Peer review is an integral part of scientific publishing that confirms the validity of the manuscript. Peer reviewers are experts who volunteer their time to help improve the manuscripts they review. More useful – peer reviewers also consider the importance of your paper to others in your field.

Peer reviewing helps you to become a better writer, and perhaps ultimately a more successful published author. All this work is evidence of your standing and contributions in your field, which can boost your CV and help you get ahead. Most importantly, peer review improves research.

The peer review process

• Step 1: Editor assessment. download PDF.
• Step 2: First round of peer review. The editor will then find and contact other researchers who are experts in your field, asking them to review the paper.
• Step 3: Revise and resubmit.
• Step 4: Accepted.

… first stage in the peer-review process (see figure 1) is the editorial assessment process , during which the editor makes a decision whether the paper has potential for publication and should be sent to reviewers.

The time it takes for a journal to get the review process completed varies across journals and fields. While some take a month or two, others can take up to 6 months or more. As you have correctly observed, Statistics/Mathematics journals usually take a longer time, and may at times, take even up to a year to complete.

How long did it take: “My paper took more than a year from submission to acceptance. The wait that felt the longest was the two months’ delay between submission and the initial comments. A typical timeline for my field is about one to two weeks for editorial decisions and two to three weeks for referee comments.

(He chose the journals largely because they make the data easily accessible, and because he was waiting for a paper to be published in PLoS ONE.) He found that the mean review time had roughly doubled in the past decade, from 50–130 days to 150–250 days, depending on the journal (see go.nature.com/s3voeq).

The reasons for a paper being rejected once it has been reviewed fall mainly into two categories: (1) problems with the research; and (2) problems with the writing/presentation of the paper. A paper may be rejected because of problems with the research on which it is based.

For example, although we try to limit the review period as much as possible we are highly dependent on the availability of reviewers and the time they are able to allot to each review, and therefore for a full research article the review process can typically take from 3 to 6 months.

How much does it cost to publish in a Springer journal? For the majority of Springer journals, publishing an article is free of charge. If a journal requires page charges, you will find them on the journal’s springer.com homepage or in its Instructions for Authors.

Elsevier’s APC prices are set on a per journal basis, fees range between c$150 and c$9900 US Dollars, excluding tax, with prices clearly displayed on our APC price list and on journal homepages.

Scopus is Elsevier’s abstract and citation database. Although the Library does not subscribe to Scopus, you can still use a free version of it. Scopus traces citations and impact factors of articles in peer-reviewed journals in all subjects, and is especially strong in the sciences.