Publication times after acceptance?

A reader writes in:

I’m wondering what the reasonable amount of time is to expect a paper to be published after it’s been accepted. I did a search on the cocoon website, but didn’t find anything; but I’m thinking surely you’ve tackled this before?

Good question. My experience is that most journals publish things pretty quickly after acceptance (usually as 'Online First' articles). However, I had a paper accepted at a journal that informed me that it won't be published until about a year from when it was accepted (which I'm fine with), and I've heard stories of some journals not publishing articles for a few years (which seems too long to me). But in any case, I'm not sure what's "reasonable" here. What do you all think? 

Comments

[Michel]

In my experience, it's usually a couple of months, but it can be up to a year.

What's reasonable? I'd say a few months.

[Evan]

Some journals do not publish online first and they can sometimes take 2 years since there is a backlog. Journal of the History of Philosophy is an example. Is this reasonable? It’s not ideal, but what can you do?

[Parish]

There are journals that take two years to go from On-Line First to a print issue - Synthese and Episteme come to mind. At some places, publications only count when they are REALLY published (in a volume of the journal). So these things matter. I suspect that Philosophy of Science is also running a long time now.

[Ahead of Print]

I've had anything from 18 months (with no ahead of print online version either!) to 2 months.

I think any time frame under 2 years is reasonable as long as they post it online ahead of print. If they don't do that... maybe 6 months?

[Tim]

I think this can be heavily influenced by the publisher, and if they do 'online first.' My experience is that Springer, with online first, is about 2 weeks. Cambridge, with online first, is about a month. Taylor & Francis, with online first, also around a month. Other journals without online first? Closer to a year.