Editorial Fatigue

Editorial fatigue refers to the progressive decline in editorial rigor, critical oversight, and peer-review standards within a scientific journal—often due to overwhelming publication volume, pressure to maintain impact factor, or increased reliance on industry-sponsored content.

🔍 Key Features:

Lower acceptance thresholds for studies with weak methodology but high commercial appeal.

Rubber-stamping of conflict-laden manuscripts that once would have required extensive revision or rejection.

Reduced scrutiny of statistical analysis, conflicts of interest, or ethical concerns.

A tendency to prioritize novelty or product visibility over scientific validity.

🧠 In critique:

Editorial fatigue is not just an administrative issue—it's a systemic vulnerability that allows clinical promotion, publication inflation, and academic dilution to masquerade as peer-reviewed science.

It often results in journals becoming prestigious platforms for marketing, rather than gatekeepers of evidence-based knowledge.