Health care implications and space allocation of research published in nursing journals

Time from submission to publication varied widely for biomedical journals: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE

Fast dissemination of research is important for improving treatments and thus benefitting patients, caregivers, and researchers. However, getting scientific papers published may take a long time. The editorial handling time can be delayed by several processes both before and after acceptance of the paper. The aim of this study was to systematically review the editorial handling time of biomedical peer-reviewed literature (i.e. time from submission to publication).

METHODS

The protocol for this systematic review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42020196238). PubMed and EMBASE were searched systematically on 29 May 2020. We included publications on the timespan between submission and publication for accepted articles published in biomedical journals.

RESULTS

Of the 4197 unique studies identified in the search, 69 were included in the systematic review. The mean timespan from submission to publication varied from 91 to 639 days, while the median timespan varied from 70 to 558 days. Submission to acceptance and acceptance to publication timespans showed similar disparity with means ranging from 50 to 276 and 11 to 362 days, respectively. Data were too statistically heterogeneous to perform meta-analyses.

CONCLUSION

Editorial handling times of journals varied widely from a few months to almost two years, which delays the availability of new evidence. The editorial handling time did not differ between submission-to-acceptance-time and acceptance-to-publication-time. Examining differences in editorial processes between journals with long and short editorial handling times may help uncover, which processes are frequent causes of delay and thereby where to improve.

[Trends in nursing research in Korea: research trends for studies published from the inaugural issue to 2010 in the Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing and the journals published by member societies under Korean Academy of Nursing Science]

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to identify trends for studies published in the Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing and journals published by member societies from inaugural issues to 2010.

METHODS

A total of 6890 studies were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

Quantitative studies accounted for 83.6% while qualitative studies accounted for 14.4%. Most frequently used research designs were quasi-experimental (91.1%) for experimental research and survey (85.2%) for non-experimental research. Most frequent study participants were healthy people (35.8%), most frequent nursing interventions, nursing skills (53.5%), and 39.8% used knowledge, attitude and behavior outcomes for dependent variables. Most frequently used keyword was elderly. Survey studies decreased from 1991 to 2010 by approximately 50%, while qualitative studies increased by about 20%. True experimental research (1.2%) showed no significant changes. Studies focusing on healthy populations increased from 2001-2005 (37.5%) to 2006-2010 (41.0%). From 1970 to 2010, studies using questionnaire accounted for over 50% whereas physiological measurement, approximately 5% only. Experimental studies using nursing skill interventions increased from 1970-1980 (30.4%) to 2006-2010 (64.0%). No significant changes were noted in studies using knowledge, attitude and behavior (39.9%) as dependent variables.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that further expansion of true experimental, qualitative studies and physiological measurements are needed.