The quality rating scale encompasses a range of evaluations from ”poor” to ”honors” quality.
There are very few technical papers whose characteristics will merit the rating of honors quality. Even fewer papers will warrant such a rating over their entire profile. Such a paper would be comparable to those that are awarded ASME national honors. They will be recognized on the basis of outstanding writing quality and a high degree of originality, and they will constitute an unusual contribution to the science of engineering.
The rating of good indicates very acceptable levels of accomplishment. A paper with profile components rated at this level would be presentable at an ASME meeting and meet the requirements for publication in an ASME journal.
Acceptable and marginal quality will be considered from a subjective viewpoint since the concept of acceptability will vary with each reviewer. Reviewers should, however, evaluate a paper or its profile in a realistic way in terms of generally accepted standards. The basis of the evaluation must be the reviewer’s own professional experience and the knowledge of the technical literature. A rating of marginal is below the acceptable standards for publications in an ASME Transactions Journal and appropriate comments should be made to assist the author in revising the manuscript.
Papers with ratings of poor encompass defects previously mentioned in the definition of unacceptable technical papers. Such papers will include excessive commercialism, fallacious analysis, or repetitive description of conventional engineering practices.