The report Global Publishing: changes in submission trends and the impact on scholarly publishing, published by The Intellectual Property & Science division of Thomson Reuters highlights some key changes in global submission rates. As well as the overall increase in the number of submissions, there have been key percentage changes in a number of countries' share of submissions. Between 2005 and 2010 China's proportion of the world's overall submissions increased by 5.5% while that of the US decreased by 3.3%. Other emerging countries increasing their total share of output include Iran, Malaysia and Australia.
The report also points out that acceptance rates are keeping pace with an increase in submissions. Publishers are adopting more sophisticated peer review and submissions tools which in turn are providing them with more detailed data about regional content, quality control and regional challenges and obstacles.
The report is free to download.