Sirs,
Even with 43 existing dermatology journals, publication is still competitive. Submission patterns may vary given the time of year. Perhaps if manuscripts are submitted at less popular times, chances of acceptance and timeliness of decisions may be enhanced. We assessed the variation in manuscript submissions over the course of the year across several dermatology journals.
Each of the 43 dermatology journals currently listed on ISI Web of Knowledge™ Journal Citation Reports were contacted via email, querying the total number of manuscript submissions per month for the year 2008. Editorial assistants (or equivalent position) were typically contacted. In some cases, the editor-in-chief provided the data. There were no incentives for completing the study.
Of the 43 dermatology journals queried, 20 (47%) participated. Several of the journals did not reply as their articles were primarily invited (e.g. Clinics in Dermatology, Dermatology Clinics, Dermatologic Therapy, Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium Proceedings). Others did not reply due to lack of such records or privacy issues.
Overall, 8616 total submissions were made during 2008 to the 20 journals which replied. May was the least popular month with 615 submissions, while July was the most popular month with 787 submissions. The mean number of submissions per month was 718, with a standard deviation of 47 (chi-squared p < 0.0001; ).
Figure 1. The blue trend line demonstrates small submission peaks in July, September, December/January, and March.
The overall number of submissions, over 8000 in 1 year, represents a potentially daunting task for reviewers. While the actual number of studies being evaluated is probably considerably lower than this (as many manuscripts are reviewed by more than one journal prior to acceptance), each submission requires review by an editor and often one or more reviewers. If each manuscript is seen on average by two reviewers, over 16 000 reviews a year are needed, enough for about two reviews for every single dermatologist in the United States.
Perhaps it is fortunate that this burden is spread rather evenly over the course of the year. Overall, we found little difference in monthly submission rates. The small but statistically significant differences that were observed may or may not be consistent across different years and are sufficiently small that it seems unlikely that the timing of manuscript submission would affect the speed of the review process or the likelihood of acceptance.