title: Acceptance rates for manuscripts submitted to veterinary peer-reviewed journals in 2012.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Relatively few journals publish their annual acceptance rate, although this figure is of scientific and academic interest.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the acceptance rate for manuscripts submitted to veterinary peer-reviewed journals during 2012 and to determine the proportions of submitted manuscripts that were accepted without revision, accepted after revision or rejected.
  
  
  METHODS
  Self-reporting email questionnaire
  
  
  METHODS
  Editors of 118 peer-reviewed journals listed in the Web of Science in the subject category veterinary sciences were invited by email to submit data pertinent to manuscripts submitted to their journal in 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data were received from 30 (26%) journals. Mean ± s.d. acceptance rate was 47 ± 15%. On average 3 ± 5% submitted manuscripts were accepted without revision, 44% ± 15% manuscripts were accepted after revision, 4 ± 4% manuscripts were withdrawn by authors, 46 ± 17% manuscripts were rejected and 3 ± 5% manuscripts were still pending at the end of the study period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With so few manuscripts accepted without revision, prospective authors must expect to expend time and effort revising and resubmitting their manuscripts for publication. Although authors are frequently able to correct manuscript flaws identified by reviewers, the knowledge that less than half submitted manuscripts are accepted might help stimulate prospective authors to try to submit better quality manuscripts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences and Services, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, UK.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Lamb
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences and Services, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, UK.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D008373:Manuscripts as Topic; D010380:Peer Review; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014730:Veterinary Medicine
keywords: acceptance rates; journal; manuscript rejection; publishing; research