Introduction

Background

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022), and with the goal of helping to bring it to a prompt end, journal publishers implemented various methods in the publication process to ensure rapid dissemination of articles, thereby enabling researchers to develop vaccines and treatments more quickly. Some publishers expanded open access (OA) publishing, shortened peer review times, and offered discounts on article processing charges. In addition, some researchers focused on COVID-19–related studies and shared preprints and postprints in repositories or archives. These activities, along with the direct increase in COVID-19–related articles, may have contributed to an unusual spike in the number of articles during the pandemic [1]. Regardless of the cause, the compound annual growth rate of OA articles, citations, and journal impact factors (JIFs) has increased rapidly since 2020 [2], indicating a rapid, large-scale change in the exchange of research information during the COVID-19 period.

This situation in the journal publishing industry during COVID-19 requires further analysis. In 2020, 16.2% of the articles in 10 high-impact medical and infectious disease journals were intensely focused on COVID-19 [3]. There was also a substantial reduction in publication times for COVID-19–related research or essential medical information during the first half of 2020 [4]. The average time between manuscript submission and publication decreased by 49% for COVID-19 articles due to reduced peer review times; however, the publication speed for non–COVID-19 articles remained unchanged [5]. The average acceptance time for COVID-19 articles decreased, partly at the expense of non–COVID-19 articles [6,7]. This rapid publication of COVID-19–related articles may have compromised the rigor of the review process and the scientific validity of the methods [8].

This shift in global publishing may have also affected the author’s organization, the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB). Some of these questions can be addressed by analyzing the number of publications and their publication dates from one institute, KRIBB. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the publication trends of KRIBB research articles and share the findings with relevant stakeholders. Even minor insights into how global changes in the article publishing industry during COVID-19 have affected a single research organization could significantly benefit the research and publishing communities.

Objectives

This case study examines the impact of global changes in journal publishing during COVID-19 on one research organization’s publication data, as well as how it was specifically affected. This study aimed to determine whether there is still a tendency to rush to publish articles in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide useful information for researchers and stakeholders regarding how journal publishing has changed during the pandemic.

Specifically, the following aspects were examined: first, a comparison and characterization of the number of research articles indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) from the Web of Science (WoS) database (Clarivate) and the corresponding KRIBB research articles; second, differences in the publication turnaround times of KRIBB-SCIE corresponding research articles based on whether MDPI was involved; and third, factors affecting the publication turnaround times of KRIBB’s non-MDPI and SCIE corresponding research articles. These factors include differences among journals with more than two publications per year, differences among big three publisher journals (Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley), differences among journals with a JIF of 10 or higher, differences in OA publication articles, and differences in COVID-19–related articles.

Methods

Ethics statement

This study did not involve human subjects; therefore, neither institutional review board approval nor informed consent was required.

Study design

This descriptive case study used institutional information on research articles and their publication steps. KRIBB, the institution with which the author is affiliated, is a government-funded organization that conducts both basic and applied research and provides national-level infrastructure support for bioscience research. The institute employs more than 1,000 researchers, including master’s and doctoral students. The investigation and analysis were carried out according to the following scheme. For the case study, we first compared the number of research articles from the WoS-SCIE database for 2017– 2024 with the number of research articles in KRIBB-SCIE. Articles were considered KRIBB-led if at least one corresponding author was an employee of the institute (all references to KRIBB hereafter refer to corresponding SCIE research articles). Next, to mitigate the influence of outliers in publication times, we excluded data for any KRIBB research article that took more than 365 days in one phase or more than 730 days in two or more phases. Additionally, to avoid the skewing effect of MDPI’s extremely short publication times—MDPI rapidly growing to third place in WoS-SCIE with approximately 10% of its articles—we excluded MDPI data from this analysis. Finally, we further analyzed KRIBB research articles by examining factors affecting publication turnaround time, categorizing them into frequently publishing journals, major publisher journals, journals with a JIF greater than 10, OA articles, and COVID-19–related articles.

Data sources

For this study, we retrieved the number of research articles from WoS-SCIE covering the 8-year period from 2017 to 2024 in January 2025. We also collected management information for 2,104 KRIBB research articles, including 265 published in MDPI journals, within the same period (Dataset 1). To ensure accurate comparisons of publication counts, only research articles reporting experiments that address the research questions were included; review articles, editorials, correspondence, opinions, and similar content were excluded. The publication date information for KRIBB research articles was analyzed by manually entering the dates recorded in each article’s PDF into Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corp). Although the terminology and presentation of publication stages vary among journals, we standardized the stages as follows: submitted, revised, accepted, published, and recorded in the KRIBB’s management information system (MIS). It is important to note that while dates for the first and last stages are generally available, dates for the intermediate stages are only partially available, which may skew the analysis results. The categorization of article types and OA status can vary among researchers; however, we adhered to the criteria established by the case institution. OA status was determined based on the indication provided in the article’s PDF file, which may be inaccurate or unclear for some journals, but thorough verification was not possible. In addition, we incorporated the following information from KRIBB’s article records into our Excel dataset: article type, publication frequency, publisher, JIF, OA status, and COVID-19 relatedness. The classification of publishers used in this study, although not detailed here, was partially based on the author’s prior experience and previous studies [1,2].

Results

Number of SCIE research articles in WoS and KRIBB

To analyze the publication status of the journals, the data were categorized into pre–COVID-19 (2017–2019), COVID-19 (2020–2022), and post–COVID-19 (2023–2024) periods to identify trends. As shown in Fig. 1, the number of WoS-SCIE research articles scaled down by the number of KRIBB’s corresponding SCIE research articles in 2017, including those published in MDPI journals, peaked in 2021 and then decreased in 2022 and 2023, with 2024 expected to show similar figures, though some additional entries may occur. In contrast, KRIBB’s data diverged from WoS, showing accelerated growth compared to the global average beginning in 2019 and peaking in 2020. Based on the Journal Citation Reports 2023, the average JIF of KRIBB research articles increased from 2017 to 2024, with the following values: 4.57, 4.60, 4.59, 5.10, 5.17, 5.40, 5.66, and 5.89 [9]. Although a spike in the JIF of certain journals during COVID-19 has been previously reported [1], applying the latest JIF values retrospectively also reveals a spike in the JIF of KRIBB research articles. This spike continued even after the pandemic, suggesting a relationship between the quantity and quality of articles. In Fig. 1, a significant gap in the number of articles between 2021 and 2023 reflects the impact of MDPI. Notably, this variation depends on whether MDPI research articles are included. Within KRIBB research articles, MDPI’s influence expanded beginning in 2019, producing a significant gap during 2020–2023 and a decreasing trend in 2024. Interestingly, KRIBB showed this large gap a year earlier than the WoS data, and the gap of research articles began to decline from 2022—coinciding with an internal notice calling attention to MDPI journal publications—followed by a significant decrease in 2024. No explanation was found for the large drops and spikes in the number of KRIBB research articles in 2022 and 2023.

Turnaround times for KRIBB’s SCIE research articles

To accurately assess the publication turnaround times of research articles, we compared data from MDPI-only publications with those from non-MDPI publishers, which account for a significant portion of the research articles. Fig. 2 illustrates that the review speed for MDPI journals is extremely fast, raising concerns about the rigor of their review processes. Nevertheless, KRIBB’s MDPI research articles showed similar timings across publication stages, with no significant changes in the time taken for each stage. However, the gap between the publication date and MIS recording is widening, suggesting potential issues with the system for updating new publication information into the bibliographic database or an internal MDPI-related cause. For non-MDPI research articles, the intervals between accepted to submitted and published to submitted were longest in 2019 and generally decreased during the COVID-19 period, shortening significantly in 2022 before rising again in 2023 to previous levels. In particular, the interval between MIS recording and submission was reduced as staff accelerated the entry of article information, although this interval surged again in 2023—a development that warrants further investigation. In 2024, the turnaround time for each publication stage decreased slightly, resulting in tighter intervals compared to previous years, while the MIS recording time was significantly reduced, albeit remaining similar to 2023.

Factors affecting the publication time of KRIBB’s non-MDPI research articles

Examining 488 research articles from 15 journals—including six Korean journals and Scientific Reports—that published more than 16 articles over 8 years (with at least two publications per year), Fig. 3 indicates that articles from frequently publishing journals generally had shorter publication times. Korean journals that collaborate with the big three publishers (Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley) were among these frequent journals, likely due to the obligation or necessity of submitting articles to society journals in their home country, along with relatively quick publication processes. As illustrated in Fig. 4, research articles from the big three publishers (excluding MDPI) displayed a relatively large gap in 2021 compared to articles from other publishers. However, this gap has been narrowing over time, suggesting that the size or prominence of the publisher is not a significant determinant of publication time. Fig. 5 shows that research articles in high IF journals (with a JIF of 10 or higher) experienced significantly longer publication times compared to those in low IF journals. As expected, high IF journal articles, which typically undergo more rigorous peer review and additional revisions, required more time to publish. As shown in Fig. 6, OA articles took slightly longer to publish than non-OA articles after KRIBB’s management data became available in 2020, although the difference was not statistically significant. In terms of COVID-19–related articles, any article containing COVID-19–related terms [2] in the title, keywords, or abstract was considered COVID-19–related; a total of 69 such articles were identified from KRIBB between 2020 and 2024. Fig. 7 shows that the revised to submitted interval appears irregular, with COVID-19–related articles being published faster than non–COVID-19 articles in the subsequent stages, though the difference decreases in 2024. Overall, COVID-19–related articles from KRIBB were generally published faster, but this trend gradually normalized over time.

Discussion

Key results

With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of publications in both WoS-SCIE and KRIBB appears to be returning to pre–COVID-19 levels. KRIBB, however, exhibited a slightly different trend, with the highest number of publications occurring in 2020, followed by a decline and then a surge in 2023. KRIBB’s research articles were published more rapidly and observed shorter publication times for high-frequency journals, low IF journals, and COVID–19-related articles during the COVID-19 period.

Interpretation/comparison with previous studies

Although the average JIF and citation number of KRIBB publications increased, the decline in the number of research articles from 2021 onward may be attributed to the specificity of COVID-19 research. It is also estimated that this decrease resulted from a shift in 2020 from a researcher evaluation system to a five-article selection per 3 years, which emphasized quality over quantity. Like the rest of the world, KRIBB experienced a sharp increase in WoS-SCIE research articles and JIF in 2020, followed by an unusually steep decline in 2022 [1]. Notably, KRIBB’s spike occurred a year earlier than that of WoS-SCIE, which peaked in 2021. In line with these trends, both WoS-SCIE and KRIBB data indicate that MDPI, with its promise of rapid publication, became popular among Korean researchers during the pandemic but has since declined in influence. The decrease or stagnation of the MDPI gap in both WoS-SCIE and KRIBB in 2024 may be partly due to the exclusion announcement from WoS in 2023 for 2 MDPI journals and 19 Wiley-Hindawi journals.

There was a rapid change in the publication turnaround time for non-MDPI research articles in 2018 and a sharp change in 2023, which was significantly different from the figures in 2022. Although the difference in turnaround times between MDPI and other publishers in both WoS-SCIE and KRIBB is significant—as shown in one study [10]—MDPI’s turnaround time (37 days from submission to acceptance) is much shorter than that of Frontiers (72 days), Hindawi (83 days), and other publishers (130 days). Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the turnaround times of MDPI and non-MDPI publishers separately, as exemplified by MDPI’s 39-day turnaround time for KRIBB’s articles from submission to publication [2]. A precise analysis of highly similar non-MDPI research articles will help clarify the specificities of the publishing systems in both WoS-SCIE and KRIBB and reveal the factors that influenced these changes.

KRIBB showed a significant decrease in publication time for research articles in 2018 and 2022 compared to the years before and after. During COVID-19, KRIBB experienced an overall reduction in publication time, although some anomalies—such as those seen in 2023—are critical to understand. In general, KRIBB observed shorter publication times for high-frequency journals, low IF journals, and COVID-19–related articles, though these differences have gradually narrowed. In comparing publication stages, KRIBB has been entering article information into its MIS more quickly, as the intervals between stages have become increasingly compressed; notably, the MIS-recorded to submitted interval has decreased significantly. The proportion of gold and hybrid OA-only articles in WoS for four fields, including SCIE, increased from 33.5% in 2019 to 46.4% in 2023 [11], yet no significant difference in publication time was found for OA articles in KRIBB. COVID-19–related research articles were published slightly faster, although this difference was reversed in 2024.

Limitations

This case study is based on publication data from a single research institute, so the results should be interpreted with caution and may have limited generalizability to broader global trends.

Conclusions

In this case study, we collected and analyzed research data by combining the number of WoS-SCIE research articles with data from one research institute and relating these figures to the state of the journal publishing industry before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 period— characterized by rapid changes in article counts and JIFs—we examined how publication dates and article numbers changed for research articles at this Korean research institute. This study is the first to share such findings and implications with stakeholders, highlighting the need for additional case studies from multiple research institutions. As more similar case studies are reported and aggregated, a more generalized and robust picture of recent changes and trends in article publishing during COVID-19 will emerge.

Notes

Conflict of Interest

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Funding

The author received no financial support for this article.

Data Availability

Dataset file is available from the Harvard Dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/UKT1FD.

Dataset 1. Collected research data from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) from 2017 to 2024.

kcse-361-dataset-1.xlsx

Supplementary materials

Fig. 1.

Comparison of the number of research articles indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) from the Web of Science (WoS) database and the corresponding SCIE research articles in the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) database according to the inclusion or exclusion of MDPI journals.

Fig. 2.

Publication turnaround times of the corresponding Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) research articles in the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) database with and without MDPI journals. MIS, management information system.

Fig. 3.

Publication turnaround times of the corresponding Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) research articles in the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) database, according to publication frequency, excluding MDPI journals. MIS, management information system.

Fig. 4.

Publication turnaround times of the corresponding Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) research articles in the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) database, according to big three publisher journals (Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley), excluding MDPI journals. MIS, management information system.

Fig. 5.

Publication turnaround times of the corresponding Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) research articles in the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) database, according to high impact factor (IF) journals, excluding MDPI journals. MIS, management information system.

Fig. 6.

Publication turnaround times of the corresponding Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) research articles in the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) database, according to open access (OA) status of the journals, excluding MDPI journals. MIS, management information system.

Fig. 7.

Publication turnaround times of the corresponding Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) research articles in the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) database, according to COVID-19–related topics, excluding MDPI journals. MIS, management information system.

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Figure & Data

References

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