The contents of this article do not represent the views of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the US government, Boston University, Harvard University, or Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals.
At HSR, we depend upon a steady flow of outstanding submissions from investigators interested in disseminating new knowledge about the methods and results of health services research. In 2019, we received 897 submissions. This was 24 more than we had received in 2018. We have determined the outcomes for all but 3 of them as of January 2021.
To date, we have accepted 121 (14%) of the 897 papers for publication (Figure 1). This is a slight decrease in our acceptance rate of 15% in 2018. For papers submitted in 2019, it took 282 days on average from the time of the original submission for authors to receive an acceptance.
FIGURE 1.
2019 HSR submissions
The selective nature of HSR’s work takes a great deal of effort not only from our editorial team but also from the hundreds of reviewers who donate their time to evaluate the manuscripts and offer advice on how to improve them. We are grateful for these contributions and believe that the combined efforts of authors, reviewers, and editors help to make HSR one of the most significant journals in the field. In 2019, HSR had an impact factor of 2.351.
Being selective means we end up sending a lot of rejection letters. More than two thirds of submissions in 2019 (610 of 897) were rejected based on a screening performed by our editorial team without ever sending them for external review. We did this on average within 18 days and typically with a note explaining why so that authors can consider how best to revise their paper prior to submitting it to another journal.
When we decide to send papers for external review, the chances for acceptance are just under a half. Of the 287 manuscripts, we sent to external referees in 2019, 151 (53%) were rejected within an average of 112 days after one or more rounds of reviews. In almost all of these cases, this decision was informed by the input of at least two external referees.
We recognize that authors have choices about where to submit their work and at HSR we aim to have authors send us their best work. We hope this report helps to inform that decision.
We also recognize that much of the effort of timely, high‐quality publication in HSR is the responsibility of the journal editorial team. In the coming months, we plan a thorough examination of how the time between submission and publication (or rejection) is spent, with an aim to speed it up where we can, without loss of quality. We look forward to reporting the results of that effort in a future editorial.
Bindman AB, Frakt A. From the Editor's desk: Publishing in HSR. Health Serv Res. 2021;56:173–174. 10.1111/1475-6773.13638