Background: To better understand and analyze various aspects of scientific publication, bibliometric data analysis is useful.
Objectives: An analysis of the factors associated with shorter publication times in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus (POS) between the years 2002 and 2007, compared to 2014 and 2018.
Methods: In this retrospective bibliometric analysis, we analyzed 2,487 articles related to POS from the official websites of 8 preselected ophthalmology journals. Time from submission to acceptance, from acceptance to publication, and from submission to publication were calculated for each article.
Results: Median peer review durations were 156 days from submission to acceptance; 79 days from acceptance to publication, and 244 days from submission to publication. Journals such as the American Journal of Ophthalmology, JAMA Ophthalmology, and Strabismus reported the shortest time from submission to publication. Annually, all time intervals decreased, but in the first decade, the decline was significantly greater. The time between submission and acceptance of female senior authors increased during the first decade; however, this disappeared during the second decade.
Conclusions: There was an improvement in most journals and the gender gap in senior authorship decreased with time.
Discussion: Since digital technology has rapidly developed over the past two decades, authors have been able to communicate with editorial and production teams more quickly and efficiently. Journal names and the gender of the last author are the main factors affecting publication times.