How long journals really take — measured, not advertised
Median days from submission to acceptance for 4,252 journals, measured from 5,595,850 published articles, with the sample size behind every number.
Data as of Sep 15, 2026 · accepted articles only · methodology
Example: Scientific Reports
Half of the articles Scientific Reports accepted in 2025 were accepted within 137 days of submission (n = 47,228); the middle half took 94–201 days.
Compare journals in your field
Medicine 2782Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 759Neuroscience 245Agricultural and Biological Sciences 222Health Professions 201Psychology 183Environmental Science 151Engineering 139Dentistry 107Immunology and Microbiology 99Chemistry 75Social Sciences 67
Plan your submissions against your deadline — free
Choose up to five journals in the order you would try them. The planner lays out when each submission would go in and when half — and three in four — of past articles at that journal were accepted, against your defence, visa or job-market date.
Plan my submissionsFree to use — and one optional kit
Journal Clock is free: every journal page, field table, the search and the submission planner, with no account. The numbers come from public records and stay the same for everyone.
The Journal Submission Kit is the optional next step once you have picked a journal: eleven one-page checklists, a journal-fit scoring matrix and a submission tracker that take a finished paper from shortlist to submitted. See what's inside.
What each journal page shows
- Speed — median and spread of days from submission to acceptance and to online publication, by year, with the number of articles behind every figure.
- Trend — whether the journal got faster or slower, only when the change is larger than chance.
- Cost — listed article processing charges (DOAJ) and what institutions actually paid (OpenAPC).
- Integrity signals — DOAJ listing, MEDLINE indexing, retractions and the share of very fast acceptances, as facts rather than labels.
- Similar journals — faster or cheaper, side by side.
For publishers, author services and libraries
Turnaround benchmarks, a journal-speed data feed and campus licences built on the same measured data. See the options.
Frequently asked questions
How long does peer review take?
It varies enormously. Across the 3,409 journals with 2025 figures here, the median time from submission to acceptance in 2025 ranged from 0 to 482 days. Look up the journals you are considering rather than relying on an average.
Where do the numbers come from?
Publishers deposit the date a manuscript was received and the date it was accepted with PubMed. Journal Clock collects those dates for every article, checks them for errors and placeholder values, and reports medians with the number of articles behind each one.
Why is my journal missing?
A journal appears only when at least 50 of its articles in a year carry usable submission and acceptance dates and our harvest of its PubMed records is complete. Coverage is strongest in medicine and the life sciences; many engineering, social science and humanities journals are not in PubMed.
Is a faster journal a better journal?
No. Speed is a planning fact, not a quality score. Very fast acceptance can deserve a closer look, which is why each journal page also shows retractions, indexing and fees.
Is Journal Clock free?
Yes. Journal pages, field tables, search and the submission planner are free.
Get the free Journal Submission Go/No-Go Checklist
The pre-submission checks from Write and Publish a Scientific Paper: journal fit, formatting, cover letter and reviewer suggestions. We’ll email you the download link.
Data sources. Submission, acceptance and publication dates: Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (PubMed, entries through Sep 15, 2026). NLM does not endorse Journal Clock, and these figures may not reflect the most current PubMed data. Journal fees and open-access listing: DOAJ (CC0, retrieved Sep 16, 2026). Fees paid by institutions: OpenAPC (Open Database License, retrieved Sep 16, 2026). Retractions: Retraction Watch Database via Crossref (retrieved Sep 16, 2026). Journal identifiers and topics: OpenAlex (CC0). Currency conversion: ECB reference rates (Sep 15, 2026). How these numbers are calculated · For organisations.