How long journal publication really takes

How long does journal publication take?

For a well-prepared manuscript sent to a suitable indexed journal, a realistic expectation is:

• Submission to first decision: roughly one to four months.
• Submission to acceptance: commonly three to eight months, sometimes longer, especially if there are two or more revision rounds.
• Acceptance to online publication: commonly two to eight weeks.

Research on publishing delays supports ranges like these. In one widely cited study, Björk and Solomon (2013) sampled 2,700 papers from 135 journals and found large differences between fields: the average submission-to-publication delay was about 18 months in business and economics, twice the roughly 9 months in chemistry. Publishing has sped up in some areas since then, especially with online-first publication, but the broad pattern still holds: science and medicine are faster, social sciences and humanities slower.

Stage by stage: where the time goes

The table below follows a single paper through a typical indexed journal. Notice how much of the total sits in stages you do not control. (What you do at each stage is in our step-by-step publishing guide.)

The stage people underestimate: finding reviewers

Peer reviewers are mostly unpaid academics doing this alongside their own work. Editors routinely have to invite several people before two agree, and agreed reviewers are sometimes late. This is the main reason review time varies, and it sits largely outside the control of authors and, to a great extent, the journal itself.

The stage you can shorten: preparation

The biggest avoidable delays come before and just after review: a desk rejection because the paper did not fit the journal, a technical return because a declaration was missing, or a second review round because the first revision did not fully answer a reviewer. Careful preparation and a thorough, point-by-point response to reviewers are where time is genuinely saved. If a revision is where you are stuck, our reviewer response support is built for exactly that stage.

Why timelines vary so much

By field

Fields with shorter papers and more active reviewer pools, such as much of chemistry, medicine and engineering, tend to move faster. Fields with long papers, fewer specialist reviewers and a tradition of detailed revision (economics, management, many social sciences and humanities) tend to be slower. Mathematics can be slow simply because checking proofs takes time.

By journal type

• Large open access and “mega” journals often have efficient editorial systems and publish soon after acceptance, but review still takes weeks to months.
• Society and subscription journals may have longer queues and, for print issues, a backlog between online publication and issue assignment.
• Highly selective journals reject most submissions, often quickly at the desk; the ones they send for review can take longer, with more rounds.
• Special issues run to their own deadlines, which can speed things up. But a flood of special issues has also been a feature of some journals later re-evaluated by indexing databases, so check carefully.

By paper

The same journal may accept one paper in three months and another in ten, because the variation between individual papers within a journal is larger than the variation between journals. A paper needing major revisions and a second round will take much longer than one accepted after minor changes.

How to estimate a specific journal’s speed

You do not need to guess. Most journals publish the evidence:

1. Read the dates on recent articles. Most journals print “Received”, “Revised”, “Accepted” and “Published online” dates on each article. Open ten recent papers and note the gaps. That gives you a far better estimate for that journal than any general figure.
2. Look at the journal’s homepage metrics. Many publishers display median time to first decision and time to acceptance on the journal’s own page.
3. Look closely at unusually short gaps. If recent articles consistently go from received to accepted in a week or two, it is unlikely that full peer review took place.
4. Check the backlog. If “published online” and the issue date are months apart, find out which one your university counts.

What “publication in 7 days” usually means

Adverts and agents offering Scopus or UGC-listed publication in 7, 15 or 30 days are common. Given the stages above, there are only a few ways such a promise can be kept:

• the journal is not doing genuine peer review;
• the website is a copy of a real journal’s site, so the paper would not appear in the real journal;
• the journal has been, or is about to be, discontinued from the database it claims;
• it is a conference proceeding whose indexing is not yet confirmed.

A legitimate journal may occasionally make a very fast decision on a particular paper, but legitimate journals set acceptance and publication dates only through their own review process. Our predatory journal guide sets out the checks to run before you make any payment.

Planning backwards from a thesis deadline

If you know when you need to submit your thesis, work backwards through these points:

• Find out exactly what your university needs by the deadline: submitted, accepted or published, and whether it must also be visible in Scopus or Web of Science.
• Count back at least 8–12 months from the date you need an acceptance, for a journal article in most science and engineering fields. Allow longer in social sciences, humanities and business.
• Add a rejection buffer. A desk rejection costs a few weeks; a rejection after review can cost several months. Keep a ranked shortlist of two or three suitable journals ready.
• Add indexing lag if a database record is required. Papers usually take some weeks after online publication to appear in Scopus.
• Start the paper while the thesis chapter is being written, not after. The chapter and the paper can share analysis, and reviewer feedback can improve the thesis itself.

A worked example

Suppose your department requires an accepted journal paper before thesis submission, and you plan to submit in October next year. Working backwards: you want acceptance by about August, leaving a margin. Allowing six months for review and one revision round means submitting by February. Two months of drafting and preparation means starting the paper in December. If the first journal rejects the paper after review, you will still have a few months to target the second journal on your shortlist. It is tight, but possible. Starting in May instead would leave no room for a single rejection.

If your deadline is already close

Plan realistically. Ask your department whether an accepted paper, a paper under review, or a published conference paper satisfies the requirement, and whether extensions are possible. Choose a well-matched journal with a demonstrably efficient review process, verified as described in our Scopus guide. A paid fast track is a risky choice at this point, because a paper published that way may not be counted by your university.