Don't have one staff member give the artist a synopsis and then accept whatever comes back. Magazines should be on time with their next issue. Tardiness is one sure way to lose readers. It's not enough to just have exciting stories. A magazine must be on time with its next issue if it's to create a return habit among its readers or prevent its paying subscribers from dwindling.
Rejections are a fact of life.
Writers are aware of this as even the best writers get rejected. However, short of giving a complete critique, at least create a form reply that can be returned to the writer. A suggestion for publications with a copier is to copy the form reply onto the back of the first page of the submission as too often the publication doesn't indicate what submission is being rejected. True, most publications only want one submission at a time from a writer. Still, we all know that writers do fail to adhere to that for various reasons.