From the Editors: Perspectives on turnaround time.
From the Editors: Perspectives on turnaround time.
复制标题
编辑点评：对周转时间的看法。
DOI：
10.1111/j.1475-6773.2004.00211.x
复制
发表时间：
2004
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
H. Luft
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
H. Luft
编辑们经常被问及期刊的周转时间，但这种“简单”统计数据没有标准的定义方法，这使得跨期刊的比较存在一定风险。编辑最容易访问的数字是基于对所有提交做出决定的所有时间。这将立即拒绝稿件所需的时间（在健康服务研究 [HSR] 中约为 20% 到 30%）与为首次提交和后续提交（通常更快）获取外部评审所需的更耗时的过程结合在一起。 （这个总体平均值也使得审核过程看起来很快。）在 HSR 的过去几年中，我们报告的“简单统计数据”一直在 10 到 14 周的范围内。
不管它是如何计算的，减少周转时间显然符合作者和编辑的利益，特别是如果它可以在不降低审稿过程质量的情况下发生。然而，获得外部评论的时间并不是作者唯一感兴趣的事情。有些人想知道从提交到接受（或拒绝）需要多长时间，这是另一回事，因为这可能涉及多次修改，因此还包括稿件交到作者手中的步骤。其他人想知道接受的手稿需要多长时间才能正式以印刷版和电子版形式出现。 （HSR 的统计数据约为五到六个月。）在探讨“需要多长时间？”这个问题所隐含的问题的广度时，很明显作者和编辑的观点可能截然不同。
从试图管理评审过程的角度来看，主要关心的是我们需要多长时间才能对特定稿件做出决定。所涉及的众多步骤在其他地方讨论过，但简化的版本是，稿件首先交给编辑人员（通常是一位联合主编，但有时也交给一位高级副编辑），由他们决定稿件是否将继续进行外部同行评审。如果是这样，那么一旦审稿人的意见返回，编辑人员就会重新审阅意见、评论和稿件。然后稿件的共同主编做出最终决定并通知作者。 （审稿人会同时收到有关决定和审稿的通知，但不知道姓名。）从编辑的角度来看，总周转时间（我们称之为“周期时间”）是指从收到稿件到向作者发送有关特定提交版本的决定信的时间。对于一些作者来说，这是我们过程的明确结束，即拒绝，或者很少是接受。对于其他人来说，决定通常是在第一次提交时进行“修改并重新提交”，并且可能需要很长时间才能完成整个过程，达到最终的拒绝或接受。如果从一位作者的角度来看，他主要感兴趣的是“我需要多长时间才能知道我的论文最终被接受或拒绝？”多个修订和决策周期的额外时间是相关的。
Editors are frequently asked about the turnaround time at their journals, but there is no standard way this “simple” statistic is defined, making comparisons across journals somewhat risky. The easiest number for an editor to access is based on all the time to reach a decision for all submissions. This lumps together the time it takes to immediately reject manuscripts (about 20 to 30 percent at Health Services Research [HSR]) with the more time-consuming process of getting external reviews back for the first submission and (usually faster) subsequent submissions. (This overall average also makes the review process look fast.) For the past several years at HSR, the “simple statistic” we reported has been in the 10- to 14-week range.
Regardless of how it is calculated, reducing the turnaround time is obviously in the interest of authors and editors, especially if it can occur without reduction in the quality of the review process. Time to get external reviews, however, is not the only thing that authors are interested in; some want to know how long it takes from submission to acceptance (or rejection), which is quite another thing because that may involve several revisions and, thus, also include steps where the manuscript is in the author's hands. Others want to know how long it takes until an accepted manuscript appears officially in print and electronically. (That statistic at HSR is approximately five to six months.) In exploring the breadth of issues implied in the question, “How long will it take?”, it became clear that the authors' and editors' perspectives might be quite different.
From the perspective of one trying to manage the review process, the primary concern is how long it takes us to reach a decision on a particular manuscript. The numerous steps involved are discussed elsewhere, but the simplified version is that a manuscript first goes to the editorial staff (usually one of the coeditors-in-chief, but occasionally also to one of the senior associate editors), who make a decision as to whether the manuscript will go on to an external peer review. If it does, then once the reviewers' comments are back, the editorial staff review the comments, reviews, and manuscript again. Then the coeditor-in-chief for the manuscript makes the final decision and notifies the author. (The reviewers are notified about the decision and reviews, blinded from names, at the same time.) Total turnaround time from the editor's perspective (what we will call “cycle time”) is measured as the time from receipt of the manuscript until a decision letter about that particular submitted version is sent to the author. For some authors, this is a definitive end to our process, that is, a rejection, or very rarely, an acceptance. For others, the decision is usually a “revise and resubmit” on a first submission, and it may be a long time before the entire process is finished, reaching a definitive rejection or acceptance. If one takes the perspective of an author who is primarily interested in “how long will it take until I know that my paper has finally been accepted or rejected?” the additional time for the multiple cycles of revisions and decisions is relevant.