The PsyJournals.ru psychology journals portal has introduced another feature to help readers plan their work with texts – an estimate of the time needed to read each publication. A prompt showing the approximate reading duration now appears on material pages alongside the main information about the text and complements the accessibility tools already in place: visualised article view and download metrics, active DOI links, and the Listen to this article audio feature.
Reading time is becoming an important metric of readability. In everyday practice, readers are constrained not only by the complexity of a text, but also by the amount of time they have available. Studies show that, for adults, the average speed of silent reading of “simple”, non-specialist texts is about 275 words per minute (SD = 86), whereas complex, specialist texts are read roughly 0.74 times more slowly – at about 203 words per minute (SD = 50). A whole range of factors influences reading speed: level of education, habit of working regularly with specialist literature, as well as age and the type of material being read. Those who constantly work with professional texts tend to show higher reading speeds; at the same time, normative and typographic parameters of the environment (digital interface, typeface, format of text presentation) can also change reading speed and the comfort of perception (Yakovleva, 2025).
The reading-time estimate on PsyJournals.ru is likewise calculated on the basis of text length and average adult reading speeds for academic and popular-science materials. The figure is approximate, but it allows readers to gauge whether they have enough time to engage carefully with a publication “here and now”, or whether it would be better to save it “for later” – for example, by using the Listen to this article audio feature available on the portal.
The development of such “human” metrics is particularly noticeable against the backdrop of ongoing discussions about the role of generative AI in scholarly communication. A recent interdisciplinary analysis of 730,000 publications indexed in PubMed between 2005 and 2025 revealed a sharp increase in the group of so-called “prolific debutante” authors – highly productive newcomers who, from 2023 onwards, began publishing dozens of letters to the editor each year. Although they account for only a small share of all authors, they are responsible for a substantial proportion of the published letters. Many of these texts are short (around 500 words), cover dozens of unrelated topics and are very likely generated by AI. The researchers warn that, despite their outward “correctness”, such letters risk creating informational noise and undermining trust in scholarly journals.
Against this background, transparent and reader-friendly services – from view metrics to reading-time estimates – help to strengthen trust: they support navigation through the volume of publications and assist readers in planning thoughtful, in-depth reading.
For readers of the journals on PsyJournals.ru, the new metric becomes another navigational aid: it allows them to distinguish quickly between a brief note and an extended research article, to plan the time needed to read a set of materials, or to use the reading-time estimate for educational purposes (for example, when compiling reading lists for a class or seminar).
The reading-time estimate also makes the structure of publications more transparent: it helps relate the length of a text to the aims of the article, and it opens up opportunities for further research into reading behaviour, alongside the portal’s existing data on article views, downloads and uses of the Listen to this article feature. The new function continues the development of PsyJournals.ru as an open, technologically advanced infrastructure for psychological knowledge, in which the convenience and quality of reading are among the key values.