I remember reading a journal article where a researcher in psychology analysed their entire manuscript submission and publication history. The way I remember it, the researcher had around 40 publications, many in top-tier journals. A large number of the publications were rejected 2,3,4 or more times before they found a home. As an early career researcher, I found it to be a really interesting read for highlighting just how much rejection is a normal part of the publication process.
- Does anyone know the reference to this article?
- Equally, are there other equivalent documents written by other academics?
Update: I found the article. See answer below.
Answer
I finally found the article.
The ArXiV link and PDF version: Scientific Utopia: I. Opening scientific communication.
It reports the publication history of "all 62 unsolicited articles co-authored by Brian Nosek" at the time. Brian Nosek is a well-published researcher in social psychology and more recently has been a leading figure in the reproducibility and open science movement.
The mean time to publication for published articles was 1.7 years and longer for not yet published manuscripts. That said, I could not see the distinction between published online and published with page numbers in an issue. Presumably, for some purposes published online is sufficient (e.g., for appearing in database searches, and for showing research productivity).
The table is shown below, or otherwise, go to this pdf where the tables are listed at the end of the document.
A few comments on the table:
- This is the track record of a very successful scientist.
- It's interesting to consider the relationship between this long publication lag and annual performance reviews. The submission is often the hard work (although revisions can be time consuming also), yet the recognition may come quite some time later.
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