The high resource impact of reformatting requirements for scientific papers
Autoři:
Yan Jiang aff001; Robert Lerrigo aff001; Anika Ullah aff002; Muthu Alagappan aff003; Steven M. Asch aff004; Steven N. Goodman aff004; Sidhartha R. Sinha aff001
Působiště autorů:
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States of America
aff001; University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States of America
aff002; Department of Internal Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States of America
aff003; Division of Primary Care and Population Health, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States of America
aff004; Center for Innovation to Implementation, VA Palo Alto, Menlo Park, CA, United States of America
aff005; Division of Epidemiology, Department of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States of America
aff006
Vyšlo v časopise:
PLoS ONE 14(10)
Kategorie:
Research Article
doi:
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223976
Souhrn
Background
Most research manuscripts are not accepted for publication on first submission. A major part of the resubmission process is reformatting to another journal’s specific requirements, a process separate from revising the scientific content. There has been little research to understand the magnitude of the burden imposed by the current resubmission process.
Methods
We analyzed original research article submission requirements from twelve randomly selected journals in each of eight scientific and clinical focus areas from the InCites Journal Citation Reports database. From the 96 journals selected, we randomly identified three recently published manuscripts and sent surveys to those first and/or corresponding authors (288 total) to solicit information on time spent reformatting resubmissions and opinions on the process.
Findings
There was significant variation in manuscript submission requirements for journals within the same scientific focus and only 4% of journals offered a fully format-free initial submission. Of 203 authors responding (71.5% response rate), only 11.8% expressed satisfaction with the resubmission process and 91% desired reforming the current system. Time spent on reformatting delays most publications by at least two weeks and by over three months in about 20% of manuscripts. The effort to comply with submission requirements has significant global economic burden, estimated at over $1.1 billion dollars annually when accounting for a research team’s time.
Interpretation
We demonstrate that there is significant resource utilization associated with resubmitting manuscripts, heretofore not properly quantified. The vast majority of authors are not satisfied with the current process. Addressing these issues by reconciling reformatting requirements among journals or adopting a universal format-free initial submission policy would help resolve a major subject for the scientific research community and provide more efficient dissemination of findings.
Klíčová slova:
Citation analysis – Gastroenterology and hepatology – Immunology – Microbiology – Salaries – Scientific publishing – Surveys – United States
Zdroje
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