Thursday, April 23, 2009

Time To Publication

What is the longest time you know about for a journal article to appear in print?

I just had an article come out. I had submitted the article back in 2005 (and just to make me feel better, let's ignore all those years this particular article spent on my desk in the form of various drafts and conference presentations shall we? kthnx.) That's 4 years from submission to publication. This is certainly longer than usual, but I doubt I broke any records.

The article actually whizzed through the initial peer review process at the journal and was accepted pending revisions after only about 6 months. The review process for the revisions took another year. So far, this seems about par for the course to me, although it is probably a little on the long side for the revisions. One of the two reviewers hadn't cared for the article and probably wasn't very interested in reading it a second time around knowing that it had already been accepted over their initial objections. Journals rely on the kindness of faculty to serve as referees and this is exactly the sort of work that is easy for professors to put in the "doesn't have to be done today pile" on the corner of their desk which can then be safely left to gather dust for a year. Still, after 18 months the article had finished its sojourn through the hands of reviewers and the revision process and been given final acceptance for publication.

I truly wasn't concerned that I didn't hear anything more from the journal over the next year.

I did finally send a polite email query about the status of the article. Six months later I received a somewhat chagrined reply apologizing for the delay. It seems they had lost my article, and then lost my email query about the article. Then they were both found again. Then it took close to another year for the article to find its way into print.

Not very graceful, but it worked.

Are there other stories out there about interminable time to publication? I'm guessing I'm not alone.

2 comments:

  1. (and just to make me feel better, let's ignore all those years this particular article spent on my desk in the form of various drafts and conference presentations shall we? kthnx.)Talking about this may make you feel bad, but it makes me feel great! Other people struggle through all those permutations too! Thank god!

    As to the rest, I know that Author F journal has a 5-year backlog (after acceptance) and was told not to submit my article there, even though it would be the best place, because of the time to publication.

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  2. Well, then, let's make you feel really great. Looking back, I see that I first presented a version of this paper in 1999. That would make it an even 10 years to publication.

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