Are “Least Publishable Unit” Brief Communications Articles Still Appearing Sooner After Acceptance in this Era of E-Publishing Ahead of Print? Evidence from Three Bellwether Pairs of Life Science Journals that Feature Separate Editions for Full-Length Articles and Letters Papers

Journals devoted exclusively to brief communications or letters papers are common outlets for scientific authors, and many such serials have become famous in their fields. However, a pattern of making these “least publishable units” one's favorite form of publication is often regarded as an attempt to inflate artificially one's CV, by critics who consider longer, comprehensive published studies a more appropriate genre for serious science. Letters papers in letters journals have nonetheless historically been defended on grounds that they appear far more quickly in print after acceptance than do regular full-length articles, giving them a greater chance to be noticed and cited by the scientific community sooner. This article demonstrates that with the advent of e-publishing upon manuscript acceptance and ahead of print, the lag time between the appearance of a letters paper and a corresponding full-length article is diminishing to a matter of days, and arguments for or against letters papers and letters journals must be made on other grounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]