Paper? What Paper?

Angewandte Chemie recently published a "behind-the-scenes" look at its editorial decision-making processes over the last 50 years, says In the Pipeline's Derek Lowe. Among several interesting facts — such as the more papers it publishes, the more it rejects — Angewandte Chemie shared a chart that depicts the lifespan of a scientific paper. While a paper may receive a lot of attention when it's first published, that attention will wane — though it could pick up again if an e-mail alert directs subscribers to the article — and eventually fade away as the paper ages. "This confirms what most scientists have figured, that your paper has a brief window to be noticed, and then back in the pile it goes," Lowe says. "Back to the background rate, with people coming across it in literature searches once in a while."