Editorial process in scientific journals: analysis and modeling

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the temporal dynamics of the editorial process in scientific journals using human dynamics theory, providing empirical data analysis and modeling to better understand editorial workflows.

Contribution

It introduces a new object of study in human dynamics theory related to editorial handling and models the temporal characteristics of the process.

Findings

Probability distributions of editorial time variables analyzed

Empirical data from scientific journal publications examined

Time-series modeling of editorial activities developed

Abstract

The editorial handling of papers in scientific journals as a human activity process is considered. Using recently proposed approaches of human dynamics theory we examine the probability distributions of random variables reflecting the temporal characteristics of studied processes. The first part of this paper contains our results of analysis of the real data about papers published in scientific journals. The second part is devoted to modeling of time-series connected with editorial work. The purpose of our work is to present new object that can be studied in terms of human dynamics theory and to corroborate the scientometrical application of the results obtained.