How we select papers

Several people have asked me recently how the BCMJ decides what to print each month. My quick response usually is that it is not really a very formal process, we just print them as we get them. However, after thinking about it a bit I realized a couple of things. First, the process is really more formal and selective than that. Second, the question needs an answer with a broader brush stroke. Finally, if there are quite a few people asking the question it is probably a good excuse to write an editorial.

We haven’t actually got around to counting the number of unsolicited vs solicited articles we print in a year, but my guess is that it is likely about 70:30 (unsolicited:solicited). I don’t think the BCMJ is different than any other medical/scientific journal in that we expect to receive a fairly steady stream of articles for review. Most of these are of quite high quality and we are able to help keep you educated, informed, and (we hope) entertained from a fairly large, skilled, and highly motivated wellspring of BC authors. There are periods, however, when the steady stream of articles slows down to a trickle. When this happens, editors are people you probably would like to avoid, as they get wide-eyed, tend to gnash their teeth loudly in public, and respond to pleasantries with grunts and Anglo-Saxonisms. I have learned over the years that in order to avoid this I need to be an article pimp and go to great lengths to solicit articles whenever I am at meetings, dinners, symposia, weddings, and funerals. Unfortunately, now when colleagues see me coming they begin to sprint en masse for the nearest exit.

Our managing editor is also very adept at finding potentially interesting topics in his own reading, and in his own quiet way is able to convince me to write letters to various authors and ask them for an article. In so doing he makes me look exceptionally smart and deserves a huge raise. The other thing we do is to brainstorm at editorial board meetings and come up with ideas for theme issues. The BCMJ prints three or four theme issues a year and they are invariably well received by readers. These issues require an enormous amount of work by the guest editors, the reviewers, and the editorial staff at the BCMJ, but the result is always worth it.

One of the BCMJ editorial board’s primary tasks is to read and review all submissions the journal receives. We select papers for printing based on their clinical and scientific merit, relevance to BC doctors, and the quality of the writing. Almost every accepted submission is sent back to the author for at least minor revisions (and sometimes for major overhauls), suggesting that we’re a pretty thorough bunch.

Finally, the actual decision-making as far as the content in each issue is the domain of the managing editor (occasionally in concert with me). He decides what articles fit best together in any issue and works with the graphic artists for the cover design and layout of the rest of the journal. He also coordinates the editorial staff to ensure that the rest of the multitudes of minutiae are taken care of before the thing is sent to the printer.  

There, I think that covers most of it. However, in the future I think if anyone else asks me the same question I will just give them this.

—JAW