[Proposal] Route map: journeys drawn to scale

[JUhalt]

Goal

Show where a manuscript's time went, so the route teaches as well as records. Graduate students especially need to see that most of publishing is waiting, and that rejection and rerouting are normal parts of the path.

Idea

• One route, to scale. A horizontal timeline from first submission to publication (or today), with each segment drawn to its length and colored by who holds the ball: with a journal, with you (revising or rerouting), in production. Numbered markers name each decision and date.
• Every route side by side on the Insights page: published (and, optionally, open) manuscripts lined up at day 0, with the median time to publication and the share of time spent waiting versus working.
• Teaching view for the proposed example library: the same map with short, plain-language callouts (a quick desk rejection, rerouting is work, revision is the author's time, accepted is not published).

A design mockup of all three views was shared with the maintainer on September 28, 2026.

Constraints

• Built only from recorded dates, using the v0.8 route statistics ([v0.8] Route statistics and time-to-publication analytics #30). A stretch without a recorded end, such as a resubmission date that was never entered, is drawn hatched and labelled "not recorded"; nothing is estimated.
• Viewing the map never changes a record.

Placement

Proposed as a v0.8 slice, pending the maintainer's review of the mockup.

[JUhalt]

Implemented on the v0.8 integration branch in 4b3e630 (PR #80): the route map opens a manuscript's Route, and Insights gains a Route Map tab with every published route side by side. It will close when v0.8 is released.

[JUhalt]

Released in v0.8.0 (certified in #85).