Desk Rejection Decisions – Do Co-Editors-In-Chief of This Journal Agree?

Objectives Given the growing demand for peer reviews, many public health journals face increasing reluctance from scientists to act as reviewers. The decisions made by pre-screening editors about whether to desk reject a submitted manuscript or initiate peer review are therefore of the utmost importance. The lower the specificity of this decision, the higher the post-peer-review rejection rate, increasing the “rejection cascade” of repeated submissions and peer review cycles. We conducted a two-stage comparison to understand the agreement of pre-screen decisions among the three Co-Editors-in-Chief of the International Journal of Public Health (IJPH), an independent journal of the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+). Methods In total, the three Co-editors in chief made pre-screen decisions independently (stage 1) and then again after considering others’ views (stage 2). Results Full Stage 1 agreement was observed for only 43% of the 30 manuscripts considered. Taking second opinions into account resulted in 67% agreement at stage 2. The main drivers of disagreement were the “soft” criteria that guide the pre-screen decisions, such as “novelty” and “originality”. Stage 1 pre-screen rejection rates of 47%, 80% and 60% for the three editors increased to 57%, 83% and 67% respectively at stage 2. Conclusion Based on these findings, IJPH editors will add a “second opinion” for manuscripts they are considering for peer review.