Abstract
Occasionally, our managing editor gets emails from authors who have submitted manuscripts to Global Spine Journal and are unhappy about having their work rejected.
All throughout its existence, Global Spine Journal has received increasing numbers of manuscripts each year. After the journal received its inaugural impact factor of 2.683 in 2020, the number of submissions has been especially spectacular. Along with this great development over the past few years came the increasing need for thorough screening of the submitted work to ensure the highest standard of quality possible in order to stay relevant for our readers and authors alike.
While the number of manuscripts has dramatically increased, the number of reviewers on our team has not risen likewise. Review work is the bread-and-butter business of scientific publishing and the essence of a high-quality journal. Finding enough spine care professionals with the skills, the interest, the scientific background, and the time resources to ensure speedy high-quality reviews is a constant struggle for Global Spine Journal (as it is for any other journal out there). While we are very blessed with our team of reviewers and the affiliation to AO Spine as the world’s largest global spine society, we certainly do not want to overload our reviewers. We keep very detailed performance metrics on our review process and the step from before and after the impact factor decision has certainly not gone unnoticed.
In the past years, Global Spine Journal has had an acceptance rate for manuscripts of about 17%. Roughly 85% of all submitted manuscripts are not published in the journal. Therefore the review process has to be organized as efficiently as possible to ensure the submitted manuscripts get the most sufficient reviews without actually overburdening the reviewers.
The process of manuscript review consists basically of 3 parts. At first, all submitted manuscripts are checked technically for all details described in the Author Guidelines—format, references, images, declarations, etc. Those manuscripts which adhere to the guidelines are then checked for plagiarism very thoroughly and carefully. Those passing that check are completely blinded for any kind of personal information about the group of authors or their institutions to ensure a fair and correct review process. All of these steps are done by the Editorial Manager who is the person of contact for all authors. Once this is completed, the blinded manuscript enters the next review phase called desk-review.
The manuscript is screened by very experienced colleagues according to different categories in a very general quality check with the focus on assessing the overall chances the manuscript will successfully pass the formal review process. Scientific quality compared to previously published articles in Global Spine Journal, study design, statistics and methods, general interest for our readership, conclusions drawn, adding new info to the existing knowledge, and scientific soundness are all aspects to be considered in this step. The idea is to not enroll manuscripts into the next step of the process that would have only very limited chances of ever getting published in Global Spine Journal.
What remains absolutely clear is that those manuscripts that do not make it past the desk-review phase are neither badly written nor bad science. A rejection at this stage may mean that another article on the same topic has already been previously published in Global Spine Journal or that a similar paper on a similar topic maybe has had more patients or longer follow-up or a higher level of evidence. So instead of delaying decisions and keeping the authors in standby for the review period, they may be free to submit this manuscript to another journal.
Desk-reviewing is absolutely standard practice by most scientific journals.
Once the manuscript has passed the desk-review it is assigned to 3 independent and different reviewers who anonymously rate the manuscript thoroughly for its scientific merit. They compose a written review-report and make a recommendation based on their evaluation of the work.
Only few manuscripts are accepted during the first round of reviews, certainly not all reviewers come up with the same decision and once the 3 reviews are completed the manuscript gets presented together with the reviews to the group of deputy editors. The deputy editor assesses the manuscript in the same way as the reviewers have done before; he rates each review for quality and timeliness and also makes a recommendation. This can be either “accept,” “minor revision,” “major revision,” or “rejection.” The manuscript is then sent back to the authors for the appropriate next action, and they may resubmit the revisions. During this process the quality of the manuscript increases and its weaknesses are specifically addressed. Sometimes, even after 1 or more rounds of revisions, the final decision may turn out to be a manuscript rejection. In the end, the Editors-in-Chief have the final say about accepting or rejecting a manuscript.
In summary, 5 different spine professionals have to have approved the blinded manuscript in different stages before it goes into publication. This multistep-process ensures that those manuscripts that actually end up getting published have the best quality and are scientifically sound and relevant for our readership.
While we are gracious about the number and quality of the manuscript submissions by authors from around the globe, we are equally thankful to our group of reviewers who tirelessly accept the task of reviewing manuscripts in their spare time in a fair, professional, and positive way. We are also thankful for our Deputy Editors who ensure the reviewers’ decisions are consolidated and help the journal to fulfill its mission. They contribute tremendously to the journal’s success. In the end, all spine professionals can trust the entire Global Spine Journal Editorial Board is taking every necessary step to ensure they find the quality and relevance they are looking for in our journal.