[The editorial handling of manuscripts submitted to Revista Médica de Chile].

This Editorial describes the steps followed by a manuscript when it is submitted to Revista Médica de Chile: its reception, format checking as requested in Instructions to Authors, and the editors' decision whether it is considered suitable for the purposes of this journal or not; the selection of peer reviewers, a direct contact with them to ask for their willingness to review this particular manuscript; an analysis by the editors of the reviewers' criticisms leading them to the decision of whether to accept it in the current version, or to return it to the authors with a request to prepare a new corrected version, or a definitive rejection; the editors' review of a corrected version (that may require again the opinion of the external reviewers) and the final decision to accept it or not; printing of the manuscript, two successive galley proofs reviewed by authors and editors; and the final printing of the journal with its simultaneous reproduction in the web page www.scielo.cl. Roughly 70% of the manuscripts are returned to the authors offering them the opportunity to resubmit a corrected version, 12% are definitively rejected and 20% are accepted in their first version. The mean time taken for an accepted manuscript since its first submission until it appears printed is currently 7.6 months. Having only part time editors and a time-limited secretarial staff efforts to shorten this time are difficult to implement, although electronic mail and fax are increasingly being used in this editorial process.