Does it take too long to publish research?

An editorial appearing recently in the journal Nature asked Does it take too long to publish research?  Author Kendall Powell claims that many scientists are frustrated by the amount of time between submitting a paper to a journal and it being published.  An example of an important piece of research that took almost two years to go through this process is given, along with some interesting data about journal impact factors and their relationship to publication turnaround.  Those journals with a high impact factor, and those with a very low one, are the slowest. The article also looks at the peer-review process and how that has evolved and can be improved.

Powell asserts that authors are feeling "trapped in a cycle of submission, rejection, review, re-review and re-re-review that seems to eat up months of their lives, interfere with job, grant and tenure applications and slow down the dissemination of results."  

Nature, 530(7589), 148–151 dx.doi.org/10.1038/530148a