Not all submissions to Ochsner Journal are sent to peer review. Submissions that are out of the Journal’s scope, submissions of poor quality, and submissions that do not comply with the Journal’s author instructions are rejected without being sent for peer review.
It is our expectation that authors—out of respect for the volunteer time of peer reviewers—comply with all author instructions and submit their best work. If authors do not, their papers are often rejected without peer review.
Letters to the editor are not peer reviewed. Most editorials are not peer reviewed. The Ochsner Journal Editor-in-Chief decides whether to accept or reject letters and editorials. All other submissions that pass the initial quality check are peer reviewed.
Peer review is managed through the Ochsner Journal ScholarOne submission portal. Only the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor select and invite reviewers. Guest editors are not permitted to assign peer reviewers. All manuscripts receive at least two reviews. Reviewers with expertise in the topic of the paper are identified and invited to review. Except in very rare situations, we do not ask reviewers to review more than one paper per year. Reviewers from the same institution as the authors of a submission are not invited to review to avoid conflict of interest.
To eliminate bias, Ochsner Journal peer review is double-blind. Reviewers cannot see the names or affiliations of authors. Authors cannot see the names or affiliations of reviewers.
When reviewers accept an invitation to review, they receive a confirmation notice with a reviewers' rubric attached and are given access to the paper in ScholarOne. Reviewers are expected to keep information about their review and about the submission confidential. Because of the confidentiality implications, reviewers must request permission from the editorial office prior to using artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technology to facilitate their review.
Instructions for reviewers and a copy of the reviewers' rubric are here.
Reviewers are notified of the Editor-in-Chief’s decision (accepted, rejected, or sent for revision) regarding the manuscript, and reviewers of the original paper are invited to review the revision(s). Reviewers are notified of the final decision on the paper.
Ochsner Journal does not reconsider rejected manuscripts. A considerable amount of administrative and volunteer reviewer time is given to every submission. Rejection after peer review is final. In cases when papers are sent to authors for revision, detailed revision comments are provided. If the revision review—which involves another expenditure of volunteer time on the part of reviewers—shows that the authors did not address the revision comments they received, the papers are rejected and are not reconsidered.
Ochsner Journal encourages readers to submit comments, questions, or criticisms about published articles, and authors have a responsibility to respond appropriately and cooperate with any requests from the Journal for data or additional information if questions about the paper arise after publication. For more information, refer to the Journal's processes for handling corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern.