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Another year has ended and it is time to once again thank our reviewers for making Injury Prevention so popular and so successful. This has been our busiest year by far. The number of papers received has increased by over 50% and the number of reviewers has correspondingly risen. Over 300 experts submitted reviews over the last 12 months. It is remarkable that most are returned in under 30 days, which means that authors rarely have to wait in suspense for long before a first decision is made.
Equally remarkable is the quality of the reviews we receive; I assign an A grade to well over 75%. This grade indicates that I judge the review to be detailed, thoughtful, and constructive. The message for authors is that even if they are ultimately unsuccessful, as a rule they will receive comments that will enable them to improve their manuscript. As submission numbers rise, our acceptance rate has fallen and it is now at its lowest in the last 10 years—26%. Hence, proportionately more authors benefit from the feedback and suggestions given by reviewers, as do, of course, those whose papers we eventually publish.
I cannot thank reviewers enough; I have said before that high quality reviews are the life blood of good journals. This is not idle hyperbole—I truly mean it. I am only sorry that space does not permit us to list everyone in print. The list can be seen on our website at http://ip.bmjjournals.com/misc/reviewerthanks2005.dtl. In future, we hope to arrange that those who wish it will receive CME credits for this activity. We may even be able to offer discounted subscriptions by way of thanking our reviewers for the time and effort this work entails.