A journal published my paper without finalizing the proofs -- is this normal?
Is this normal? I'm quite perturbed, because the copy-editors had made lots of inappropriate edits, and I wanted to double check that they had fixed everything before the paper went live.


I'm a journal editor (Taylor &amp; Francis) and have edited special issues (Springer), so in my experience this is not normal in the slightest. Even though it is an "Early View" article, this is a standard part of the publishing pipeline, and we'd expect those to be the finished version (just waiting for the formal assignment of a volume/issue number as space opens up).

If this happened to me, I would be disappointed. 

You should e-mail the handling editor who you corresponded with. 

My guess is that something has happened in the interplay between editorial staff and the back-office Wiley people, and I would guess that the handling editor would be just as disappointed and surprised as you. You want these edits to happen as quickly as possible, as once the DOI is minted and its an "early view" article - as you know - people will be getting their Google Scholar alerts etc. and beginning to read and cite the piece.