Dear Christina. I think you are addressing a different issue. The previous answers concern the time to receive a copy of an article that you wrote and you sent to a scientific journal for publication.

I believe that what you are asking is how long it takes to receive a paper that you requested from the author of the article via ResearchGate (RG). And I'm afraid it is impossible to know: it is entirely up to the author and their circumstances. Some authors are on top of the messages from RG letting them know about your request and reply immediately uploading the paper. Others, only check from time to time -or just happen to be busier at the time of your request ! If they are taking long to reply, RG sends them reminder messages... If the author is a contact of yours, you could send them a personal direct message too. That is all you can do, I'm afraid!

Regading knowing whether a paper is open-access or not, you have to go to the corresponding jounal webpage (i.e. the webpage of the journal where that article is published) and check. Maybe the entire journal is open-access, or at least it has some papers that are open access. You have to look for the one you are interested and find out.

To find out if you can have access to the article via interlibrary loan all you have to do is ask your library. Request the article from your library and if they don't have it, they can ask other libraries and get it from them (sometimes for a fee...) That is inter-library loan: sharing papers among libraries...

I hope this was useful Christina!

Best of luck!

Basically it depends on the Journal in which you have published the article. Open access journal make your entire article available within few days. the print version usually take 10 -15 days. it all depends on the publisher of your journal

The length of waiting time depends on the one who is sending the article to us.  Authors are usually quite willing to share their papers that we ask to read, and if suitable, to cite.  Which researcher doesn't want citations?  On RG, I have waited a few days to a few months.  Rg allows us to re-send requests for papers, that's a very good point!  (But we must consider that some people may be very busy or on holidays, and just not able to respond, yet.  Thanks.)

I think it depends on the researcher whom you are requesting the article from. I my case, it took between a week and a month.

Hi,

It depends the source. If open access or online subscription, it will be immediate. If using pay per view on the publisher website, it will be quite as fast. The other options (inter library loan, ask a copy to the author, and possibly some company dedicated in article delivery) will depend on several factors...

Did you want to compare those options or do you think of one specifically?

Dear Deanna Ray

pls check the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0NYKFSphKY

Dear Deanna Ray

pls check the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0NYKFSphKY

Dear Deanna Ray

pls check the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0NYKFSphKY

Dear Deanna Ray

pls check the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0NYKFSphKY

 You are not specifying if you are asking the editor of a journal for a pdf copy of your manuscript, of another manuscript, or you are asking a fellow researcher for a copy . I assume that you are asking about the time necessary to produce galley proofs of your accepted work. The field where you are publishing is important but the last 5 years publishing times have been normalized across different disciplines.

1. Open Access journals have very fast administration times. If the question is geared towards the generation of galley proofs, then the answer is within a month of the acceptance of the paper. If the question is geared towards the request of having a copy of a  manuscript then the answer is  from the same day to a week .

2. Non -open Access journal might require longer times ... galley proofs might take easily 3-6 months or longer after the manuscript acceptance. For very prestigious journals this might end up in 24 months. 

The time it takes for the journal to prepare and provide your final article in its final state depends a lot on their backlog. When I started my career in 1988 manuscripts were submitted on paper over "paper mail", and comments were also send over mail. When the final version was accepted, it could then take between one month (rare!) and a year (rather often) until you were sent a paper copy of the final result, in the journal's style. You were then asked to read it, and make detailed marks with red pen where the technical staff at the publishers had made mistakes in their typesetting. After this correction you then waited for up to a year or even slightly more until you would see it in print, when the issue was finally published and you could find it in the university library.

Nowadays you do the typesetting yourself in the style of the journal, so plenty of the communication has become much faster. The final delay is also much shorter, as the final paper becomes available on the journal's web page before the issue has been assembled. So that part of the publishing bit has become better.

What has perhaps become worse is that periodically it has become harder to find reviewers on those submissions in the first place.

Hello Deanna,

I hope I'm answering your question. I assume you are asking how long it takes an author to receive a full version of an article after it has been accepted by a journal, so I am providing my answer in that context.

My experience with journals indicates that there is no consistency. One journal (the flagship journal for the particular health science that I wrote for) accepted an article of mine in October 2016 and the galley proofs have still not been produced 3 months later - and I have no idea when the article will be finally published because that journal does not make articles available online prior to print versions being produced. In fact, a week ago I asked the editorial office when the galley proofs would be produced and was told that they didn't know. I am hoping that Stavros (above) is not correct about prestigious journals taking up to 24 months to make an article available, but I am beginning to have my fears.

Another journal (also good quality) accepted an article of mine in August 2016, sent me the galley proofs within one week (giving me 48 hours to deal with them), and then made the final copy available online within a couple of days after I had returned the galley proofs. That article has still not been allocated a volume and issue number 5 months later, but is at least available through the journal's website.

Still another (good) journal accepted an article mid-January 2017, and the editorial office contacted me the same day to say that they anticipated sending me the galley proofs within approximately 7 working days.  It's now 9 working days, but who's counting.  I expect those proofs any day - but I'm not sure how long it will take that journal to make the text available:  I'm not able to work out whether articles are made available online prior to being allocated to a specific volume and issue.

Finally, at the end of last year, another journal - a new one that does not have official peer reviewing and is produced primarily for health practitioners - took an article that I had coauthored, accepted the manuscript, produced the galley proofs, and published the article all within about a month at the end of last year.

So, it's very variable - at least in my experience.  I hope I've tapped into the question that you were asking.  Feel free to get back if not.

Robt.

Hi, I have read through your answers and I have a few queries: 1. How do you know if it is open - access or not? 2. How do I know if i can have an inter library loan? My only option is to click the button that says "Full-text requested". Some articles come within days to weeks, I have recently been waiting months so far, and I would dearly love to know what I can do to expedite them. Thanks for you help.

Dear Christina. I think you are addressing a different issue. The previous answers concern the time to receive a copy of an article that you wrote and you sent to a scientific journal for publication.

I believe that what you are asking is how long it takes to receive a paper that you requested from the author of the article via ResearchGate (RG). And I'm afraid it is impossible to know: it is entirely up to the author and their circumstances. Some authors are on top of the messages from RG letting them know about your request and reply immediately uploading the paper. Others, only check from time to time -or just happen to be busier at the time of your request ! If they are taking long to reply, RG sends them reminder messages... If the author is a contact of yours, you could send them a personal direct message too. That is all you can do, I'm afraid!

Regading knowing whether a paper is open-access or not, you have to go to the corresponding jounal webpage (i.e. the webpage of the journal where that article is published) and check. Maybe the entire journal is open-access, or at least it has some papers that are open access. You have to look for the one you are interested and find out.

To find out if you can have access to the article via interlibrary loan all you have to do is ask your library. Request the article from your library and if they don't have it, they can ask other libraries and get it from them (sometimes for a fee...) That is inter-library loan: sharing papers among libraries...

I hope this was useful Christina!

Best of luck!