Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A publisher writes to an author saying the manuscript will be accepted once two figures are revised; once the author submits the revision and the publisher confirms no further substantive changes are required, that confirmation date is the date of acceptance, even if the article is not formally published online for several more weeks.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A revise-and-resubmit decision, or an editor's message that an article will likely be accepted if further changes are made, is not a date of acceptance -- acceptance requires the publisher's confirmation that no further substantial changes are needed.
Editorial commentary
Date of acceptance is the day a publisher, evaluation institution, or committee formally confirms that a submitted article requires no further substantial changes and is ready to be processed for publication. It is not the same as a conditional or “accept pending minor revisions” message — acceptance is the point after all agreed changes between author and publisher are complete.
Why the acceptance date is tracked separately
The date of acceptance is one of several dates CASRAI’s vocabulary tracks across a manuscript’s path to open access, alongside date of online publication, date of deposit, and date of start of embargo. It matters for several distinct purposes:
- Journal metadata. Many journals display “received,” “accepted,” and “published” dates on the article itself, letting readers judge peer-review turnaround time.
- Self-archiving eligibility. A publisher’s self-archiving policy often permits depositing the accepted manuscript version in a repository once — and only once — it has reached this date, since the accepted manuscript is the version that incorporates all peer-review changes.
- Funder reporting timelines. Some funder open access policies set compliance deadlines relative to the date of acceptance rather than the eventual publication date, since publication can lag acceptance by weeks or months.
Worked example
A publisher writes to an author saying the manuscript will be accepted once two figures are revised. This message is not the date of acceptance. Once the author submits the revised figures and the publisher confirms no further substantive changes are required, that confirmation date is the date of acceptance — even if the article is not formally published online for several more weeks.
Counter-example
A “revise and resubmit” decision, or an editor’s message that an article “will likely be accepted if” further changes are made, is not a date of acceptance — acceptance requires the publisher’s confirmation that no further substantial changes are needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is date of acceptance the same as date of publication?
No. Acceptance confirms the manuscript is finished and ready for production; publication (see date of online publication) is when the finished work actually becomes available to readers, which can happen weeks or months later.
Why do self-archiving policies often reference the acceptance date?
Because the version of the manuscript that exists at acceptance — incorporating all peer-review revisions but not yet copyedited or typeset — is what many publishers permit authors to self-archive, subject to any embargo. See author accepted manuscript.
Can the date of acceptance change after an editor’s conditional message?
Yes — a conditional or “accept pending revisions” message is not itself the acceptance date. The date of acceptance is set only once the publisher confirms no further substantial changes remain.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Date of acceptance"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/date-of-acceptance" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/date-of-acceptance",
"name": "Date of acceptance",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/date-of-acceptance",
"description": "The day on which the publisher or evaluation institution or committee confirms formally that the article has been received from the author and no substantial changes to the content are required. Also the date on which the publisher tells the author that the article will be published and the article is ready to be processed for publication.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-lifecycle#set",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/date-of-acceptance",
"sameAs": [],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"publisher": {
"@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
},
"dateModified": "2026-08-17T01:58:42",
"inLanguage": "en"
}
