Table 1 Categories used to code e-mail responses from journals

 1. Rejected without external peer review by editorial staff due to ethical concerns (e.g., editor note they detected the duplicate publication or plagiarism)

 2. Rejected without external peer review by editorial staff due to topic/scope of article being outside journal scope

 3. Rejected without peer review by the editorial staff for any other reason (reasons to be specified)

 4. Sent out for external peer review, rejected due to ethical concerns (e.g., duplicate publication, plagiarism)

 5. Sent out for external peer review, rejected due to methodological concerns

 6. Sent out for external peer review, revision invited but ethical concerns noted

 7. Sent out for external peer review, revision invited without ethics concerns noted

 8. Sent out for external peer review, accepted with extremely minor or no revisions

 9. Accepted immediately without having undergone external peer review (i.e., no external peer review comments appended to the editors decision)

 10. Provisional acceptance pending minor changes based on editorial and/or peer review comments.

 11. Other (to be specified)

 12. Sent out for external peer review, then rejected but no reason given

 13. Rejected, no reason given