A talk by Ellen Annandale

Editor-in-chief

Social Science & Medicine

BSA Welsh Medical Sociology Group

Cardiff University

October 24th 2008

Basics:• Founded in 1967

• 24 Issues each year (500 plus articles)

Including Special Issues (no set number)

• International and Interdisciplinary

• 2007 Thomson ISI impact factor 2.453

• Ranked 4 out of 28 in Social Sciences, Biomedical

• Ranked 5 out of 70 in Public, Environmental and Occupational Health (social sciences)

This Talk• Our editorial team

• Scope of journal * International * Interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary

• What makes for a good submission? Why do submissions get rejected?

• The editorial process Our Peer Review Policy

• Publication times

The Editorial TeamThe Editorial Team

Editor-in-chiefEllen Annandale

Medical Sociology

Sarah Nettleton

Health PolicyPeter Davis

(Tim Tenbensel)

Medical Anthropology

Catherine Panter-Brick

Health Economics

Stephen Birch

Medical Geography

Sarah Curtis

Social EpidemiologyIchiro Kawachi

(S.V. Subramanian)

Health Psychology

Frances Aboud

Editorial Assistant

Shari Daya

Editorial Assistant

Cathey Tweddle

Editorial Assistant

MarkEggerman

Editorial Assistant

Mardelene Grobbelaar

Editorial Assistant

Darryl Martin

Editorial AssistantMalvika

Subramanyam

Editorial Assistant

Alice Petersen

Managing EditorRyan Mowat

United Arab Emirates Bolivia Australia Switzerland Canada France

Sweden South Africa Singapore

Netherlands Japan Spain Taiwan China

Jamaica Denmark Israel Germany

Belgium Norway Ireland Italy

Hong Kong Australia Finland Lebanon Kenya Korea

Belgium New ZealandUnited states India Brazil United Kingdom

International Scope

Aims and scope International Interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary

We Publish:• Original research articles (prefer up to 8,000 words)• Short reports (2,000-4,000 words)• Commentaries and debates on published papers

• Special Issues (collected papers on a theme, no set number per vol)

• Virtual special Issues (of already published papers)

SS&M publishes

• Empirical papers

- using quantitative methods

- using qualitative methods

- using combined methods

• Theoretical papers

Some recent Special Issues• Stigma, Discrimination and Health, edited by J. Stuber et al

(2008)

• Future Health Systems, edited by G. Bloom & H. Standing (2008)

• Informed Consent in a Changing Environment, edited by M. Boulton and M. Parker (2007)

• 11th International Medical Geography Symposium, edited by R. Earickson (2007)

• Placing Health in Context, edited by R. Dunn & S. Cummins (2007)

• HIV/AIDS: gender, agency and empowerment Issues in Africa, edited by E. Kalipeni et al. (2007)

What makes for a good medical sociology paper?

Studies which ‘are matched by analytic insight and link their findings to their societal context offer the most exciting

promise for the discipline.’ (Sarah Nettleton, 2007)

• Theoretically informed• Inspired by sociological developments (e.g globalisation, risk,

complexity and chaos, mobilities, citizenship, embodiment, social informatics etc.)

• Empirical work that generates enduring ideas and concepts (i.e not simply present empirical findings)

• Of International relevance• At the interface of the social science disciplines

Why do articles get rejected?• Not in scope of journal (not social science,

insufficient health content)

• Descriptive rather than analytic

• Re-inventing the wheel, it’s all been said before

• No sense of why this is important, what it adds to knowledge (empirical or theoretical)

• Badly written and/or disorganised (rambling, no clear message)

• Poor knowledge of relevant literature

• For empirical papers: weak methodology

The Editorial Process• Screen by Managing Editor/Ed-in-Chief for scope

and quality (allocation process to senior editors)

2. Assessment by Senior editor for peer review or not

3. Assigned to 2 more (usually more) peer reviewers

4. Senior editor evaluation of reviewer reports reject or revise (within 2 months ideally)

The Editorial Process5. Revision received accept revise based on editor review (minor) back to reviewers6. Possible 2nd revision, and so on

7. Senior Editor recommends publication to Ed-in-chief

8. Managing Editor and Ed-in-chief check paper, final acceptance given to author

Peer Review Policy• Reject without review at Office of Ed-in-chief: Target within 1 week (actual average: 3 days)• Reject without review by Senior Editor: Target within 2 weeks (actual average 15 days)• Typically the manuscript is reviewed within 2 to 3 months target (actual average 99

days)• If necessary revised manuscripts returned to

referees target normally within 1 month (actual average 16

days)

• About 59% are rejected without review

(by Ed-in-chief or Senior Editor)

• About 23% are rejected after review

• Overall acceptance rate is about 18%

Acceptance rates(July 2007-June 2008)

Publication is quick

On average• On line ‘in press’ about 8 weeks after accepted

(providing proofs returned swiftly)

• On-line in an issue ‘in press’ 13 weeks after accepted

• In a bound print Issue 4 months after accepted

And getting even quicker……..

Papers going into the next issue (vol 67, issue 11) have been published:

• In ‘on-line issue’ 5 weeks after acceptance

• They will be in the hard copy only 8 weeks after they were accepted

Useful links:

• Useful Social Science & Medicine links• Website:

www.elsevier.com/locate/socscimed • Online submission: http://ees.elsevier.com

/ssm/ • Current volume:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02779536