Open data · 2026 edition

Journal outcomes dataset (2026 edition)

Name: Journal outcomes dataset (2026 edition)
Creator: Manusights
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

How long journals take to accept a paper, what they report about acceptance and decision times, and what they require at submission. Every figure is sourced and tagged, and every layer downloads as CSV and JSON.

Corrections reviewed October 1, 20262026 editionCC BY 4.0 Original archive DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23001076 Downloads Codebook Method Changelog Cite

Revised receipt-to-acceptance version 2026.2: 104 main journals, 107 including supplemental rows. Archived at Zenodo, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23131431; the original DOI identifies the frozen 2026.1 release only. Read the corrected study and limitations.

108journals in the original archive

21publisher-reported observations

10submission requirements

0estimates in the downloads

What is in it

Versioned layers, each with its own download

Layer	What it holds	Evidence	Download
Revised receipt-to-acceptance dataVersion 2026.2; archived at Zenodo	104 main journals, 107 including supplements; fresh samples, dated-record counts, exclusions and historical sensitivities. Includes author revisions and published survivors.	Measured	CSV · JSON
Original archived acceptance times2026 edition, method v2	Frozen original receipt-to-acceptance medians and percentiles, sample counts and coverage diagnostics, including a legacy acceptance-to-PubMed-entry proxy, for 108 journals.	Measured	CSV · JSON
Publisher-reported metrics2026.09.24-reported1	17 acceptance rates, shares sent for review and decision times for 6 journals, each with its statistic, period, caveat and source.	Publisher-reported	CSV · JSON
Publisher metric ledger2026.09.11-evidence1	4 publisher metric observations across 2 journals, each with its definition, population, period and source. 32 more, from Nature Portfolio and JAMA Network pages, are cited in the table below but not included in the download.	Publisher-reported	CSV · JSONBoth layers in one file
Submission requirements2026.09.11-requirements1	10 article-type requirements across 3 journals: word, abstract, figure and reference limits, with the source section. 22 more, from Nature Portfolio and JAMA Network pages, are cited in the table below but not included in the download.	Publisher-reported	CSV · JSONBoth layers in one file

Downloads carry no estimates. A CSV opens with lines starting with #: title, version, licence, citation and a field-by-field codebook. Most spreadsheet and statistics tools skip them as comments. Earlier download links keep working; the changelog records what changed in them.

Layer 1 · Measured

Journal timeline research

Version 2026.2 · archived at Zenodo · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23131431

What published-paper histories tell us about journal timelines

Across 104 selected journals, the median of journal receipt-to-acceptance medians is 153 days, based on 27,286 dated sampled records in PubMed's 2024–2025 publication-date query. This includes author revisions; it does not isolate reviewer-report time or total time to publication.

The middle half of journal medians spans 99-220.9 days. The median within-journal IQR width is 92.3 days. Differences between journals are useful for planning, but a journal median cannot predict an individual paper's wait.

These are selected journals and accepted, published survivors. Rejected, withdrawn and still-open submissions are absent. Manusights provides commercial manuscript review services and assembled the original panel from its journal guides and targeting research; this is not a probability sample of world publishing.

Checked journal tables (CSV)Versioned data and method (JSON)Historical pairs (CSV)Sample dates and exclusions (CSV)Offline reproducibility bundle

A new sample, with complete query frames

The fixed original panel has 108 current and 65 historical journal windows. We enumerated each complete PubMed query through disjoint PMID ranges, checked returned IDs, uniqueness and reconciled counts, then drew up to 300 records uniformly without replacement (seed 20261001). Exact query definitions, frames, retrieval dates and original source hashes are frozen. The downloadable bundle uses explicitly labeled analytical source subsets and omits abstracts, author lists and publisher-site comparison content. This is a fresh draw, not a recalculation of the archived sample.

The rule includes PubMed Journal Article and removes letters, comments, editorials, reviews, case reports, retractions and other specified types. It is operational filtering, not publisher-verified original research.

Front matter typed as research is removed. Some publishers deposit previews, commentaries, clinical-image quizzes, replies and short letters as plain Journal Article, often with received and accepted dates days apart. We drop a type-eligible record when PubMed has no abstract for it, or when its printed page range covers fewer than four pages; article-number records are judged on the abstract alone. This removed 2,390 current and 551 historical records and raised the main median from 147 to 153 days. We added this rule after the prespecified plan, when an audit of the archived sample found the problem; the bundle's amendment note reports every result before and after it. The rule can drop a short research report without an abstract and cannot catch long front matter that has one.

PubMed's publication-date query can match print, electronic and year-only dates; it is not a precise online-publication cohort. Count stability does not make the mutable index an atomic snapshot.

We keep received-to-accepted intervals of 1-1,825 days. Main rows need n≥30, at least 60% of type-eligible fetched records carrying both dates before interval exclusions, and no more than 5% journal mismatches. The main current panel additionally uses an original-snapshot unadjusted PubMed/Crossref ratio≥0.80. This all-type count ratio is contextual; it does not establish matched-DOI or research coverage.

The main summary includes 104 journals. Including eligible supplement-adjusted rows gives 107 journals, 28,116 intervals and 153 days. Rows outside the main panel remain in the downloads: Cancer Research (original coverage required supplement adjustment); Clinical Cancer Research (original coverage required supplement adjustment); The Journal of Immunology (original coverage required supplement adjustment); Trends in Molecular Medicine (n_below_30).

Date completeness is not date validity. We exclude conflicting received/accepted values without choosing an alternative endpoint. Same-day or invalid intervals are counted separately in every row. No current journal has 10% or more unusable dated records once front matter is removed; the per-journal counts stay in the table and downloads.

Inspect the current journal table.

Historical changes depend on the panel

Across 65 paired journals, the median journal's own change is +32.5%. The median of the journal medians moved from 111 to 127.5 days (+14.9%). Without the 10 Cell Press journals the median change is +13.8%. All 10 Cell Press journals got slower and all 5 MDPI journals got faster, so the overall figure depends heavily on which publishers are in the panel.

We compare received-to-accepted medians for records in the 2014-2015 and 2024-2025 query cohorts. Every sensitivity starts with all fresh eligible pairs. The original five flagged comparisons remain visible; a discontinuity can reflect metadata conventions or a real editorial change and does not prove publisher error. Their removal is a named sensitivity, not a newly chosen exclusion.

Selected-journal comparisons and prespecified sensitivities
Panel	Journals	Median change	95% journal-bootstrap interval	Slower / faster / unchanged
All fresh eligible pairs	65	+32.5%	+9.4% to +41.5%	45 / 19 / 1
Both periods ≥90% date deposit	61	+31.4%	+8.6% to +41.5%	42 / 18 / 1
Exclude Cell Press	55	+13.8%	+2.9% to +35.6%	35 / 19 / 1
Exclude MDPI	60	+35.2%	+13.8% to +45.6%	45 / 14 / 1
Both periods n≥200	56	+26.3%	+8.1% to +41.0%	38 / 17 / 1
Remove original five held pairs	60	+23.5%	+8.1% to +38.1%	40 / 19 / 1

These are medians of within-journal percentage changes, not a percentage change in the pooled article median. The 10,000-resample journal interval uses unrounded changes and seed 20261001. It is conditional on the purposive panel and omits within-journal sampling uncertainty, publisher dependence, metadata error and selection uncertainty. It does not establish a global slowdown or a causal publisher effect. All pair n/IQRs, absolute-day changes, original flags and subgroup results are downloadable.

Three different questions require different clocks

Submission to publication: these data do not provide it. The original codebook disclosed that the legacy acceptance-to-publication field used PubMed entry as a proxy. Indexing can lag online publication, so version 2026.2 omits that field as a publication measure. Separate medians must not be added to estimate a median total.

Reviewer report duration: received-to-accepted includes editorial work and author revision. A separate historical Publons/Clarivate ScholarOne report (Figure 28) measured agreement-to-review through report completion during 2013-2017: median 16.4 days. That component excludes recruitment and author revision and is not a current global review-cycle estimate.

Currently in review: a stock requires timestamped open submission/status records and a defined queue scope. Published survivors and annual throughput cannot identify it. We have no global inventory estimate.

Citation and correction history

Manusights (2026). Journal acceptance times from PubMed history dates, 2026 edition (Version 2026.2) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23131431. Commercial affiliation: Manusights provides manuscript review services. The original 2026.1 release remains archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23001076.

The original 2026.1 release remains unchanged. Its audit identified monthly/annual query truncation and gaps, imperfect article typing, indexing-endpoint labels, and three raw coverage fields containing adjusted values. Version 2026.2 uses full-window enumeration, honest filter labels, distinct original raw/adjusted columns and a fresh draw. The before/after tables separate sampling and metadata changes; they do not attribute all differences to a bug fix. Version 2026.2 is archived at Zenodo as a new version of the same record (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23131431); the 2026.1 DOI identifies the original sample only.

Original archived release 2026.1

Across 108 journals, the typical journal took a median of 147 days from submission to acceptance for research articles published in 2024-2025; half of the journals had medians between 98 and 215 days.

Original operational PubMed sample, not publisher-verified research only. Original indexing-proxy and adjusted raw-coverage fields require the correction notes above. Archived figures and files remain unchanged; they do not identify version 2026.2.

Layer 2 · Publisher-reported

Publisher-reported metrics, 2026

Journal	Metric	Value	Period and caveat	Source
PLOS Biology	Acceptance rate	11% Publisher-reported	2025 calendar year. Denominator not specified on the metrics page. PLOS describes the acceptance rate as an average percentage.	PLOS (Public Library of Science)
PLOS Biology	First decision, paths not separated	48 days (median) Publisher-reported	2025 calendar year. PLOS first-decision dataset; review-path inclusion not specified.	PLOS (Public Library of Science)
PLOS Pathogens	Acceptance rate	22% Publisher-reported	2025 calendar year. Denominator not specified on the metrics page. PLOS describes the acceptance rate as an average percentage.	PLOS (Public Library of Science)
PLOS Pathogens	First decision, paths not separated	22 days (median) Publisher-reported	2025 calendar year. PLOS first-decision dataset; review-path inclusion not specified.	PLOS (Public Library of Science)
Journal of Clinical Investigation	Acceptance rate	9.5% Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. First submissions: Research, Clinical Research and Public Health, Research Letter, Letter to the Editor. Manuscripts accepted in the year divided by manuscripts submitted in the same year; not the same cohort.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
Journal of Clinical Investigation	Sent for peer review	23.1% Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. First submissions: Research, Clinical Research and Public Health, Research Letter, Letter to the Editor. The page calls this the review rate: manuscripts undergoing peer review in the year divided by manuscripts submitted in the same year; not the same cohort.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
Journal of Clinical Investigation	First decision without peer review	5.4 days (mean) Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. First submissions editorially rejected without peer review.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
Journal of Clinical Investigation	First decision with peer review	35 days (mean) Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. First submissions decided after peer review.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
Journal of Clinical Investigation	Submission to acceptance	279.3 days (mean) Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. Accepted manuscripts, first submission to notification of acceptance.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
JCI Insight	Acceptance rate	20.2% Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. First submissions, including transfers from the JCI: Research, Clinical Research and Public Health, Physician-Scientist Development, Research Letter, Letter to the Editor. Manuscripts accepted in the year divided by manuscripts submitted in the same year; not the same cohort.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
JCI Insight	Sent for peer review	26% Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. First submissions, including transfers from the JCI: Research, Clinical Research and Public Health, Physician-Scientist Development, Research Letter, Letter to the Editor. The page calls this the review rate: manuscripts undergoing peer review in the year divided by manuscripts submitted in the same year; not the same cohort.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
JCI Insight	First decision without peer review	2 days (mean) Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. First submissions editorially rejected without peer review.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
JCI Insight	First decision with peer review	35.9 days (mean) Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. First submissions decided after peer review.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
JCI Insight	Submission to acceptance	246.3 days (mean) Publisher-reported	June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. Accepted manuscripts, first submission to notification of acceptance.	American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight)
eLife	Sent for peer review	35% Publisher-reported	2025 calendar year. Submissions received in 2025. eLife reports 1,013 of 2,853 submissions sent for review and states the proportion as 35%; the two counts give 35.5%.	eLife Sciences Publications
eLife	First decision without peer review	8 days (median) Publisher-reported	2025 calendar year. Submissions not selected for peer review.	eLife Sciences Publications
Journal of Immunology	First decision, paths not separated	35 days (mean) Publisher-reported	2025 calendar year. Submissions to The Journal of Immunology; review-path inclusion not specified.	The American Association of Immunologists (The Journal of Immunology)

Sources are limited to PLOS (Public Library of Science), American Society for Clinical Investigation (JCI, JCI Insight), eLife Sciences Publications, The American Association of Immunologists (The Journal of Immunology): publishers whose reuse terms were read and permit it. 25 other publishers were not collected because their terms forbid it, could not be read, or their pages blocked the request. A share sent for review is not an acceptance rate, and a mean is not a median.

Layer 3 · Publisher metric ledger

Inspect each publisher claim

Sources checked 2026-09-11. Exported rows preserve definitions and limitations.

Inspect each publisher claim
Journal	Observation and definition	Population and period	Evidence
Nature	8 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature	321 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Medicine	4 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Medicine	117 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Communications	9 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Communications	242 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Biotechnology	4 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Biotechnology	185 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Methods	10 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Methods	276 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Genetics	11 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Genetics	322 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Immunology	5 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Immunology	180 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Chemical Biology	11 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Chemical Biology	258 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Neuroscience	9 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Neuroscience	399 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology	8 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology	198 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Scientific Reports	12 days. Editorial screening decision (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the editorial decision about sending a manuscript for review or not. Not a desk-rejection-only measure. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Submissions assessed for whether to send to formal review. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
Scientific Reports	138 days. Submission to acceptance (median). Definition and limits Published submission date to final acceptance. Includes intervening steps and excludes unsuccessful submissions. Two different decision paths. The screening median is not a desk-rejection-only median; submission-to-acceptance describes accepted papers, not all submissions. No first decision after external review or acceptance rate is given in this table.	Accepted manuscripts. 2025 calendar year.	Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA	4%. Acceptance rate (publisher-reported percentage). Definition and limits A journal-level percentage, not a forecast for an individual manuscript. Compare only with a compatible article set, period and denominator. The page describes annual submissions but does not identify their calendar year. Research-only acceptance and all-submission acceptance use different article sets.	Research manuscripts received. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA	10%. Acceptance rate (publisher-reported percentage). Definition and limits A journal-level percentage, not a forecast for an individual manuscript. Compare only with a compatible article set, period and denominator. The page describes annual submissions but does not identify their calendar year. Research-only acceptance and all-submission acceptance use different article sets.	All submissions. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA	2 days. First decision without peer review (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the first decision for the path without external peer review. The page describes annual submissions but does not identify their calendar year. Research-only acceptance and all-submission acceptance use different article sets.	Submissions decided without external peer review. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA	24 days. First decision with peer review (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the first decision on the reviewed path, including time before reviews are returned. The page describes annual submissions but does not identify their calendar year. Research-only acceptance and all-submission acceptance use different article sets.	Submissions receiving external peer review. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA Oncology	8%. Acceptance rate (publisher-reported percentage). Definition and limits A journal-level percentage, not a forecast for an individual manuscript. Compare only with a compatible article set, period and denominator. The publisher identifies all submissions for the rate but does not state a reporting year or cohort calculation on this page.	All submissions. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA Oncology: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA Oncology	3 days. First decision without peer review (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the first decision for the path without external peer review. The publisher identifies all submissions for the rate but does not state a reporting year or cohort calculation on this page.	Submissions decided without external peer review. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA Oncology: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA Oncology	32 days. First decision with peer review (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the first decision on the reviewed path, including time before reviews are returned. The publisher identifies all submissions for the rate but does not state a reporting year or cohort calculation on this page.	Submissions receiving external peer review. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA Oncology: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA Cardiology	8%. Acceptance rate (publisher-reported percentage). Definition and limits A journal-level percentage, not a forecast for an individual manuscript. Compare only with a compatible article set, period and denominator. The publisher identifies all submissions for the rate but does not state a reporting year or cohort calculation on this page.	All submissions. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA Cardiology: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA Cardiology	5 days. First decision without peer review (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the first decision for the path without external peer review. The publisher identifies all submissions for the rate but does not state a reporting year or cohort calculation on this page.	Submissions decided without external peer review. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA Cardiology: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
JAMA Cardiology	37 days. First decision with peer review (median). Definition and limits Receipt to the first decision on the reviewed path, including time before reviews are returned. The publisher identifies all submissions for the rate but does not state a reporting year or cohort calculation on this page.	Submissions receiving external peer review. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.	JAMA Cardiology: author information. Checked 2026-09-11.
PLOS ONE	26%. Acceptance rate (publisher-reported percentage). Definition and limits A journal-level percentage, not a forecast for an individual manuscript. Compare only with a compatible article set, period and denominator. PLOS labels timings as medians and rates as average percentages. This page does not define the rate denominator or restrict first decision to externally reviewed submissions. Do not substitute the older 2023 journal-information table.	Denominator not specified on the metrics page. 2025 calendar year.	PLOS: 2025 publication metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
PLOS ONE	32 days. First decision, paths not separated (median). Definition and limits The publisher's overall first-decision metric. Do not relabel it as time after peer review. PLOS labels timings as medians and rates as average percentages. This page does not define the rate denominator or restrict first decision to externally reviewed submissions. Do not substitute the older 2023 journal-information table.	Publisher's first-decision dataset; review-path inclusion not specified. 2025 calendar year.	PLOS: 2025 publication metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
PLOS Medicine	4%. Acceptance rate (publisher-reported percentage). Definition and limits A journal-level percentage, not a forecast for an individual manuscript. Compare only with a compatible article set, period and denominator. PLOS labels timings as medians and rates as average percentages. This page does not define the rate denominator or restrict first decision to externally reviewed submissions. Do not substitute the older 2023 journal-information table.	Denominator not specified on the metrics page. 2025 calendar year.	PLOS: 2025 publication metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.
PLOS Medicine	67 days. First decision, paths not separated (median). Definition and limits The publisher's overall first-decision metric. Do not relabel it as time after peer review. PLOS labels timings as medians and rates as average percentages. This page does not define the rate denominator or restrict first decision to externally reviewed submissions. Do not substitute the older 2023 journal-information table.	Publisher's first-decision dataset; review-path inclusion not specified. 2025 calendar year.	PLOS: 2025 publication metrics. Checked 2026-09-11.

Compare only matching definitions and populations. Screening time is not desk-rejection time. Submission-to-acceptance time describes accepted manuscripts, not all submissions.

Layer 4 · Submission requirements

Inspect each submission rule

A purposive reference set checked 2026-09-11. This is not a complete submission checklist.

Inspect each submission rule
Journal	Article type	Requirement	Rule strength	Publisher evidence
Nature	Article	Main text: About 2,500 words for 6 pages or 4,300 for 8 pages	layout guidance	Nature formatting guide · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Articles; Text. Summary paragraph plus body; final print length is editorially determined. Stage: Publication formatting; initial submission is a separate step. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature	Article	Abstract: Ideally at most 200 words; referenced summary paragraph	recommendation	Nature formatting guide · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Articles. Not a conventional unreferenced abstract. Stage: Publication formatting; initial submission is a separate step. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature	Article	Figures and tables: 4 modest items with 6 pages; 5 or 6 with 8 pages	layout guidance	Nature formatting guide · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Articles; Text. Figure size competes with text space. These are examples, not a universal cap. Stage: Publication formatting; initial submission is a separate step. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature	Article	References: Typically up to 50 main-text references	recommendation	Nature formatting guide · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits References. Additional Methods and Supplementary Information references excluded. Stage: Publication formatting; initial submission is a separate step. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature Communications	Article	Main text: Ideally at most 5,000 words	recommendation	Nature Communications: Article · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Article. Excludes abstract, Methods, references and figure legends. Stage: General formatting guidance; flexible initial submission. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature Communications	Article	Abstract: At most 200 words; no references	limit	Nature Communications: Article · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Article. Applies to Article abstract. Stage: General formatting guidance; flexible initial submission. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature Communications	Article	Figures and tables: Up to 10 figures and tables combined	conditional limit	Nature Communications: Article · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Article. For text under 2,000 words: no more than 4. Match display count to length. Stage: General formatting guidance; flexible initial submission. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature Communications	Article	References: No more than 70 as a guide	recommendation	Nature Communications: Article · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Article. Not labeled an absolute limit. Stage: General formatting guidance; flexible initial submission. Effective date not established by this observation.
Scientific Reports	Article	Main text: 4,500 words recommended	recommendation	Scientific Reports submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Format of articles. Excludes abstract, Methods, references and legends; guide says most word/page limits are not strict. Stage: Article preparation; checklist distinguishes mandatory limits. Effective date not established by this observation.
Scientific Reports	Article	Abstract: At most 200 words; unstructured	limit	Scientific Reports submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Format of articles; Abstract. No references or figures. Stage: Article preparation; checklist distinguishes mandatory limits. Effective date not established by this observation.
Scientific Reports	Article	Figures and tables: At most 8 figures and tables combined	limit	Scientific Reports submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Manuscript. For text of 2,000 words or less, 4 or fewer is suggested. Stage: Article preparation; checklist distinguishes mandatory limits. Effective date not established by this observation.
Scientific Reports	Article	References: 60 references; not strictly enforced	recommendation	Scientific Reports submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Manuscript. Do not recast as an absolute cap. Stage: Article preparation; checklist distinguishes mandatory limits. Effective date not established by this observation.
Scientific Reports	Article	Supporting material: Submit alongside manuscript; separate files	procedure	Scientific Reports submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Supplementary Information. Reviewed with the paper; not edited, typeset or proofed by the journal. Stage: Article preparation; checklist distinguishes mandatory limits. Effective date not established by this observation.
PLOS ONE	Research Article	Main text: No word-count restriction	explicitly unrestricted	PLOS ONE submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Style and Format: Length. Concise presentation is encouraged; abstract has a separate limit. Stage: Manuscript submission. Effective date not established by this observation.
PLOS ONE	Research Article	Abstract: At most 300 words	limit	PLOS ONE submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Abstract. No citations; follow any study-specific requirements. Stage: Manuscript submission. Effective date not established by this observation.
PLOS ONE	Research Article	Figures and tables: No restriction on number of figures	explicitly unrestricted	PLOS ONE submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Style and Format: Length. The cited statement names figures, not an independent table allowance. Stage: Manuscript submission. Effective date not established by this observation.
PLOS ONE	Research Article	Supporting material: No restriction on amount of supporting information	explicitly unrestricted	PLOS ONE submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Style and Format: Length. File preparation instructions still apply. Stage: Manuscript submission. Effective date not established by this observation.
PLOS Medicine	Research Article	Main text: No word-count restriction	explicitly unrestricted	PLOS Medicine submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Style and Format: Length. The journal encourages concise reporting. Stage: Manuscript preparation; format-free initial submission available. Effective date not established by this observation.
PLOS Medicine	Research Article	Abstract: 300 words preferred; maximum 500	conditional limit	PLOS Medicine submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Abstract. Structured: Background; Methods and Findings; Conclusions. Stage: Manuscript preparation; format-free initial submission available. Effective date not established by this observation.
PLOS Medicine	Research Article	Figures and tables: No restriction on number of figures	explicitly unrestricted	PLOS Medicine submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Style and Format: Length. The source does not separately state a table cap here. Stage: Manuscript preparation; format-free initial submission available. Effective date not established by this observation.
PLOS Medicine	Research Article	Supporting material: No restriction on amount of supporting information	explicitly unrestricted	PLOS Medicine submission guidelines · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Style and Format: Length. Other submission and file requirements still apply. Stage: Manuscript preparation; format-free initial submission available. Effective date not established by this observation.
The BMJ	Research	Main text: No fixed word-count limit	explicitly unrestricted	The BMJ: Article types and preparation · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Research: Word count and style. Reported main-text count excludes abstract, references, tables, boxes and figures. Methods are not excluded by this definition. Stage: Research article preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
The BMJ	Research	Abstract: 250 to 300 words; up to 400 for CONSORT or PRISMA abstracts	conditional guidance	The BMJ: Article types and preparation · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Research: Structured abstract. Structured; use the study-appropriate headings. Stage: Research article preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
JAMA	Original Investigation: cohort study	Main text: At most 3,000 words	limit	JAMA Instructions for Authors · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Original Investigation; Cohort Study. Excludes abstract, tables, figures, acknowledgments, references and online-only material, not Methods. Stage: Manuscript preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
JAMA	Original Investigation: cohort study	Abstract: At most 350 words; structured	limit	JAMA Instructions for Authors · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Abstracts for Reports of Original Data. Use headings for reports of original data. Stage: Manuscript preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
JAMA	Original Investigation: cohort study	Figures and tables: At most 5 tables and figures combined	limit	JAMA Instructions for Authors · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Cohort Study. Article-type requirement. Stage: Manuscript preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
JAMA	Original Investigation: cohort study	References: 50 to 75 references	published range	JAMA Instructions for Authors · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Cohort Study. Preserve the publisher's range; do not invent a 35-reference cap. Stage: Manuscript preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature Genetics	Article	Main text: At most 4,000 words	limit	Nature Genetics Content Types · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Article: Format. Excludes abstract, Methods, references and figure legends. Stage: Article preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature Genetics	Article	Abstract: At most 150 words; unreferenced	limit	Nature Genetics Content Types · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Article: Format. For Article, not Letter or Brief Communication. Stage: Article preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature Genetics	Article	Figures and tables: At most 8 figures and tables combined	limit	Nature Genetics Content Types · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Article: Format. Article-specific allowance. Stage: Article preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature Genetics	Article	References: Typically up to 50	recommendation	Nature Genetics Content Types · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Article: Format. Publisher describes this as a guideline. Stage: Article preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.
Nature Genetics	Article	Supporting material: May accompany the article	procedure	Nature Genetics Content Types · checked 2026-09-11 Definition and limits Article: Format. Check separate preparation instructions. Stage: Article preparation. Effective date not established by this observation.

A recommendation is not a hard limit. An explicit absence of a restriction is not a missing field. Recheck the live source for the exact article type and submission stage.

Codebook

Every field, defined

Version 2026.2 12 fields

Checked tables, denominators, source definitions and limitations. Fields named original_snapshot retain historical contextual coverage diagnostics.

received_to_accepted: n, median and type-7 p25/p75 for 1–1825-day publisher-deposited received→accepted intervals; includes author revisions, published survivors only.
frame_n / sampled_n / front_matter_n / eligible_type_n / both_dates_n: Complete query UID count; uniformly drawn/fetched count; research-typed records excluded as front matter (no abstract, or a printed page range under 4 pages); count passing the operational PubMed type rule and not front matter; count of those with both dates before interval exclusion. These denominators are distinct.
deposit_rate: both_dates_n / eligible_type_n, where eligible_type_n excludes front matter. Missingness may reflect imperfect content typing. Not PubMed/Crossref coverage.
record_exclusion_counts / dated_interval_exclusion_counts / quality_flags: Every sampled-record exclusion is counted; same-day, negative and over-1825 intervals are separate. Distinct received/accepted values are excluded as ambiguous without selecting a favourable date. Completeness does not establish accurate history semantics. A ≥10% unusable-dated fraction is an exploratory QA flag, not a new exclusion.
pubmed_coverage_raw_original_snapshot: Original snapshot ratio of all-type PubMed count to Crossref journal-article count, before supplement adjustment. Not a matched-DOI fraction or a new-harvest coverage estimate.
pubmed_coverage_adjusted_original_snapshot: Separate original ratio after a random n100 Crossref supplement-share adjustment; null if unadjusted. The main current summary excludes the three adjusted-only rows; its inclusive sensitivity retains them.
eligibility / main_current_eligible / exclusion_reasons: Fresh n≥30, date deposit≥0.60, mismatch≤0.05; current main panel additionally uses original unadjusted ratio≥0.80. Every row and removal remains visible.
query / window_start / window_end: Exact PubMed [dp] cohort definition. Print/electronic/year-only dates can match; not a verified exact online-publication cohort.
sample_seed / frame_sha256 / retrieval_completed_at: Exact deterministic draw seed, comma-joined sorted full-frame checksum and UTC completion time. Raw query/fetch responses are frozen separately.
original_median / original_n / original_p25 / original_p75: Archived v2 sample statistics, retained for before/after comparison. The v3 values use a fresh draw and current metadata, so changes are not purely a bug-repair effect.
original_hold_status: Fixed pre-existing historical diagnostic flag. Inclusive paired analysis retains flagged pairs; the named sensitivity excludes the original five. A jump is not proof of changed deposited-date meaning.
change_pct / change_days: Within-journal change between new 2014–2015 and 2024–2025 query cohorts. Percentage is unrounded for 10,000 journal bootstrap resamples, seed20261001. Not a global or causal trend.

Original archived 2026.1 codebook 27 fields

Preserved definitions for the DOI release. The legacy accepted_to_published field is acceptance-to-PubMed-entry, not validated publication delay; three raw coverage fields contain adjusted values. Use version 2026.2 for corrected exports.

slug: Manusights journal identifier. Also the row anchor on https://manusights.com/review-timelines (#slug).
journal: Journal title: the Crossref journal record's title when it agrees with the NLM Catalog title, otherwise the Manusights name for the journal.
issn: Print ISSN (or the only ISSN) from the NLM Catalog.
eissn: Electronic ISSN from the NLM Catalog; blank when none.
nlm_id: NLM Catalog unique identifier.
publisher: Publisher from the Crossref journal record (NLM Catalog when Crossref has none).
field: NLM Catalog Broad Subject Terms, separated by semicolons; blank when none.
received_to_accepted_median_days: Median days from the PubMed history 'received' date to the 'accepted' date, over sampled research articles with both dates (intervals of 1 to 1825 days kept). Includes author revision time. Not time to first decision; not an acceptance rate.
received_to_accepted_p25_days: 25th percentile of the same intervals (linear interpolation, Hyndman-Fan type 7).
received_to_accepted_p75_days: 75th percentile of the same intervals (linear interpolation, Hyndman-Fan type 7).
received_to_accepted_n: Number of research articles in the received-to-accepted statistics.
accepted_to_published_median_days: Median days from the 'accepted' date to the PubMed 'pubmed' date (else 'entrez'), 0 to 730 days kept. The PubMed entry date is a proxy for online publication. Blank when fewer than 30 articles carry both dates.
accepted_to_published_p25_days: 25th percentile of the accepted-to-published intervals.
accepted_to_published_p75_days: 75th percentile of the accepted-to-published intervals.
accepted_to_published_n: Number of research articles in the accepted-to-published statistics.
deposit_rate: Sampled research articles carrying both a received and an accepted date, divided by sampled research articles fetched. Published only at 0.60 or above.
pubmed_coverage: PubMed records (all types) in the window divided by Crossref journal-article DOIs in the window for the journal's ISSN, capped at 1.0. Published only at 0.80 or above.
pubmed_coverage_raw: The same ratio before the cap; above 1.0 when PubMed holds more records than Crossref lists as journal articles.
pubmed_coverage_basis: Denominator used for coverage: crossref_journal_article_count, or crossref_count_excluding_meeting_abstract_supplements when Crossref registers conference abstracts as articles.
research_records_in_window: PubMed research articles (publication type Journal Article, excluded types removed) with a publication date from 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31.
sampled_research_records: Research articles sampled: up to 300, drawn at random within each publication month, in proportion to the month's size.
flags: Row flags, separated by semicolons. coverage_denominator_excludes_meeting_abstracts: the coverage gate used the Crossref count minus its estimated share of meeting-abstract supplements.
divergence_checked: publisher_reported when the median was compared with a publisher-reported median for the same interval (every published row was within 25%; rows beyond 25% are held for review); blank when no comparable figure exists.
evidence: Evidence tag for every figure in the row: measured (computed by Manusights from PubMed records, not a publisher's own number).
edition: Dataset edition.
method_version: Harvest method version.
license: Licence of the compilation.

Publisher-reported metrics 23 fields

Columns of the reported-metrics CSV, in order. JSON observations use the same values in camelCase.

id: Stable observation identifier: journal, metric, source and population.
journal_slug: Manusights journal identifier.
journal: Journal name.
metric: Metric key: acceptance_rate, sent_for_review_rate, first_decision, without_review, with_review or acceptance_time.
label: Metric name in words.
value: The figure as the publisher states it.
unit: % for rates, days for durations.
statistic: percentage, median or mean, as the publisher labels it. Means are not medians.
population: Who the figure covers, in the publisher's terms (for example first submissions, accepted manuscripts).
denominator_count: Number of manuscripts in the denominator when the publisher states it; blank otherwise.
reporting_period: The period the publisher's figure covers, as stated on the page.
definition: What the metric measures, and what it does not.
note: Caveat recorded for this observation (for example a rate whose numerator and denominator are different cohorts).
publisher: Publisher of the source page.
source_title: Title of the publisher's page.
source_url: URL of the publisher's page, on the publisher's own domain.
source_location: Where on the page the figure appears.
page_last_updated: The page's own update date when it shows one; blank otherwise.
observed_on: Date Manusights read the page.
limitation: Limits of the source page as a whole.
evidence: Evidence tag: publisher_reported (the publisher's own number, transcribed).
dataset_version: Version of this layer.
license: Licence of the compilation. The source pages remain under their publishers' terms.

Complete ledger (publisher metric ledger and submission requirements) 20 fields

Columns of the complete ledger CSV. Record Type says which layer a row belongs to; fields that do not apply to a layer are blank.

Record Type: publisher_metric for a publisher metric observation, submission_requirement for an article-type requirement.
Claim ID: Stable identifier of the observation.
Journal Slug: Manusights journal identifier.
Journal: Journal name as used on Manusights journal pages.
Article Type: Requirements only: the article type the rule applies to.
Submission Stage: Requirements only: the stage of preparation or submission the source section covers, in the source's words.
Observation: The metric or requirement in words.
Value: The figure or rule as the source states it.
Unit: Metrics only: % for rates, days for durations.
Statistic or Strength: For metrics, the statistic (median, mean or percentage). For requirements, how binding the rule is: limit, conditional limit, recommendation, conditional guidance, layout guidance, procedure, published range or explicitly unrestricted.
Population or Scope: Who a metric covers, or the conditions under which a requirement applies.
Definition: Metrics only: what the metric measures, and what it does not.
Reporting Period: For metrics, the period the figure covers. For requirements, the date the rule took effect, or "Effective date not established".
Source Title: Title of the publisher's page.
Source URL: URL of the publisher's page.
Source Location: Where on the page the figure or rule appears.
Observed On: Date Manusights read the page.
Limitation or Condition: Limits of the source for metrics; the rule's scope for requirements.
Dataset Version: Version of the layer the row comes from.
License: Licence of the compilation. Source pages remain under their publishers' terms.

Submission requirements (separate export) 16 fields

Columns of the submission-requirement export on the submission specifications page and in the requirements table above.

Claim ID: Stable identifier: journal, article type and field.
Journal Slug: Manusights journal identifier.
Journal: Journal name as used on Manusights journal pages.
Article Type: The article type the rule applies to.
Submission Stage: The stage of preparation or submission the source section covers, in the source's words.
Requirement: What the rule governs: main text, abstract, figures and tables, references or supporting material.
Value: The rule as the source states it.
Rule Strength: How binding the rule is: limit, conditional limit, recommendation, conditional guidance, layout guidance, procedure, published range or explicitly unrestricted.
Scope and Conditions: Conditions under which the rule applies, and what it does not cover.
Source Title: Title of the publisher's instructions page.
Source URL: URL of the publisher's instructions page.
Source Section: Section of the page that states the rule.
Observed On: Date Manusights read the page.
Effective From: Date the rule took effect when the source states it; "Not established" otherwise.
Dataset Version: Version of the requirement layer.
License: Licence of the compilation only; the source pages remain under their publishers' terms.

Method

How each layer was built

Original archived journal acceptance times, method v2

Journals checked: 286 journal entries from our journal pages and review-time guides; 284 after merging duplicates in the NLM Catalog; 280 matched to a PubMed journal.
Operational type rule: PubMed Journal Article, publication-date query 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31. Excluded types: Letter, Comment, Editorial, Review, Systematic Review, Scoping Review, News, Newspaper Article, Published Erratum, Retraction Notice, Retracted Publication, Expression of Concern, Case Reports, Practice Guideline, Guideline, Interview, Biography, Portrait, Autobiography, Personal Narrative, Lecture, Address, Introductory Journal Article, Clinical Conference. The same fetched-record check does not certify publisher-verified original research.
Original sampling: Up to 300 records per journal from intended monthly strata (seed 20260924). Query limits and overlapping/year-only dates create incomplete or ambiguous strata. 30,853 original records were sampled; arithmetic validation is not proof of full-frame sampling. Version 2026.2 instead enumerates complete window frames.
Intervals: Received to accepted, 1-1,825 days. The archived acceptance-to-PubMed-entry field keeps 0-730 days. The original codebook disclosed this proxy; indexing is not a validated online-publication date, and version 2026.2 omits it as a publication measure.
Original gates: All-type PubMed count divided by Crossref journal-article count needed to reach 0.80, sometimes after supplement adjustment. This is not a matched-DOI coverage fraction. Both-date deposit needed to reach 60% and measured n≥30. The three adjusted-only journals remain supplemental in version 2026.2, with true unadjusted and adjusted ratios exported separately.
Held for review: 6 journals where the received date appears to be the revised-submission date (a fifth or more of intervals under 14 days, or two separate peaks), and 2 that differ by more than 25% from a publisher-reported median for the same interval. 11 journals had such a figure. A planned comparison with an independent per-journal site could not be run because that site refused automated requests; divergence was checked against publisher-reported figures only.
Outcome: 108 published, 8 held, 168 suppressed. Suppression reasons overlap: fewer than 30 measurable articles (148), deposit rate below the gate (139), PubMed coverage below the gate (114), no records passing the operational type filter for the window (36), not in the NLM Catalog (4). The journals left out are listed on peer review timelines.
Validation: 20 published journals drawn at random (seed 20260925) were recomputed from the raw PubMed records with separately written parsing, filtering and statistics. 20 of 20 matched exactly on the number of articles and the median.

Publisher-reported metrics and the ledger

Included: Values and requirements transcribed from named official publisher pages, with the source location and conditions needed to interpret each one. The 2026 reported layer takes only publishers whose reuse terms were read and permit it, and only pages on the publisher's own domain.
Excluded: Search snippets, aggregator sites, anonymous estimates, undated impact metrics, generalized editorial advice, fit scores, and unsupported historical directory fields. Metric and requirement figures from Nature Portfolio pages, whose terms restrict compiling their content into a database, and from JAMA Network pages, whose terms could not be read, are cited on this page with links but left out of every download, PDF and embeddable view.
Coverage: A purposive reference set. The layers have different journal coverage and are not representative samples.
Maintenance: Evidence expires after 90 days. A changed or inaccessible controlling source blocks the dependent claim until it is reviewed again.

This edition has passed Manusights internal publication review only; it has not been independently or peer reviewed.

Changelog

What changed, and when

2026-10-01
Revised version 2026.2
New uniform samples from fully enumerated PubMed query frames; operational article-type labels; distinct original-snapshot raw and adjusted coverage columns; explicit exclusions and historical sensitivities. Indexing delay is omitted as a publication measure. Original 2026.1 files and DOI remain unchanged; version 2026.2 is archived at Zenodo with its own DOI.
2026-09-25
Ledger edition 2026.09.25-evidence4: Nature Portfolio and JAMA Network requirements cited on the pages only
Requirement figures from Nature Portfolio and JAMA Network pages (22 observations for 5 journals) now remain on the pages as linked citations only. They are no longer in the complete ledger, the submission-specifications download, its evidence brief or its embeddable view. The workbook, the timeline brief and the acceptance-rate note were regenerated with worked examples from PLOS, the JCI and eLife only, and the two embeddable metric views now show PLOS, JCI, JCI Insight and eLife figures.
2026-09-25
Nature Portfolio and JAMA Network figures removed from the downloads
Removed 32 publisher figures from the downloadable data (the complete ledger, the timeline and acceptance-rate downloads, the table exports and the two embeddable views): 22 sourced from Nature Portfolio pages, whose terms restrict compiling their content into a database, and 10 sourced from JAMA Network pages, whose terms could not be read. The figures remain cited, with links, on the pages that use them.
2026-09-25
Measured acceptance times, method v2
The archived v2 PubMed layer has 108 journals. It replaced July v1 with an operational publication-type filter and intended monthly sampling. The October audit identified query limits and frame gaps, ambiguous month assignment, and imperfect content typing. Its 20-journal arithmetic replay did not establish unbiased sampling or exact publisher date semantics.
2026-09-24
Publisher-reported metrics, 2026.09.24-reported1
17 acceptance rates, shares sent for review and decision times for 6 journals, each transcribed from a publisher whose reuse terms were read and permit it.
2026-09-18
July PubMed measurements withdrawn
The v1 PubMed measurements came out of the downloads until the method could be fixed.
2026-09-15
Ledger edition 2026.09.15-evidence3
36 publisher metric observations and 32 submission requirements, each with its source. The historical 57-journal directory, impact factors and estimated rates are not distributed.

The next edition of the acceptance times is planned for September 2027.

How to cite

Cite the dataset

Acceptance times on Zenodo (DOI)

Manusights (2026). Journal acceptance times from PubMed history dates, 2026 edition (Version 2026.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23001076

The measured acceptance times and the 2014-2015 comparison are archived with a DOI; cite this for those figures. The formats below cite the whole dataset.

Text

Manusights (2026). Journal outcomes dataset, 2026 edition [Data set]. 2026 edition: acceptance times method v2; reported metrics 2026.09.24-reported1; ledger 2026.09.25-evidence4. CC BY 4.0. https://manusights.com/resources/journal-intelligence

BibTeX

@misc{manusights_journal_outcomes_2026,
  author       = {{Manusights}},
  title        = {Journal outcomes dataset, 2026 edition},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {2026 edition: acceptance times method v2; reported metrics 2026.09.24-reported1; ledger 2026.09.25-evidence4},
  publisher    = {Manusights},
  howpublished = {\url{https://manusights.com/resources/journal-intelligence}},
  note         = {Data set. Licensed CC BY 4.0}
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - Manusights
TI  - Journal outcomes dataset, 2026 edition
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/25
ET  - 2026 edition: acceptance times method v2; reported metrics 2026.09.24-reported1; ledger 2026.09.25-evidence4
PB  - Manusights
UR  - https://manusights.com/resources/journal-intelligence
N1  - Licensed CC BY 4.0
ER  -

Licence and sources

Free to reuse with attribution

The compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0: copy, adapt and redistribute it with attribution to Manusights. The acceptance times are computed from PubMed history dates, which are public NCBI records, and Crossref metadata. Publisher figures and requirements are facts transcribed with a link to their source; the source pages remain under their publishers' terms.

Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics

2025 Peer Review Metrics table; journal-name row. 2025 calendar year.

Open official source

JAMA: author information

Editorial Information; Prompt Decisions and Rapid Publication Timelines. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.

Open official source

JAMA Oncology: author information

Prompt Decisions and Rapid Publication Timelines. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.

Open official source

JAMA Cardiology: author information

Prompt Decisions and Rapid Publication Timelines. Reporting period not stated; page updated July 2026.

Open official source

PLOS: 2025 publication metrics

Journal and article-level metrics; named journal panel and footnote. 2025 calendar year.

Open official source

Evidence boundary. Publisher instructions control. Metrics are descriptive observations, not manuscript-level forecasts. Requirement observations do not cover every article type, policy, file, declaration, reporting guideline, or submission-system prompt.

Original Manusights compilation: CC BY 4.0. Third-party source material remains under its original terms. No publisher endorsement is implied. Report a correction or review the maintenance policy.

Workbook and complete ledger

Take the ledger to a journal-choice discussion

Use the workbook for a journal-choice discussion or download all 14 publisher metric and requirement observations with their source conditions. No login is required.

Download workbook PDF Download complete CSV Open versioned JSON

Use the ledger

Make six decisions, in order

A number is decision support only after it survives a definition check. The workbook turns these checks into a record a lab, librarian, or writing center can reuse.

1. Match the manuscript

Name the journal, exact article type, audience, and contribution model. This dataset does not determine fit.

2. Match the definition

Keep editorial screening, first decision, reviewed decision, and final acceptance distinct.

3. Match the population

Check whether the denominator is all submissions, research manuscripts, accepted manuscripts, or an unstated publisher dataset.

4. Match the period

Record the reporting period separately from the date Manusights checked the source.

5. Match the package rule

Preserve whether an instruction is a limit, recommendation, example, procedure, or explicit lack of restriction.

6. Record the unknowns

Do not fill a coverage gap with an estimate, a search snippet, or a remembered policy.

Sources and scope · Guide reviewed September 25, 2026

Coverage: 108 journals with measured acceptance times; 17 publisher-reported observations; 14 ledger observations
Source basis: PubMed history dates, publisher metrics pages and article-type instructions

Prepared by the Manusights editorial team. Publisher and institutional instructions take precedence.

Cite this resource

Citation formats

Free to use and cite, with attribution. See the reuse policy for what you may republish.

APA: Manusights (2026). Journal outcomes dataset, 2026 edition [Data set]. 2026 edition: acceptance times method v2; reported metrics 2026.09.24-reported1; ledger 2026.09.25-evidence4. CC BY 4.0. https://manusights.com/resources/journal-intelligence
MLA: Manusights. "Journal Outcomes Dataset, 2026 Edition." 2026 edition: acceptance times method v2; reported metrics 2026.09.24-reported1; ledger 2026.09.25-evidence4, September 25, 2026, https://manusights.com/resources/journal-intelligence.
Vancouver: Manusights. Journal outcomes dataset, 2026 edition [Internet]. 2026 edition: acceptance times method v2; reported metrics 2026.09.24-reported1; ledger 2026.09.25-evidence4. 2026 09 25. Available from: https://manusights.com/resources/journal-intelligence

Journal outcomes dataset (2026 edition)

Versioned layers, each with its own download

Journal timeline research

What published-paper histories tell us about journal timelines

A new sample, with complete query frames

Historical changes depend on the panel

Three different questions require different clocks

Citation and correction history

Publisher-reported metrics, 2026

Inspect each publisher claim

Inspect each submission rule

Every field, defined

How each layer was built

Original archived journal acceptance times, method v2

Publisher-reported metrics and the ledger

What changed, and when

Revised version 2026.2

Ledger edition 2026.09.25-evidence4: Nature Portfolio and JAMA Network requirements cited on the pages only

Nature Portfolio and JAMA Network figures removed from the downloads

Measured acceptance times, method v2

Publisher-reported metrics, 2026.09.24-reported1

July PubMed measurements withdrawn

Ledger edition 2026.09.15-evidence3

Cite the dataset

Acceptance times on Zenodo (DOI)

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Nature Portfolio: 2025 peer review metrics

JAMA: author information

JAMA Oncology: author information

JAMA Cardiology: author information

PLOS: 2025 publication metrics

Take the ledger to a journal-choice discussion

Make six decisions, in order

1. Match the manuscript

2. Match the definition

3. Match the population

4. Match the period

5. Match the package rule

6. Record the unknowns

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Verify the actual instructions before you reformat the paper.