Htydjtk

I don't understand the following terms in a journal where I am going to publish.

This is in reference to this series of journals.

What is the meaning of the terms bimonthly, semimonthly and quarterly as given in the above link?

Does it have anything with the time taken for peer-review process or anything?

Please help me to understand these terms and what they indicate?

Which one will be a better match to publish in if I have a time-constraint?

It tends to refer to the frequency in which issues of the journal gets published. The issues may then be grouped into volumes in some other fashion. This "issue frequency" is usually not correlated with the duration of the peer review - it'll take whatever time it takes for your manuscript to undergo the process. However, once your manuscript is accepted, it gives you an idea of how long you might have to wait for it to be published. I suppose that, all other things equal, a higher frequency is preferable given a time-constraint.

As for the words themselves,

• Bimonthly = every two months (but see this)


• Semimonthly = every two weeks


• Quarterly = every three months (once per quarter)

Actually, if you do an internet search you will learn that the terms are ambiguous - at least in usage. I don't know if all journals have coordinated their usage, but when people speak of them, you will get different opinions.

So, does bi-monthly mean twice a month or every two months. Opinions will differ, unfortunately.

Quarterly is almost always meant to imply four times per year. Maybe always.

But the more important question is how this affects review times. I doubt that it has any affect at all. A paper will take what it takes to get a decent set of reviews and an editorial decision.

More likely a journal with more issues per year than another, either has more submissions, or specializes in longer papers. If papers are long, there may be (in the print world) less room in a given issue for several papers. If papers are short there may be more submissions.

If you want a quick decision, write a shorter paper. Write a clearer paper. Write an exciting paper. Of course a terrible paper will also get a quick decision, but not one you'd prefer.