# Introducing the Journal of the Medical Library Association's manuscript resubmission deadlines: creating accountability structures for our authors

## TL;DR

A journal introduces resubmission deadlines to improve accountability for authors revising manuscripts.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a new policy with specific deadlines for manuscript resubmissions.

## Key findings

- Manuscripts with 'revise and resubmit' must be resubmitted within two months.
- Manuscripts with 'revisions required' must be resubmitted within one month.

## Abstract

The Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) has made the decision to change our “revise-at-will” policy to instead adopt firmer deadlines for manuscript resubmissions. Beginning with this issue, manuscripts returned to authors with a “revise and resubmit” decision must be resubmitted within two months of the editorial decision. Likewise, manuscripts returned to authors with a “revisions required” decision must be resubmitted within one month of the editorial decision. This editorial discusses JMLA's experience using a “revise-at-will” policy and outlines some anticipated benefits of the new resubmission deadlines.