Canadian Medical Association Journal

Reasonable submission requirements and response time. Only major drawback is publishing fee.

Easy to navigate, timely, and very responsive once submission complete regarding edits/etc.

My experience is mixed. Recently published a paper here that was actually initially desk rejected for an insane reason but after appeal, it was accepted. I do find overall the editors are a little to heavy in their comments.

CMAJ has clear and straightforward formatting guidelines. They have a smooth submission process that does not require a ton of excessive information to be manually input in their submission portal. It is helpful that they don't ask for extra-specific file formats until they've decided to publish the manuscript (e.g. one main document upload including figures and tables). By prioritizing the content over the formatting in their initial review, they save the researcher time that might be spent unnecessarily tweaking formats and file sizes if the manuscript ultimately isn't a fit at CMAJ. Any formatting/file organization tweaks can be completed during the revision process of a manuscript that is going to be published.