Used in the context of, “Since 2007, he has published or in press 18 articles in refereed journals.”
Does this mean:
a) Since 2007, 18 articles that he has written have appeared in these journals, though some of them may have been written earlier.
b) Some of these articles are still in print (I’m not sure how this is applicable to a periodical).
c) something else.
More succinctly, what would the difference be if the phrase “or in press” was simply eliminated from the sentence?
The articles have been accepted, but will appear in a future issue of the journal. Eventually, all the articles will be published.
So they are more or less still “on the presses”. Hmmm.
I’d go a little further - the articles have been accepted, and scheduled for publication in particular future issues that just haven’t come out yet.
It rather depends on the context of the original sentence. As it is, all we can surmise is that, of the 18 articles accepted by journals, at least one has not yet been printed.
I have to say that the original sentence seems poorly phrased. “Since 2007, he has had 18 articles accepted for publication in refereed journals” would seem better.
That is not the sense of the sentence. It universally means that if he were to publish his c.v. today, the number of articles that have publications dates of 2007 or later, including those already scheduled so firmly that he can legitimately count them, number 18. Some of those articles could have been accepted long before 2007.
Oh, I see. I think I’m just bothered by the phrase “in press”, which seems completely unidiomatic to me.
“In press” is standard, but the way that sentence used it is bizarre (though the meaning is clear).
If you think of idiom as the opposite of jargon, or technical vocabulary, then it probably is literally unidiomatic.
If you think of jargon as just a subset of the larger process of idiom then it is completely idiomatic.
I try not to think about it, except when, um, pressed.
I am impressed.
I read it to mean that his scholarly productivity since 2007 has resulted in 18 articles, some of which are published, and some have been accepted and are in any stage past editing (in press). I use similar verbiage when describing my productivity since 2007 (before, I was in grad school, and that stuff generally doesn’t count toward tenure and promotion in my field).
Some journals are agonizingly slow in getting articles in print once they’ve been accepted, and it would be a raw deal to have to wait until they show up to count it. I do like that a lot of journals are moving toward the “Online First” publication, complete with a DOI entry so you can list it as a “completed” publication even if it takes a year for it to show up physically in the journal.
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In my experience, there are five possible states for scientific articles:
[ol]
[li]In prep, meaning “I’m still working on it, but haven’t submitted it to a journal”[/li][li]Submitted, meaning “I’ve written the article and submitted it to a journal, but haven’t heard from them yet”[/li][li]Accepted, meaning "The journal’s editor has determined that they’re going to publish the article, but we’re still working on the revisions to make it totally acceptable[/li][li]In press, meaning "We’ve ironed out all the wrinkles and waiting for the journal to actually print the article[/li][li]…and finally, Published. Whew![/li][/ol]
But, as has been mentioned above, the wording that the OP refers doesn’t really make sense
I use “in press” to mean accepted. Note that some journals have backlogs of over a year.
The wording in the OP might be improved by couple of commas
“Since 2007, he has**,** published or in press**,** 18 articles in refereed journals”
He has 18 articles in refereed journals - some already published, some “in press” (this being, as 2square4u said, the next best thing to published)
Sometimes “in press” articles can be seen on the journal’s web site but have not yet appeared in the print version of the journal. The editor chooses from a backlog of accepted articles available for each issue’s lineup, and whatever is left over is “in press.” These articles can be cited by other researchers, because they have officially been accepted for publication.
As I have already mentioned, the wording of the phoenix, is one that is not really is meaningful.
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“In press” is often seen in bibliographies when a work references a paper that has not yet been published, e.g.
Bloggs, J. and Doe, J., The Physics of Treadmill-Mounted Aircraft, J. Improb. Res. (in press)
Speaking of which – has anyone considered that a fast moving treadmill might affect the airflow over it and hence affect the launch of a plane in unanticipated ways?