iFirst

What is iFirst?
iFirst is Taylor & Francis’ proprietary early-online-publication system, which makes new knowledge available to researchers in the shortest possible time.

We have two systems for iFirst journals:

• For some of our journals, newly accepted articles are immediately assigned to the next available issue of the journal. They are rapidly copy-edited and typeset and appear online as part of their assigned issue or volume, identical to the print edition in every way, including page spans.
• For other journals, accepted articles are copy-edited and typeset and appear in a "forthcoming articles" list on the journal's webpage. They are identical to the print edition in every way except that they lack page spans. These "forthcoming articles" are later assigned to a particular issue of the journal, given page numbers, and published in final form.

All subscribers with electronic access to a journal can access iFirst articles.

What are the benefits?
iFirst reduces the time from article submission to publication – sometimes by several months. This is a great asset in many fields, where publishing an article even two or three days faster than another journal can assure priority of discovery, and so deliver competitive advantage.

iFirst also eliminates the problem of the "backlog": accepted but unpublished papers. These papers can be published online through iFirst as soon as the production process is complete, ensuring submission-to-publication times are foreshortened, and assuaging author concerns about undue delay.

Does iFirst increase citation levels?
Yes! Citations begin accruing toward a journal's Impact Factor as soon as articles are published in iFirst, extending the Impact Factor 'window'.

iFirst articles are in the public sphere earlier and longer and are therefore available to readers and researchers earlier and for longer.

iFirst articles published with page spans can be cited as usual, because all final publication information (publication year, volume number, page spans) is already available. iFirst articles published as "forthcoming articles" can be cited using their DOIs, or Digital Object Identifiers (www.doi.org), in addition to the article and journal titles. The DOI is a unique number assigned to an article that stays with that article throughout its digital life, allowing researchers to find and reference these articles and CrossRef (www.crossref.org) to hyperlink to them articles. DOIs are persistent – they will always direct readers back to the definitive version of an article, at first in iFirst and subsequently in the online journal issue.

Looking forward
We continue to develop and enhance the iFirst system, pushing for ever more rapid publication. Authors and researchers can learn more about each iFirst journal's publication system by reading the journal's Instructions for Authors, posted on the journal's webpage.