Pandemic publishing: Medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for COVID-19
AbstractIn times of public crises, including the current COVID-19 pandemic, rapid dissemination of relevant scientific knowledge is of paramount importance. The duration of scholarly journals’ publication process is one of the main factors that may hinder quick delivery of new inform...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The MIT Press
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Quantitative Science Studies |
| Online Access: | https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1056/96126/Pandemic-publishing-Medical-journals-strongly |
| _version_ | 1818271283190693888 |
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| author | Serge P. J. M. Horbach |
| author_facet | Serge P. J. M. Horbach |
| author_sort | Serge P. J. M. Horbach |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
AbstractIn times of public crises, including the current COVID-19 pandemic, rapid dissemination of relevant scientific knowledge is of paramount importance. The duration of scholarly journals’ publication process is one of the main factors that may hinder quick delivery of new information. Following initiatives of medical journals to accelerate their publication process, this study assesses whether medical journals have managed to speed up their publication process for coronavirus-related articles. It studies the duration of 14 medical journals’ publication processes both during and prior to the current pandemic. Assessing 669 articles, the study concludes that medical journals have indeed strongly accelerated their publication process for coronavirus-related articles since the outbreak of the pandemic: The time between submission and publication has decreased on average by 49%. The largest decrease in number of days between submission and publication of articles was due to a decrease in time required for peer review. For articles not related to COVID-19, no acceleration of the publication process is found. While the acceleration of the publication process is laudable from the perspective of quick information dissemination, it also may raise concerns relating to the quality of the peer review process and of the resulting publications. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T21:23:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4894fb5ac43a4f6d840200fe228846e5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2641-3337 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T21:23:43Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | The MIT Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quantitative Science Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-4894fb5ac43a4f6d840200fe228846e52022-12-22T00:11:30ZengThe MIT PressQuantitative Science Studies2641-33372020-01-01131056106710.1162/qss_a_00076Pandemic publishing: Medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for COVID-19Serge P. J. M. Horbach0http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0406-6261Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Science, Institute for Science in Society, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands AbstractIn times of public crises, including the current COVID-19 pandemic, rapid dissemination of relevant scientific knowledge is of paramount importance. The duration of scholarly journals’ publication process is one of the main factors that may hinder quick delivery of new information. Following initiatives of medical journals to accelerate their publication process, this study assesses whether medical journals have managed to speed up their publication process for coronavirus-related articles. It studies the duration of 14 medical journals’ publication processes both during and prior to the current pandemic. Assessing 669 articles, the study concludes that medical journals have indeed strongly accelerated their publication process for coronavirus-related articles since the outbreak of the pandemic: The time between submission and publication has decreased on average by 49%. The largest decrease in number of days between submission and publication of articles was due to a decrease in time required for peer review. For articles not related to COVID-19, no acceleration of the publication process is found. While the acceleration of the publication process is laudable from the perspective of quick information dissemination, it also may raise concerns relating to the quality of the peer review process and of the resulting publications.https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1056/96126/Pandemic-publishing-Medical-journals-strongly |
| spellingShingle | Serge P. J. M. Horbach Pandemic publishing: Medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for COVID-19 Quantitative Science Studies |
| title | Pandemic publishing: Medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for COVID-19 |
| title_full | Pandemic publishing: Medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for COVID-19 |
| title_fullStr | Pandemic publishing: Medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for COVID-19 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pandemic publishing: Medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for COVID-19 |
| title_short | Pandemic publishing: Medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for COVID-19 |
| title_sort | pandemic publishing medical journals strongly speed up their publication process for covid 19 |
| url | https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/1/3/1056/96126/Pandemic-publishing-Medical-journals-strongly |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sergepjmhorbach pandemicpublishingmedicaljournalsstronglyspeeduptheirpublicationprocessforcovid19 |