Evaluation Criteria for Publishing in Top-Tiered Journals in Environmental Health Sciences and Toxicology

Evaluation Criteria for Publishing in Top-Tiered Journals in Environmental Health Sciences and Toxicology

Background: Trying to publish a paper in a top-rated peer-review journal can be a difficult and frustrating experience for authors. It is important that authors understand the general review process before submitting manuscripts for publication.
Objectives: Editor-in Chiefs and Associate Editors from top-tiered journals such as Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), Toxicological Sciences (Toxicol Sci), Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (JPET), and Chemical Research in Toxicology (CRT) were asked to provide guidance concerning the writing and submission of papers to their journals.
Discussion: The editors reviewed the manuscript review process for their journal, elaborated on the evaluation criteria for reviewing papers, and provided advice for future authors in preparing their papers.
Conclusions: The manuscript submission process was similar for all of the journals except that EHP includes an initial screening step in which about two-thirds of submitted papers are returned to the authors without review. The evaluation criteria used by the journals were also similar. Papers that are relevant to the scope of the journal, innovative, significantly advance the field, are well written, and adhere to the instructions to authors have a high priority of being accepted. The editors advised potential authors to make sure that the topic of the paper is within the scope of the journal, represented an important problem, was carefully prepared according to the instructions to authors, and, if English is not primary language of the authors, to seek editorial assistance.

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Source: Environmental Health Perspectives (CDC)

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