_itsa.ucsf.edu

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Reviewers vs. Editors Decisions
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Observations re Back Office Operations

• Manuscript submissions have increased markedlya
  huge increase in 2002, which has continued we
  now average one MS/day
• This stressed the system in 2002, but we seem to
  have more than fully recovered, especially with
  new staff and Manuscript Central
• We can now track many more things with reasonable
  accuracy and ease, and we hope this will allow
  further improvement