Time from submission to publication in plastic surgery journals: The story of accepted manuscripts.

[BACKGROUND] Publication of research in highly regarded journals is a laborious journey that requires a considerable amount of effort and time. The objective of this article is to obtain insight into the time required for articles to be accepted and published in the top six plastic surgery journals and to study the effects of article characteristics on their publication time.

[METHODS] A comprehensive review of all articles published by six scientific plastic surgery journals during a one-year period (2018) was performed. Time taken from submission to acceptance, online, and in-print publication was abstracted and analyzed.

[RESULTS] A total of 1141 articles were reviewed. The median total time (TT) from submission to in-print publication was 10.3 months (IQR 8-12.6), with a median time of 4.6 months (3-6.8) from submission to acceptance and 5.4 months (4.2-6.3) from acceptance to publication. TT varied among journals, ranging from 7.2 months for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery to 16.1 months for Microsurgery. The articles were available online after a median of 21 days from their acceptance date. When comparing our results to publication times in 2005, most journals showed a decrease in their total publication time.

[CONCLUSION] Our study highlights the time taken for publication and the differences between plastic surgery journals and study characteristics. Most journals have demonstrated a quicker turnaround time during the last 13 years. Online publication has greatly decreased the time between acceptance and in-print publication. We advocate for improving certain areas of this timeline, but this improvement should not be at the expense of review quality.