Hello, everyone.
I would appreciate your advice on an issue I’ve been struggling with. I submitted a co-authored paper to a journal back in early January. Since then, the status has remained “with the Administrator.” Over the past three months, I’ve contacted the administrator three times, and each time I received a different response – ranging from “with the editor” to “under peer review” and then back to “with the editor” again. However, the online submission system has consistently shown the status as “with Administrator.”
I’m starting to feel like I’m being strung along. I eventually contacted the Editor-in-Chief, demanding clarification, and received a brief reply stating that the paper is with an editor and going through the process. Now, the online status has finally changed to “with Editor.”
At this point, I’m not sure if the administrator failed to forward our submission to an editor all these months, or if it was with an editor the whole time. I’m losing faith in the process and honestly don’t know whether I should continue waiting or request to withdraw our submission. I would really appreciate your kind advice.
Comments
OP, I submitted three papers back in late August: one came back from peer review in January, one mid-March, and one took four months to approve the initial proposal for a full draft. The editor of the second paper even texted me at one point to say “I’ll send you the reports today” and it still took another three weeks.
In other words, article publishing is an incredibly slow process. With the squeeze on academic workloads around the world it is harder and harder to find peer reviewers and even harder for those reports to come back in a timely turnaround. Editing a journal is also a very time-consuming task that is being managed around that demanding workload.
What you are describing is not just common, it is to be expected. Also, often times those statuses aren’t being updated by the administrators, so try not to read into them any further.
Respectfully, OP, you need to relax and adjust your expectations for how long this process takes. Four follow ups in three months is overkill, and while they are harmless, if your unrealistic expectations are prompting you to withdraw articles, that may impact your future work with the journal and/or the academics on the editorial board (who are often involved with various different journals too).
I know it’s frustrating, but this is perfectly normal. Hang in there.