| Abstract: | The purpose of this research was to determine characteristics that differentiated potentially publishable from nonpublishable manuscripts submitted for publication. We examined 128 manuscripts sent as initial submissions to Psychology of Women Quarterly and forwarded to one of its Associate Editors between April 1981 and September 1985. Each manuscript was independently evaluated by two raters and characterized on a number of dimensions. In addition, each reviewer criticism was categorized. Simple manuscript characteristics (type of research, length of manuscript, number of tables and figures, characteristics of the research sample) did not differentiate potentially publishable from rejected manuscripts. However, external reviewers judged rejected manuscripts to have more total problems, especially problems with regard to the significance of the research, suitability of the research for the Journal, and research conception, design, and analysis. |
