Editorial and publication delay of papers submitted to 14 selected Food Research journals. Influence of online posting

The final version of the paper is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1823-8 (www.springerlink.com)[Introduction] Publication delay, chronological distance between completion of a scientific work and distribution of its achievements as a peer reviewed paper, is a negative phenomenon in scientific information dissemination. It can be further subdivided in successive stages corresponding to the peer review process and the technical preparation of accepted manuscripts. Formal online posting in electronic versions of journals has been considered as a shortening of the process.[Objectives] To determine publication delay in a group of leading Food Research journals, as well as factors affecting this lag and also to compute the effect of formal online posting on the distribution of papers in electronic form. Secondary objective is also to study the possible effect of informal posting of papers through some repositories on the publication delay in the field.[Methods] 14 Food Research journals were selected and 4836 papers published in 2004 were examined. Dates of first submission, submission of revised manuscripts, acceptation, online posting and final publication were recorded for each paper.[Analysis] Data collected were analyzed using SPSS and SigmaPlot. Parametric correlation between some variables was determined and ANOVA was performed with BMDP package for significance analysis of differences among journals.[Results] Average publication delay of papers submitted to the set of selected journals is 348 ± 104 days, with European Food Research and Technology and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry showing the shortest delays. Total delay strongly depends on the peer review process. On average, 85.75 % of manuscripts are corrected prior to their acceptance by journals. Online posting of papers prior to their print publication reduces total delay in about 29 %. On average, a paper is posted online 260 days after its submission to the set of journals.[Conclusions] Publication delay of papers is strongly dependent on the peer review process, which affects most of the manuscripts in the Food Research field. Advanced online publication through formal posting at the editor’s sites only slightly reduces the time between reception and final publication of papers.Peer reviewe

The publishing delay in scholarly peer-reviewed journals

Publishing in scholarly peer reviewed journals usually entails long delays from submission to publication. In part this is due to the length of the peer review process and in part because of the dominating tradition of publication in issues, earlier a necessity of paper-based publishing, which creates backlogs of manuscripts waiting in line. The delays slow the dissemination of scholarship and can provide a significant burden on the academic careers of authors. Using a stratified random sample we studied average publishing delays in 2700 papers published in 135 journals sampled from the Scopus citation index. The shortest overall delays occur in science technology and medical (STM) fields and the longest in social science, arts/humanities and business/economics. Business/economics with a delay of 18 months took twice as long as chemistry with a 9 month average delay. Analysis of the variance indicated that by far the largest amount of variance in the time between submission and acceptance was among articles within a journal as compared with journals, disciplines or the size of the journal. For the time between acceptance and publication most of the variation in delay can be accounted for by differences between specific journals

Thorny Roads of Scholarly Communication: An Evaluation on the Publication Process of Articles

Hazırlanma süreci oldukça zahmetli ve uzun süren makalelerin yayımlanma süreci de bir o kadar zaman alabilmektedir. Makalelerin yayımlanma süreci hem disiplinden disipline hem de aynı disiplin içinde dergiden dergiye farklılık gösterebilmektedir. Kimi araştırmacılar dergilerin yayımlama süreci ile ilgili bilgilere sahip olmadan makalelerini ilgili dergilere göndermekte ve zaman zaman sürecin uzunluğu konusunda sıkıntı yaşamaktadırlar. Her disiplindeki araştırmacıların kendi alanlarındaki dergilerin bilimsel iletişim sürecindeki tutumları ile ilgili bilgi sahibi olmasında yarar bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada bilgibilim dergilerindeki makale yayımlanma süreçleri incelenmektedir. Bu bağlamda araştırmamızda, “Bilgibilim alanındaki dergiler için makalelerin dergiye ulaştığı zaman ile yayımlandığı zaman arasında ne kadarlık bir süre geçmektedir? Bilgibilim alanındaki dergilerde makalelerin yayımlanma süresi dergiden dergiye farklılık göstermekte midir? Bilgibilim alanındaki makalelerin en hızlı şekilde yayımlandığı dergiler ve yayın süreci en uzun dergiler hangileridir?” sorularına yanıt aranmaya çalışılmaktadır. Çalışmamız kapsamında Journal Citation Reports (JCR)’ta yer alan bilgibilim dergileri içerisinden araştırma sorularımızın yanıtlarını verebilecek niteliğe sahip 30 dergiden 1939 makale incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın amacı doğrultusunda makalelerin geliş ve düzeltme, geliş ve kabul edilme, geliş ve yayımlanma, düzeltme ve kabul edilme, düzeltme ve yayımlanma ile kabul edilme ve yayımlanma süreleri arasında geçen zaman, gün cinsinden hesaplanmıştır. Bilgibilim makaleleri değerlendirildiğinde, geliş-düzeltme, düzeltme-kabul ve kabul-yayımlanma süreleri arasında en uzun sürenin makalelerin gelişi ile düzeltilmesi arasında geçtiği saptanmıştır. Bilgibilim dergilerine gönderilen makalelerin yayımlanma süreci ortalama olarak dokuz ay sürmektedir ve bu süre dergiden dergiye oldukça farklılık göstermektedir. Information Systems Research, Information Society, Information and Organization ve Information and Management gibi dergiler makale yayımlanma sürecinin en uzun sürdüğü dergiler arasında ön sıralarda yer alırken, Journal of Academic Librarianship, Scientometrics, Telematics and Informatics ve Journal of Informetrics gibi dergiler araştırmamız kapsamında incelenen dergiler arasında makalelerin en kısa sürede yayımlandığı dergilerdir. Makalelerin yayımlanma sürecinin uzaması birçok açıdan sorun yaratmaktadır. Konunun ilgililer tarafından dikkatli şekilde ele alınıp sorunlara yönelik olası çözüm yollarının tartışılması ve araştırılması gerekmektedir.Publication process of an article can be as tiresome and as long as its preparation process. Publication process of articles can vary not only among the disciplines but also according to the journals within the same discipline. Some researchers send their articles to journals without having knowledge about the publication process and face with problems due to the length of the process. It is advantageous for every researcher in every field to have knowledge about the attitude of the journals in their field during the scholarly communication process. In this study, article publication processes of information science journals have been examined. In this context, we tried to answer questions such as; what is the duration between the time that the articles are received and published in information science journals? Can the publication duration of articles differentiate between the information science journals? Which journals publish the fastest the articles in the field of information science and which journals have the longest publication process? Within the scope of our study, 1939 articles within 30 information science journals, which are parts of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and have the capacity to answer our research questions, have been examined. In the direction of the study’s purpose, elapsed time between the reception and revision, reception and acceptance, reception and publication, revision and acceptance, revision and publication, acceptance and publication of the articles have been calculated day-denominated. After the assessment of information science articles, it is found out that the longest time is between the reception-revision, compared to revision-acceptance and acceptance-publication. Publication process of the articles that are sent to information science journals last about nine months and this duration differentiate significantly according to journals. While the journals such as Information Systems Research, Information Society, Information and Organization, and Information and Management are among the ones that has the longest article publication process, Journal of Academic Librarianship, Scientometrics, Telematics and Informatics, and Journal of Informetrics are among the journals that have the fastest article publication process. Extension of the publication process of the articles brings several problems with itself. This problem should be taken into consideration carefully by the relevant people and possible solutions should be searched and discussed

Critérios para avaliação da gestão de periódicos científicos eletrônicos sob a ótica do capital intelectual

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Florianópolis, 2014.A propagação de novos títulos de periódicos científicos nas diversas áreas do conhecimento tem sido preocupação dos profissionais que se interessam pela qualidade da informação científica, quer sejam autores, editores, publicadores, serviços de indexação, centros de documentação, bibliotecas e, de maneira especial, pesquisadores (usuários da informação). No processo de formação da revisão de literatura observou-se, que as pesquisas sobre o tema periódico científico eletrônico ainda não abordaram a visão de Capital Intelectual (CI) como forma de avaliar sua gestão. Este trabalho propõe critérios para avaliar a gestão dos periódicos científicos eletrônico utilizando a abordagem de CI. Foi utilizada uma metodologia matemática híbrida com a integração dos métodos Fuzzy Delphi (FDELPHI) e Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP). O FDELPHI foi utilizado para levantar os fatores críticos (critérios/subcritérios) presentes na gestão dos periódicos científicos eletrônicos. O método FAHP foi aplicado para calcular os pesos relativos dos critérios/subcritérios selecionados que afetam a sua gestão. Os resultados apontaram que o Capital Humano foi apontado como um dos aspectos que mais (60%) influencia na gestão de um periódico. Quantos aos critérios os que mais influenciam são: Normalização dos artigos; Qualidade dos artigos; Conhecimento dos envolvidos; Reconhecimento pelo trabalho dos referees e colaboradores; Trabalho em equipe; Acurácia das informações publicadas e Visibilidade. Assim com esse trabalho espera-se contribuir para o melhoramento da gestão de periódicos científicos eletrônicos e proporcionar vantagens competitivas.Abstract : The spread of new scientific journal titles in different areas of knowledge has been a concern to professionals who care about the quality of scientific information, whether they are authors, editors, publishers, indexing services, documentation centers, libraries, and in a special way, researchers (information users). In the formation process of literature review, it was noted that the research on electronic scientific journal topic has not addressed yet the vision of Intellectual Capital (IC) as a way to assess their management. This work proposes criteria to evaluate the management of electronic scientific journals using the IC approach. A hybrid mathematical methodology with the integration of Fuzzy Delphi (FDELPHI) and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy process (FAHP) was used. FDELPHI was used to raise critical factors (criteria/sub-criteria) present in electronic scientific journals management. The FAHP method was applied to calculate the relative weights of the criteria/sub-criteria selected that affect their management. The results indicated that the Human Capital was appointed as one of the aspects that most (60%) influences the management of a periodical. Regarding criteria, the most influential ones are: Article normalization; Article quality; Knowledge of those involved; Recognition for the work of referees and contributors; Teamwork; Accuracy of published information and Visibility. So, this work is expected to contribute to improvement in the management of electronic scientific journals and to provide competitive advantages