The Editors-in-Chief of Head & Face Medicine, Thomas
Stamm, Ulrich Meyer and Hans-Peter Wiesman, recently took a step further in
their aim to have completely transparent editorial processes and published a self-assessment.
The study, which was carried out over a one-year period, evaluates the
characteristics of submissions, the effectiveness of open peer reviewing, and
factors biasing acceptance or rejection of submitted manuscripts in the journal.

Facts and figures from the one-year study period are:

• 126
  articles (10.5 articles/month) submitted
• Peer
  review completed for 82 articles
• 431
  peer reviewers were invited (averaging 5.3/manuscript)
• 40.4%
  of invited reviewers agreed to review
• Mean
  peer review time was 37.8 days
• Acceptance
  rate of 48.8%
• Mean
  time between submission and acceptance (including revision) was 95.9 days
• Mean
  time between manuscript submission and PubMed inclusion was 101.3
  days
• Main
  article types submitted were original research, reviews, and case reports
• Article
  type had no influence on rejection or acceptance
• Variable
  number of invited reviewers is the only significant (p<0.05) predictor
  for rejection of manuscripts

It is pleasing to see the steady rate of submissions to this
journal and also that times from submission to first decision are shorter than
the 6-week target the Editor’s set themselves.

Through their assessment, the Editor’s found that rejection
of manuscripts was associated with the number of invited reviewers; all other
measured parameters had no effect on the final decision. Thus, Head &
Face Medicine’s editorial policies, which are based on open access, open
peer, and transparency of journal operations, is free of editorial bias in
accepting manuscripts.

The complete study (including all of the original data) is
available online:

A retrospective analysis of
submissions, acceptance rate, open peer review operations, and prepublication
bias of the multidisciplinary open access journal Head & Face Medicine

Thomas Stamm, Ulrich Meyer, Hans-Peter Wiesmann, Johannes
Kleinheinz, Murat Cehreli and Zafer C Cehreli
Head & Face Medicine 2007, 3:27