Besides the spread of knowledge, publications are often related to promotions and academic progression, so timing is vital. Among students in universities, there is a belief that a journal's high impact factor means fast publishing time in ecology journals, such as the time between submission to acceptance and subsequent online posting in journal's Web sites. Here we tested this assumption, and we also examined if a journal's charges, paper length and the number of papers published per year were related to publishing time, specifically the period between submission and online availability of the accepted manuscript. After a thorough survey in 29 ecology journals, we found that publishing time was negatively and significantly related to journal's impact factor, and also negatively (but non-significantly) to the number of paper published per year per journal and positively (but also not significantly) to paper length. Publishing time depended also on journal identity, but there was a large variation from the time between manuscript submission to final acceptance and online posting among journals. Several factors with a high degree of unpredictability and randomness are involved in the publication process, and here we found that journals with high impact factor publish the papers faster compared to journals with low factors. Even with substantial publishing time, e.g., on average 167 days between submission to acceptance and 223 days for online posting, editorial delays in ecology journals are quicker than journals in other disciplines/sciences.

Growth and longevity parameters of males and females of Macrobrachium brasiliense were analyzed. Samplingwas carried out monthly from July 2012 to June 2013 in Triângulo Mineiro region, Minas Gerais, Brazil. A total of199 adult prawns (97 males and 102 females) were analyzed and measured according to the carapace length (CL, mm). Males (9.64 ± 4.17 mm, CL) were larger than females (7.7 ± 3.39 mm, CL). CL growth curves by the von Bertalanffy model are described by the equations CL = 21.0 [1 - e -0.00446 (t)] for males and CL = 20.0 [1 - e -0.00454 (t)] for females. Comparison of the growth curves by performing the F-type test, showed that there was no differencebetween the growth coefficients (K) of males and females (GL22; F3.16 = 2.476; p = 0.088). Longevity was estimated as 2.83 years for males and 2.78 years for females. In general, the observed longevity is similar to that of other Macrobrachium species.