Stuck in the Past: Are We Really Translating Current Evidence?

Abstract

Despite living in an age of instant digital access, scientific research still faces major delays in reaching the public, professionals and policymakers. The bottlenecks aren’t limited to conducting studies but they’re embedded across the publication process. Researchers often face months of delays formatting manuscripts, waiting through desk rejections and enduring long peer-review cycles. Reviewer fatigue, journal backlogs and outdated workflows slow things further. For early career researchers, these delays can seriously impact career progress, funding chances and visibility. Important decisions like health policies, clinical guidelines or future research plans might be based on evidence that no longer reflects the latest knowledge. Even systematic reviews and emergency-response studies have suffered from late publication, missing the moment when their findings mattered most. Yet, the rapid publication seen during COVID-19 proves that speed is possible when prioritized. To address these challenges, several promising solutions are emerging: advance online publication, continuous publishing models, preprint sharing and systems for peer review reuse and manuscript transfers. These approaches can help reduce delays without compromising scientific rigor. The future of research publishing must focus not just on quality, but also on timeliness, because knowledge delayed is often opportunity lost.