The Outcome of Manucript ubmitted to the American Journal of Ophthalmology Between 2002 and 2003 Original Reearch Article

Purpoe To invetigate the outcome of manucript ubmitted to the American Journal of Ophthalmology (AJO) between July 23, 2002 and December 31, 2003. Deign Obervational erie. Method Data were collected on all Full-Length Article and Brief Report ubmitted to the AJO. Data were recorded for rejected or withdrawn manucript about the date of ubmiion and deciion, category of deciion, type of article, manucript region of origin, alternate journal of manucript, date of publication, and impact factor and immediacy index of the ubequent journal. Correponding data were collected from the manucript accepted over the ame period. The Advanced PubMed online databae wa earched to determine if the rejected or withdrawn manucript were publihed elewhere. The impact factor and the immediacy index of the journal of the ubequent journal wa then recorded and compared with thoe of the AJO, uing the year 2004 for comparion. Reult Of 2,026 manucript ubmitted, 1,444 were rejected by the AJO or withdrawn by the author and 50% of thee were ubequently publihed elewhere in a PubMed lited journal. The rejected or withdrawn article were typically publihed in lower impact journal, mot commonly in general ophthalmology journal in the author’ region or in ubpecialty journal, although everal were publihed in higher impact journal. The 727 article were publihed in 94 different journal and uually with an extended delay. Concluion Rejection of a manucript by the AJO doe not preclude publication, but rejected manucript are publihed more often in journal that erve a maller readerhip and are cited le frequently, although exception exit.