Does the quality of the presentation influence the outcome of a submitted manuscript? A plea for including “How to submit” in medical education

Abstract

Introduction

Our goal was to study the influence of the author’s compliance with the Instructions for Authors for a submitted manuscript to a journal, on the final outcome of the submission.

Material and methods

1200 consecutive submissions to the journal Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy have been evaluated and divided into four groups: A: Accepted, R: Rejected, I + : Instructions for Authors followed, I − : Instructions for Authors not followed. The quantity of manuscripts in the groups was measured and compared through statistical tests. We tried to determine if a specific category of authors was more likely to incorrectly follow the Instructions for Authors by verifying the lists of authors and the tables of contributions of co-authors. 322 (26.83%) manuscripts were accepted, 248 were I + , 74 were I − ; 878 (73.16%) were rejected, 526 were I + ; 352 were I − .

Results

The comparisons of the observed values and percentages showed significant differences between the groups. We could not identify a specific type of author associated with non-compliance with the Instructions for Authors.

Conclusion

Most of the guidelines that have been published concern the preparation of the scientific contents of the manuscript (How to write), but the submission process (How to submit) has rarely been explained. We suggest including the rules of submitting a manuscript in graduate and post-graduate medical education.