Every year, HSR receives hundreds of outstanding manuscripts of recent work by health services researchers and methodologists. We appreciate this recognition of our journal's quality. In 2022, we received 926 submissions (Figure 1), about the same as the previous year. Final decisions were made on all but 11, as of January 2024.
FIGURE 1.
2022 HSR submissions. Flowchart of outcomes for Health Services Research manuscripts in 2022.
Our acceptance rate for the 2022 manuscripts was 19% (180 of the 926 submissions) compared to 13% for 2021 manuscripts. For manuscripts submitted in 2022, our average desk‐reject time was 11 days, so authors received a quick decision and could find a more suitable journal.
From original submission, authors received a notice of any kind of first decision, including after internal and external review, in 63 days on average. Final acceptance was, on average, in 163 days. By improving processes, we have reduced the first decision time by more than a month, from 97 days in 2012 and 99 days in 2017. We lowered the final acceptance time by more than 3 months, from 292 days in 2012 and 271 days in 2017 (Figure 2).
FIGURE 2.
Days to manuscript first decision and acceptance. Average number of days in 2012, 2017, and 2022 to a manuscript first decision and to final acceptance.
These improvements reflect efforts by our editorial staff as well as reviewers and authors and have occurred while submissions continually increased from 721 in 2012 to the current level. We present these longitudinal comparisons because of comments pertaining to the time to first decision and acceptance that we received as part of a survey many of you took last year about your background and HSR experience. Thank you to all who accepted the survey invitation. We've been streamlining our manuscript processes, and in response to positive and negative feedback about the journal's time to decision and publication, we're committed to continuing this work. 1
HSR continues to progress thanks to hundreds of reviewers who contribute their time to help authors improve their manuscripts and assist us in making decisions about them. We appreciate your time and acknowledge its part in ensuring the quality of our journal.
We recognize that authors can submit their work to many excellent journals. We hope this report—including our faster decision and publishing processes—encourages authors to send their best work to HSR.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Kelly Teagle for collecting and organizing the data. The contents of this article do not represent the views of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the US government, Boston University, or Harvard University, or Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute.
Frakt A, Tachibana C. From the Editor's Desk: Publishing in HSR in 2022. Health Serv Res. 2024;59(2):e14294. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.14294
REFERENCE
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