INTRODUCTION: Media globalisation and the World Wide Web facilitate intercontinental communication. The European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery publishes papers in two journals and receives submissions from around the world. The reviewers are not currently ‘blinded’ to the continent of origin of the manuscripts we review.
METHODS: One Reviewer’s recommendations (accept/revise/reject) in the cohort of manuscripts submitted to the Journals of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery from 2004 till 2014 were tested by chi square on the hypothesis that non –European authors suffer no bias in submitting their work to the Association.
RESULTS: 88 manuscripts were reviewed, 30 from Europe and 58 from the other continents. 32 were recommended for acceptance, 40 were recommended for rejection and 14 were recommended for revision. This reviewer’s recommendations appear not to be affected by the European or not origin of the manuscript.
CONCLUSION: No bias of the origin of the manuscript has been found into this Reviewer’s recommendations. The audit continues into additional data.