Impact of an insecticide treated net programme on the prevalence of parasitaemia and anaemia in children under two years of age in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania.

Report from the BMJ’s full editorial committee meeting
 

Members of the committee were:

Roger Robinson (Chair and note taker)
Hazel Inskip
Diana Lockwood
Rhona MacDonald


These comments are an attempt to summarise the discussions of the editorial committee. They are not an exact transcript. Referees reports are always fully taken into account by the committee, but the final decision on acceptance or rejection of a paper rests with the editorial committee, who take into account not only the scientific merits of the paper but also its originality and interest to a general readership in comparison with other submitted papers. We are only able to accept a small proportion even of the good papers submitted to us.

Decision: Accept subject to revision

Nature of decision: Unanimous

The committee were unanimous in finding this an interesting paper on a highly important topic. We recommend acceptance subject to revision taking into account the following points.

  1. We found the referee’s report excellent and helpful, and all the points in it should be dealt with.
  2. A report by the statistical member of the committee is also enclosed, and all her points need to be dealt with.
  3. The introduction is too long. We suggest omitting the references to blood transfusion and shortening the part about anaemia, so that the focus of the paper is clearer.
  4. How was splenomegaly measured?
  5. We would like some brief further detail on the nature of the haemoglobin measurement.
  6. We noted that the biggest changes appeared to occur between 1997 and 1998 (table 1) with little further change in 1999. We thought this might deserve a brief comment.
  7. The term "protective efficacy" is not entirely transparent, and an explanation and definition would be helpful.
  8. Please reduce the number of references to 26.
When you revise and return your manuscript, please take note of all the following points:

a) In your covering letter indicate point by point your replies to the points made by the referee and the editorial committee and how you have dealt with them in the paper. Within the word limit it will probably not be possible to deal in any detail with all these points in the paper itself but we would like your answers in the covering letter.

b) Do not exceed 2,000 words of text. Please include a word count with your resubmission.

c) The title could be shortened a little by omitting "the prevalence of" and the exact location in Tanzania.

d) Please include a paragraph for "This week in the BMJ".

e) Please include a box saying "what is already known in this topic" and "what this paper adds".

f) Please include a statement of authors and contributorship, and supply signatures of all the authors if you have not already done this.