Welcome to MathOverflow

Question

5

1

This is a spin-off question from http://mathoverflow.net/questions/7284/how-to-select-a-journal. Is there is any data available regarding processing time (acceptance time, time from submission to publication, or similar) specifically for combinatorics journals? Ideally, this data would be up-to-date.

edited Feb 22 2010 at 2:39

asked Jan 25 2010 at 5:10

Douglas S. Stones
2,956●1●12●31

2

Warning: data about processing time typically means averages, not standard deviations. In my experience, the latter can be so large as to severely limit the usefulness of the former. In my opinion it is a better bet to find an editor whom you know personally and/or trust to rapidly send the paper to a competent referee. The practices of the editor count more than those of the journal itself, at least if you're counting time to acceptance (which is what most people care about the most, I think.) – Pete L. Clark Jan 26 2010 at 0:58

Andrew Stacey · Accepted Answer · 2010-01-25 09:34:41Z UTC

6

One possibility is the "backlog" published annually in the AMS Notices. The latest version is here (as PDF).

answered Jan 25 2010 at 9:34

Andrew Stacey
16k●1●40●111

1

I think for more practical purposes, the times from submission to rejection and acceptance are more useful! I'm not sure the backlog matters at all anymore (at least, not if you post your papers to the arxiv). In particular, there are some journals with notoriously large backlogs for which the time it takes to reach a decision is, in my limited experience, quite short. – GS Jan 25 2010 at 10:06

Though it looks like it's possible to obtain that info from the link you posted. Thanks! – GS Jan 25 2010 at 10:08

Yes, the "backlog" is more than just the backlog. It contains a fair bit of information on times. However, it does not contain the "time to rejection" that you mention which I think would be extremely useful (especially for non-tenured mathematicians) - but that's another debate! – Andrew Stacey Jan 25 2010 at 10:16

Thanks! I think this is about as good an answer as I can expect to get. (: – Douglas S. Stones Jan 29 2010 at 4:22

Combinatorics journals processing time

Remember to vote up questions/answers you find interesting or helpful (requires 15 reputation points)

1 Answer

You can accept an answer to one of your own questions by clicking the check mark next to it. This awards 15 reputation points to the person who answered and 2 reputation points to you.