Enhanced peer-review for optimising publication of biomedical papers submitted from low- and middle-income countries: feasibility study for a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Biomedical research from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is poorly represented in Western European and North American psychiatric journals. AIMS: To test the feasibility of trialling a capacity-building intervention to improve LMIC papers' representation in biomedical journals. METHOD: We designed an enhanced peer-review intervention delivered to LMIC corresponding/first authors of papers rejected by the British Journal of Psychiatry. We conducted a feasibility study, inviting consenting authors to be randomised to intervention versus none, measuring recruitment and retention rates, outcome completion and author/reviewer-rated acceptability. RESULTS: Of the 26/121 consenting to participate, 12 were randomised to the intervention and 14 to the control arms. Outcome completion was 100% but qualitative feedback from authors/reviewers was mixed, with attrition from 5/12 (42%) of intervention reviewers. CONCLUSIONS: Low interest among eligible authors and variable participation of expert reviewers suggested low feasibility of a full trial and a need for intervention redesign. DECLARATION OF INTEREST: A.P., P.T. and M.Y. are British Journal of Psychiatry editorial board members. During this study P.T. was British Journal of Psychiatry Editor, A.P. was a trainee editor and A.H. was an editorial assistant.