We aim to make a decision on publication within eight weeks (56 days); to reject papers that are unsuitable for external peer review within two weeks (14 days); and to publish a paper within eight weeks of acceptance.

Between 1 January and 30 June this year we made a decision within 56 days for 72% of all papers submitted (1514/2095) and for 41% of those we accepted (87/210). We accepted 53% (112) within 66 days (10 days over target), and the mean time to accept a paper was 69 days. We met our target of rejecting papers without peer review within 14 days for 22% of papers (279/1258); 56% (706) were rejected within 24 days (10 days over target), and the average time to reject such papers was 26 days. We published 38% (80) of papers within eight weeks of acceptance; 60% (125) were published within 10 weeks, and 76% (159) within 12 weeks. A comparison with previous audits is shown in the table below.