Papers rejected by Clinical Rehabilitation
An explanation of the process
This document gives some brief information about the rejection of papers by Clinical Rehabilitation.
Acceptance for publication is competitive. The journal can only publish about 140-150 papers each year at present, but has about 350-400 submissions or more each year. The intention is to publish all papers within a reasonable time of acceptance, and so we can only accept about 140-150 papers each year at most; the remainder have to be rejected.
Various factors influence the decision:
· Relevance to the reader; is the topic within the broad remit of the journal?
o Clinically based, relevant to the practice of rehabilitation
· Interest to the reader; will a reader want to and enjoy reading it
o Does the article stimulate, inform, challenge the reader?
· The nature of the study design; can it achieve the objective?
o Generally RCTs, systematic reviews and larger/epidemiologically sound studies will have higher priority
· Importance, and novelty; to what extent is the information is new or important?
o Replication of studies is very important, but after a topic has been researched several times it is less important to continue unless there is continuing uncertainty
o In particular, if the Journal itself has already published other similar papers (or they are about to be published) then sometimes the paper’s priority is reduced
· Clarity and style of presentation
o Papers are not rejected on account of their presentation, but if the editor or reviewers fail to understand the paper then they will not be accepted
· The opinions of and advice given by reviewers (for those papers sent for review)
o The editor reads these and takes them into account but the editor makes the final decision.
Immediate rejection
All papers submitted are read initially by the editor. At this stage the first decision is whether the paper has the potential to be accepted. In other words, the Editor considers whether the paper can be improved sufficiently to achieve publication. (Note: no paper is perfect at the time of submission.)
It is not fair on the author to impose a wait for reviewers if it is already obvious that publication will not happen. It is not fair on reviewers to ask them to spend time and effort if the editor is already reasonably certain that the paper will not be published. (Note: reasonable certainty is about 90% or more.)
Therefore papers may be rejected by the editor before any review. This occurs in about 25% of submissions at present (2005). It will usually be because the editor has decided that the content of the paper (i.e. the study data or topic) will not reach sufficient priority to allow publication, even after revision.
Later rejection
About 40% of papers sent out for review are nonetheless rejected. These fall into two groups.
The first group are papers where the editor considered the paper to be doubtful, but wanted further advice before confirming rejection.
The second group are papers where the editor’s first impression was that the paper would be sufficiently important or good to warrant publication, but the reviewers find flaws or weaknesses that the editor did not notice, or they use their knowledge of their field to point out that the study is actually not that important.
In both situations the opinion of the reviewers is important, but the final decision still lies with the editor who may take into account other factors.
Comment
Ultimately the decision to accept or reject a paper is, obviously, personal to the editor and currently the editor writes to each author, justifying or explaining the decision.
If you feel there has been a major misunderstanding of your paper, or that someone has made a seriously flawed judgement, or that someone’s comments are factually incorrect or exhibit marked bias, or if you have some other significant concern then you may write to the editor raising your concern. Please try to ensure that your letter or email explains clearly the nature of your concern so that the editor can consider them and reply.
The editor undertakes to treat your comments and concerns seriously. He does not undertake to change his mind, but he has done so (about once or twice each year).
Derick T Wade, Editor November 9th 2006