Cruising: Impact Factor Data

Abstract

Figure 1 shows the number of original submissions to the Journal between 2002 and 2008. In 2008, Archives crossed the 200 new submission barrier for the first time. At the time of penning this Editorial, the projected submission rate for 2009 is 235. Figure 2 shows the Editorial decision data for the original submissions as a function of year (2002–2008). The percentage of manuscripts that were accepted or provisionally accepted ranged from 12.4 to 21.2%; the percentage of manuscripts that were subject to major revision ranged from 33.9 to 47.5%; and the percentage of manuscripts that were rejected ranged from 31.2 to 57.7%. A 7 (year) 9 3 (decision) chi-square test was statistically significant, v(12) = 30.26, p\.01. Visual inspection of Fig. 2 suggests that this was accounted for, in part, by the increase in the percentage of rejected submissions in 2008 and a decrease in the percentage of manuscripts that were in the major revision category. Interestingly, the percentage of accepted or provisionally accepted manuscripts has not changed over this 7-year period, v(6) = 6.21, ns. Thus, the percentage of manuscripts that were accepted or provisionally accepted appears unrelated to the absolute increase in submission number. An important question pertains to the fate of the manuscripts with an Editorial decision of ‘‘major revision’’ (revise and resubmit). As noted in our last Editorial (Zucker & Cantor, 2008), about 50% of these manuscripts wind up being resubmitted to the Journal, and almost all of these are accepted for publication. The remaining 50% are not resubmitted to the Journal: They either wind up in the file drawer or in other periodicals, but we donot have data on their fate. Moreper se is not better; however, with the increase in submissions this means that the queue for publication is longer. This points to the importance of advance online publication, which has been operational now for several years. Interested readers can track papers that are online first ahead of print by simply typing the name of the journal when accessing PubMed or the Springer link toArchives. The Journal has accommodated the increased number of accepted manuscripts, in part, with an increase in allocated page numbers—1000 for 2009 (see also below).