Editorial limits

The Editorial Office conducted an email survey among authors and readers of the Journal of “Almaz – Antey” Air and Space Defence Corporation in March 2021. The aim of the survey was to determine how long it takes to write a scientific article and have it reviewed by journals’ publishers. The survey revealed that the average article preparation time is 50 days, while a reasonable time for the editorial office to provide its feedback is 30 days. In 2020, the average time of article review up to submission of a response to the author was estimated as 20 days in the Journal of “Almaz – Antey” Air and Space Defence Corporation, and continues to decrease. From this perspective, the Editorial Office meets the most demanding authors’ requirements. However, it should be noted that the authors need about 56 days to improve their articles based on the reviewers’ comments; at this, the entire editorial routine of the Journal of “Almaz – Antey” Air and Space Defence Corporation takes about © Bolshakov D. Yu., 2021 34 days. It covers the average time from the article receipt to its review completion (20 days), literary editing (8 days) and composition (6 days).

The Editorial Office of the Journal of “Almaz – Antey” Air and Space Defence Corporation constantly investigates and modifies the editorial routine. For example, the study revealed almost no substantial variations of the average review time over the last 7 years (refer to the Figure), although there were significant changes among the experts composition (over 100 persons). It means that the shortest review time is ensured and cannot be reduced further at the current stage. The average review time as shown in the figure includes review time only, not accounting for the time period since article receipt to review completion, which, as mentioned above, is 20 days in 2020.

Fig. Average review time (days) over the years

Particularly, the Figure demonstrates that 76 % of the articles (three out of four) submitted in 2020 were assessed by the experts in less than two weeks, while more than six weeks were required for review of only 1.4 % of the articles.

There is still room for the Editorial Office to reduce the review time. For example, the average time from the article receipt to its authors provision with the last review can take 10 days. It is a challenging task, since two to eight reviewers are involved, and the time of receipt of all the reviews is hardly predictable. The study showed that no exact time limits required for any article consideration and improvement can be predicted with certainty, since the flows adhere to probability distribution laws (indicative for both review and authors’ improvement of articles).

We are open for dialogue with our readers. If you have any proposals regarding the Journal distribution expansion, editorial routine improvement, promotion in the Internet, social media and international abstract databases, quality and content improvement, please feel free to email them to press@almaz-antey.ru