Some manuscripts submitted to Physical Review Letters are returned to the authors before external peer review, on the basis of internal editorial assessment. Historically a small fraction of submitted manuscripts, 5% or less, have been judged by the Editors to be clearly incorrect. For the last five years an additional 5%-10% of submitted manuscripts have been returned to the authors because they appear not to meet our other criteria, such as importance and broad interest. Experience has shown that such manuscripts are almost always viewed unfavorably by referees.
Early decision saves the author unnecessary delay and so facilitates submission of the manuscript to a more appropriate journal. It also saves the referees the effort of peer review which would likely lead to rejection. Authors of manuscripts so processed are permitted to appeal the decision. In most cases revision of the manuscript is necessary prior to any appeal. When warranted, appeals are sent to a Divisional Associate Editor, who may either recommend that the manuscript be sent for external review, or not.
Now, based on our experience and on the recommendations of the PRL Evaluation Committee (available at http://publish.aps.org/reports/PRLReportRev.pdf), we are concluding more frequently that review is not indicated for some manuscripts. We set no quota, but note that the PRL Evaluation Committee suggests that it would not be unreasonable to return 20%-25% of submissions to authors at the outset.
We emphasize that in general an appeal must convince the Editor that the manuscript warrants consideration for publication as a Letter. The Editor may consult a Divisional Associate Editor to assist in the decision. To assist authors we mention here some general characteristics, other than validity, that lead the Editors to conclude that a manuscript is inappropriate for PRL. In brief, a manuscript may not be suitable because it is too specialized or of insufficient relevance to physics research. In some cases, the presentation of a paper is so poor that the message is obscured. In these cases, as noted above, the manuscript might be rewritten in a way that makes clear its potential interest for the broad readership of PRL.
In conclusion, Physical Review Letters is a very selective journal. Thus prior to initiating an appeal for a manuscript rejected without external review authors should consider carefully whether or not it would be better to submit to a more appropriate publication.
