ABSTRACT
Publication lag is a determinant to journal efficiency that was not yet studied concerning Korean medical journals. To measure publication lag, we investigated the publication timestamps of 4,762 articles published by 10 Korean medical journals indexed in Scopus database, randomly selected from the KoreaMed Synapse since 2013. The total publication lag was 246.5 (Q1, Q3; 178.0, 347.0) days. The overall acceptance lag was 102.0 (65.0, 149.0) days. The overall lead lag was 123.0 (63.0, 236.0) days. The year of publication did not significantly affect the acceptance lag (P = 0.640), supposedly shortening it by about 1.4 (97.5% confidence interval [CI], −5.2 to 8.0) days/year, while the date affected the lead lag (P = 0.028), shortening it by about 12.9 (1.3 to 24.5) days/year. The Korean medical journals have reduced the total publication delay entirely by means of reducing the lead lag, not by reducing the acceptance lag.
Subject(s)
Bibliometrics , Peer Review , Publications , SynapsesABSTRACT
The timeliness of publication in five Indian, clinical, biomedical journals (Indian Pediatrics, The Indian Journal of Pediatrics, Neurology India, The Indian Journal of Medical Research and Journal of Postgraduate Medicine) from January 2007 to December 2008 was compared. The time from manuscript submission to publication for the journals studied (median: 358.3 days; range: 202.9-421.3 days) was not significantly different.