Library and Information Science

The processes by which Japanese medical and scientific journals select to publish research papers submitted to them have been surveyed. In summer 1981, to one hundred and sixty four Japanese journals which are indexed in Index Medicus and/or Science Citation Index were sent questionnaires, which were dealt with these basic publication situations and policies; number of circulation; month from paper submission to publication; number of referees per paper; anonymity or not of referees’ names; rewards of referees; and rejection rate of papers submitted.

The seventy one persent (117) were responded including usable information. Based on those responses, the author analyzed those 117 journals, of which 72 of all journals were in the medical science field, 12 in biological science, 14 in technological science, and 11 in agricultural science. In those 117 journals analyzed, 113 journals had a referee system and 4 journals had not yet.

Several results were summarized as follows; (1) the average rejection rate was 14.3%, (2) the rejection rate of pure science journals were higher than the applied ones, (3) the average time from submission to publication was 6.4 months, (4) the numbers of referees per paper were 1.8, (5) the rewards were paid for referees in half the number of those journals, (6) 87 percent of those journals responded adopted a blind refereeing system, while only 8 percent carried out a double-blind refereeing system.