The Y-axis represents the time, in months. The X-axis shows the month in which a paper was submitted to TODS for an editorial decision. Data collection began in July, 2001 and continues to the current time. The turnaround time is roughly defined as the interval of time between when the manuscript was received and when the editorial decision was sent. The chart plots four statistics.

1. The Committed Maximum Turnaround Time is the boundary that the Editorial Board is committed to not exceed, for any submission. For papers submitted prior to January 2004, the Editorial Board committed to providing an editorial decision within 6 months. For papers submitted in or after January 2004, the commitment was strengthened to providing an editorial decision within 5 months. (The other lines, unlike this line, are based on the turnaround times of submissions.)
2. The Maximum Turnaround Time is the maximum or peak turnaround time for submissions in the indicated month. Each triangle represents a single, unusually slow paper submitted during the indicated month. For all the papers submitted in 9/08, the longest turnaround time was 4.9 months (24 weeks).
3. The Average Turnaround Time (external reviews only) is a moving average of the turnaround time for papers submitted in the indicated month. This includes only submissions that went out to external reviewers, and specifically excludes desk accepts and rejects. To smooth monthly variations, the average is a moving average of the entire previous year's submissions. Hence, each square represents the dozens of papers submitted in the year up to and including the indicated month. The value for 9/08, 3.8 months (16.3 weeks), is the average turnaround time for external reviews of all the papers submitted between (inclusive) 8/09 and 9/08.
4. The Average Turnaround Time is a moving average of the turnaround time for papers submitted in the indicated month. To smooth monthly variations, the moving average includes all of the submissions for the previous year, as with the pink line. Also, as with the pink line, each diamond represents dozens of papers. The value for 9/08, 3.5 months (15.1 weeks), is the average turnaround time for for all of the papers submitted between (inclusive) 8/09 and 9/08.

• The Longest is the length of the longest article in the volume. The longest article published in 2007 was 57 pages.
• The Average is a moving average of the length of an article for papers appearing in the indicated volume. Each data point represents many articles. The articles published in 2007 averaged 43.7 pages.
• The Shortest is the length of the shortest article in the volume. The shortest article published in 2007 was 29 pages.