title: How does the peer review process influence AANA journal article readability?
abstract: This study examined the readability of the AANA Journal, quantifying the effect of peer review on case and research reports published from 1992 to 1994. Gunning and Flesch index-based computer analysis, as well as human comparative analysis, was undertaken. Computer and human assessment of readability revealed improvement as papers evolved from submitted to published versions; however, at publication the manuscripts remained in the "difficult" readability range. Although this study provides evidence that peer review improves readability, it may be that, due to a professed need for scientific purity and an imposed sense of scholarship, nursing and other biomedical journals may overemphasize a style and approach that paradoxically make transfer of information unreasonably difficult.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Biddle
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aker
mesh_terms: D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D006801:Humans; D009719:Nurse Anesthetists; D015399:Nursing Research; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D011932:Reading; D014481:United States