Table 1 Surgical manuscript review questions stratified by the journal impact factor
From: Reviewing the review: a qualitative assessment of the peer review process in surgical journals
Question type | All journals | Higher impact journals | Lower impact journals | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Rating questions | ||||
 Recommendation | 14/14 | 7/7 | 7/7 | ND |
 Overall manuscript rating | 4/14 | 2/7 | 2/7 | ND |
 Manuscript priority | 6/14 | 4/7 | 2/7 | 0.592 |
 Statistical review required | 5/14 | 5/7 | 0/7 | 0.021 |
 Comments to author | 13/14 | 7/7 | 6/7 | 1.000 |
 Comments to editor | 14/14 | 7/7 | 7/7 | ND |
Quantitative questions/specific manuscript components | ||||
 Abstract | 2/14 | 1/7 | 1/7 | ND |
 Introduction | 3/14 | 1/7 | 2/7 | 1.000 |
 Materials and methods | 3/14 | 1/7 | 2/7 | 1.000 |
 Ethical issues/IRB approval | 3/14 | 3/7 | 0/7 | 0.192 |
 Analysis/results | 3/14 | 1/7 | 2/7 | 1.000 |
 Discussion and conclusions | 3/14 | 1/7 | 2/7 | 1.000 |
 Figures/tables | 4/14 | 2/7 | 2/7 | ND |
 References | 3/14 | 1/7 | 2/7 | 1.000 |
 Written presentation/grammar | 5/14 | 2/7 | 3/7 | 1.000 |
 Conflict of interest | 2/14 | 2/7 | 0/7 | 0.462 |
Qualitative questions | ||||
 Novelty/originality | 7/14 | 2/7 | 5/7 | 0.286 |
 Clinical importance/relevance | 3/14 | 2/7 | 1/7 | 1.000 |
 Scientific importance | 7/14 | 3/7 | 4/7 | 1.000 |
 Scientific validity | 5/14 | 2/7 | 3/7 | 1.000 |