Effects of print publication lag in dual format journals on scientometric indicators.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Publication lag between manuscript submission and its final publication is considered as an important factor affecting the decision to submit, the timeliness of presented data, and the scientometric measures of the particular journal. Dual-format peer-reviewed journals (publishing both print and online editions of their content) adopted a broadly accepted strategy to shorten the publication lag: to publish the accepted manuscripts online ahead of their print editions, which may follow days, but also years later. Effects of this widespread habit on the immediacy index (average number of times an article is cited in the year it is published) calculation were never analyzed.

Methodology/principal findings

Scopus database (which contains nearly up-to-date documents in

SUBMITTER: Heneberg P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3616011 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature