Hi Edwin, My quick thoughts, I have been in this peer-review process for sometime now. First of all, my Plos One paper took only 3 months (with 3 reviews requested by reviewers and even editor) to publish online, so I'm not sure if 5-9 months what you referred was for a particular paper or really an average. Now, as you know these papers usually go through a number of reviews (sometimes more than 3) and then based on the response time during each review it might take some time. Also, it depends on how fast and how effectively the authors responded to the initial reviews. Because if the reviewers are not satisfied it would take longer time. So, just going for a conclusion that Plos One is slow compared to other journals is not something I can agree with. I had one paper in Geoderma which took more than 1.5 years and we had to fight against the reviewers and even editor to get it published. The result is that the paper has been the most downloaded and cited as "Hot Paper" in Web of Science. I see your frustration, but believe me there are lots of other journals which are much slower than Plos One. Thanks! Atanu.
On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 9:52 AM, Edwin Cruz-Rivera <[email protected] > wrote: > Dear All, > > I am very curious about the life cycle of manuscripts in > online journals these days. I have been doing some numbers on PLOS One, > which advertises as the journal “accelerating the publication of > peer-reviewed” science. However, a quick look at the papers that have been > published in the past few months reveals most of these were accepted 5-9 > months after submission. What strikes me as odd is that PLOS One gives you > two weeks to review a manuscript, and they start pestering you with > reminders even before the review is late…and may you not be late for 48 > hours! So how does a journal that expects such a fast turnaround from peer > reviewers deal with authors at such glacial pace? To begin with, it is not > as if publication comes cheap in this journal. Should 1250 USD not include > a bit of expediency? The numbers here seem odd. We have had a paper stuck > in limbo since November 2015 without a final answer yet, supposedly because > they cannot find an editor (out of > 6000) who can manage the revised > version of the paper. > > So the key question is, I suppose: Is this seemingly epic sluggishness the > norm in open access/online publication these days? > > At this point, I am not really convinced PLOS One should be advertising as > “the fast one”…or is it? > > Any thoughts? > > > > Edwin > > ================= > Dr. Edwin Cruz-Rivera > > Visiting Associate Professor > > Department of Biological Sciences > University of the Virgin Islands > > #2 John Brewers Bay > St. Thomas 00802 > > USVI > Tel: 1-340-693-1235 > Fax: 1-340-693-1385 > > > > "It is not the same to hear the devil as to see him coming your way" > > (Puerto Rican proverb) > > > -- *Atanu Mukherjee, Ph.D* *Columbus Ohio 43220*
