PLoS: Average Peer Review Times Exceed 200 Days at Multiple Journals
In recent years, prolonged peer review timelines have sparked growing discontent within the academic community. But just how long does the review process actually take?
Using a publicly available dataset from PLoS [1], the 5GH team examined trends in average review duration (in days) for each journal under the PLoS umbrella since their respective launches. Their findings reveal that in 2025, eight journals recorded average review times surpassing 200 days.
The data also show a steady upward drift in review length over publication years. The most pronounced trend appears at PLoS ONE: while its average review time was under 50 days in its early years, by 2025 it had climbed to 180 days, though this marks a slight drop from the peak of 204 days observed in 2022.
It is worth noting that slow peer review is by no means unique to PLoS. Nor is this investigation specifically targeted at the publisher. On the contrary, it is precisely because of PLoS's open metadata policy that we are able to access real-world data on journal review timelines in the first place.
Reference
[1] https://plos.org/text-and-data-mining/ (accessed 31 July 2026)