cases the editors of highly prestigious journals can create a time lag from acceptance to publication which is up to 30 months or even three years. This approach makes a complete mockery of any journal’s
role to provide swift, lively and contemporaneous feedback to their academic profession. At the other extreme there are hand-to-mouth journals which only get by through their editors constantly living on their wits, acquiring
papers at conferences, and soon. Here the copy for the very next issue maybe problematic, so if your paper arrives at an opportune moment the editors may bend over backwards to accept it and publish it quickly. This might
seem a good result for you, but only if the journal has a significant circulation and has maintained its quality reputation despite copy shortages.
In addition to these major influences on the long-run standing of journals, there area further four shorter-term or less important influences on how journals are seen by the profession. These factors may not matter so much for the most-cited journals. But for all other titles they are worth considering because they help to differentiate the middle mass of journals one from another.
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