I know, it has been long time I passed here…, I will try to change that.
And my ‘come-back post’ talks about another thing which has been long time… a manuscript.
Seven months ago I submitted a manuscript. And. The current status in the editorial system is ‘with editor’.
Two months ago I send an e-mail to the editors inquiring about the status of the review process of the manuscript, hoping that the editors do not update the editorial system regularly and that parts of the reviewing process are done off-line.
But, the response was not what I hoped for:
- First mail: from the Managing Editor: [>10 submissions per week], [>500 files in progress], [you can imagine the correspondence], [we will inform you], …
- Second mail (few seconds later than the first one): from the editorial system: [your manuscript will be handled by another editor]
I feel that these two mails indicate that my manuscript is still just ‘with editor’ (1. The managing editor does not inform me whether the actual status of my manuscript is different than indicated in the editorial system or not and 2. the manuscript changes handling editor).
I am quite new in this, and would like to ask some things:
- Seven months ‘with editor’: is this reasonable?
- How persistent may one be in contacting the editors to draw attention to ones manuscript?
- How would editors react on a retraction of a manuscript by the authors?
Thanks in advance
It sounds like it had sat on the desk of the first editor, and once the editor in chief saw that, they switched to another editor.
I use 3 months as my limit for a review: beyond that I feel I can start to ask what’s happening. My ex-student was a bit more impatient, and would start after about 2 months. Actually, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she would start to agitate after 2 days.
But I think 7 months is ridiculous: the 2 months isn’t too bad, OTOH I think you could expect them to be a bit quicker, as they’ve already erred.
I agree with Bob – seven months is really too long.
Thanks Bob and Raf, so I understand I can continue in contacting the editors…
Tolerance for extended time “with editor” might be discipline-specific. Many cancer biologists and developmental biologists I know would be demanding a response well before two or three months after submission.
Seven months with nothing happening seems ridiculous in any discipline! Now that it’s with another editor, give it a couple of weeks maybe, and then just check in with that new editor whether the manuscript has been sent out for review – I’d think that it’s perfectly ok for you to do that after you’ve waited patiently for such an incredibly long time.
Ok, thanks for the advise!
A drawback is that there is only one e-mail address for all correspondence, so I cannot contact the handling editor directly, it passess by the managing editor first.