Academics in social sciences; what would you think about waiting more than 8 months after the acceptance of your manuscript in a well-known SSCI-indexed journal published by the Taylor & Francis Group? The answer from the journal addresses the reason due to "a large backlog of manuscripts" in the system. Then, why not consider publishing an announcement beforehand on the website about this issue? How can we talk about progress in science if we proceed at this pace?
Publication backlogs have been a problem for a long time, but more recently journals have published articles online before they appear officially in a specific, page-numbered issue of the journal. If the journal in question follows this practice, you can list the article on your CV as "published online," but if not you can visit as "accepted for publication."
As long as articles are published online as "article in press" or "ahead of print" I see no real issue here. As professor Morgan points out you can list it on your CV and the article is also available for other researchers. In that way progress of science as you put it, is possible in the same way as if the article had been published in an issue of the journal.
We definitely have a problem.
I submitted an article to a well-known journal and waited 2 years to be told that the article was not suitable. Meanwhile the relevance of the ideas becomes a problem and the bibliography becomes obsolete.
Posting articles as preprints can be a solution.
What most people mention here is the "online first" option. For that, the manuscript still needs to pass the production and publishing phases. In the case I highlighted, the accepted manuscript is stuck in somewhere unknown with no visibility.
With this information, your question appears in a new light. In that case I agree that this is a truly problematic situation. Fortunately I have never been in a similar situation, and this is of course not helpful for you.
I hope that the journal soon will solve its problem and wish you good luck.
Update: It has now been A YEAR since acceptance. Still no progress.
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