Does online submission of manuscripts improve efficiency?
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study online is to evaluate whether online submission of papers to a peer reviewed journal is more efficient than hard copy submission.


METHODS
A retrospective study covering a 12-month period was performed. With the help of the editorial office of a selected radiologic journal: Clinical Radiology, we retrospectively audited the Clinical Radiology issues of accepted papers from July 2003 to July 2004 to compare articles that were submitted and evaluated on line against those that were submitted and evaluated by hard copy. Some manuscripts were submitted on line and evaluated by hard copy and were therefore included as a third data set. Manuscripts were sub-divided under the headings: review articles, pictorial reviews, original papers, technical reports and case reports. Data was tabulated in relation to the length of time between submission and acceptance. Both total, as well as average times under each individual heading were calculated. Data sets were then compared to assess if there was any time efficiency benefit between online and hard copy submission.


RESULTS
Data on 155 papers submitted and accepted to Clinical Radiology was obtained. The average number of days that it took an article that was submitted and reviewed online was 108.9 days. An article submitted online with paper review took on average 147.2 days and those submitted solely by paper took on average 149.8. When this data was further subdivided, for the online submission and review group, the average number of days for a review article to be submitted and reviewed took 91.9 days, for a pictorial review article, it took 69.6 days and it took 123.6 days for an original paper. With respect to online submission with paper review, a review article took 84 days, a pictorial review article took 120 days and an original paper took 145.4 days. With respect to paper submission and review, it took for 165.1 days for a review article, 147.8 days for a pictorial review article and 143.1 days for an original paper.


CONCLUSIONS
Online manuscripts submission is more efficient than hard copy submission for all manuscript types.
Govender
P
P
Adelaide and Meath Incorporating the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland.
Buckley
O
O
McAuley
G
G
O'Brien
J
J
Torreggiani
W C
WC
D015706:Bibliometrics; D035081:Editorial Policies; D004526:Efficiency; D008374:Manuscripts, Medical as Topic; D009862:Online Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017712:Peer Review, Research / Q000379:methods; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011871:Radiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies