Four months is less than the average of nine months. 

It is your paper. You can withdraw it at any time for good reason. But you will go to the back of the queue for the next journal (which is probably an inferior journal anyway).

Four months is less than the average of nine months. 

It is your paper. You can withdraw it at any time for good reason. But you will go to the back of the queue for the next journal (which is probably an inferior journal anyway).

Ethically, it is not good to do that though it is your paper. Withdrawal may incur some loss (financially, time and logistics) to the Journal. The best thing to do is to write to the chief editor explaining your grievance. S/he can facilitate the peer review process by prompting the peer reviewer since they are often burdened with a lot of academic work.

Patience to publish in a renowned journal that can BEST publicize one's findings to the RIGHT readership groups is the best option.

Thank you

Dickson Adom

Remember to search over the major publishers such as Elsevier, Wiley and Springer etc.

Or use a neutral source such as https://www.journalguide.com/

But before doing that - you should write them, because once in a while it happens, that  the submitted article is "lost" somewhere in the middle of their system... And is is weird that you have not got the editor for your article!

Of course yes, it is your academic efforts so you can make any decision you want taking into your account respecting publication ethics.

Regards,Emad

Please, do not withdraw your papers without proper communication with EiC especially if the journal is a reputable/impact factor journal. In most cases, the work might be undergoing peer review and because of the delays, you angrily withdraw it. This is very unacceptable and must be discouraged at all cost.

Thank you very much Hachimenum. This makes sense.

Thank you everyone for your valuable help. I am in communication with the contact person for the journal to accelerate the review. I will not withdraw the paper.

My rule of thumb is that if I have not heard back after 90 days, I place a respectful inquiry with the editor.  But the failure of the journal to assign reviewers after several weeks is a red flag.

I agree with Michael. Three months is a max. Even worse, what happened to me is to get no reply on your request to withdraw the article from such a journal.

Some will even take up to 8 months which is really annoying. 3 months should be OK.  

Some will even take up to 8 months which is really annoying. So now I am going to write a withdraw letter to editor board. Eventhough I wrote a lettter to editor in chef but no respone for 1 month.

I personally agree with Michael W. Marek . I am facing currently the same situation. But I feel that the submitted manuscript was my intellectual property and I can make my own decision with it. I had to tell the editor in respect with logical explanation.

Yes

Some of the journals do not reply and any response more than one year. It's really difficult and tension arise situation for the researcher. Because some findings have the demand to reach its readers within very short time.

Yes, But by a letter, make your decision inform to the journal.

Sincerely

I am now facing a situation where three journals held up the submitted article for 6+ months. The first 2 with no feedback upon several requests on the article status, and the last one started the revision fairly quickly, only to be held up after some major revisions have been made (the article was submitted June 6th, the last revision update November 1st). As much as I can understand that energy and time have been put into the process from the Editorial Office, it's beyond me that by now the article is neither accepted nor rejected. Even if the problem lies in a shortage of reviewers it would be fairer to just reject the article than to keep it under consideration for 6+ months...

I think journals should clearly state the turn around time so that potential authors will be aware of their policies. Some do some do not. I currently have 2 papers submitted to different journals. The first was submitted on Jan 5, 2018, and got reviewers' feedback on Sep 4, 2019. Almost two years from the submission date.

The second one was submitted and after 3 months of no update, I wrote the chief editor and the co-editors. Their response was that they were transitioning and I gave them time. It's more than 7months nothing has been done. I again wrote to the Editor and requested to withdraw the article, they ignored.

The whole game could be so frustrating especially when you are not paying for the publication. I have noticed that paid publications (open access) recieve faster turn around than the traditional model of publication. I think it has become more of business than scientific research endeavour.

An original paper was submitted to a journal, peer reviewed, revised by the authors, and accepted by the manuscript editor. It was scheduled for publication 3 months later. After the paper was copyedited and typeset, the corresponding author was informed of the acceptance and was asked to proofread the article. After 2 weeks, however, the corresponding author requested that the paper be withdrawn. The chief editor asked for an explanation and brought the case to COPE Forum, noting that the journal does not charge article processing fees...

Reasons may include prior submission to another journal, which may publish faster ...

https://publicationethics.org/news/case-discussion-withdrawal-paper-proof-stage

I have been waiting over two years for a response from a reputable journal. At least now they are responding to my emails.

I have the same problem with a journal. my paper was submitted a year ago and since then it is under review. there is no withdraw option and I have not got any response about the current status of my paper? how can I withdraw my script?

It is a bad practice that persists among many journals to take a long time to provide the decision of the submitted manuscript, like 3+ months for each round of submission. Peer review should be considered as a responsibility of the academicians/researchers. Unfortunately, many reviewers feel that they are doing a favor to the authors by reviewing (forget that their manuscripts are reviewed by others too!!). If a reviewer is serious about his/her work, by no means, it should take more than 8+ weeks. Fortunately, in computer science, most of the high-quality journals provide a decision in a reasonable timeframe (within 3 months). Unless you feel that a journal is worth of long waiting time, there is no reason to keep your manuscript buried in the grave.

Yes, you can easy do it. It is your rights.

Ask any academic and they’ll tell you a horror story of how long one of their papers got stuck in peer review.

It’s rare that a paper sprints through the process.

So many factors are at play: the volume of papers a journal is handling, the availability of peer reviewers...  And, it goes without saying, the quality of the article itself – and especially whether its title and abstract immediately grab the Editor’s attention.

All can slow down or speed up the process.

Publishing an academic article is a marathon. Almost inevitably some of your papers hit the wall at mile 15 and then it’s your will power and perseverance that pushes it over the line...

https://www.thepaperwizard.com/withdraw-article-peer-review-too-long/

Dear Aditi Apte please see this useful link:

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/81737/misleading-statement-on-duration-of-review-process-and-withdrawal-of-under-revie

According to this article "You may withdraw your paper at any point". Personally I would rather suggest to be patient, because when you withdraw your manuscript the whole process starts all over again. You can always use the waiting time for doing new research or writing the next manuscript.

Yes. You should send a letter to EIC.

Dear All, personally I would seriously considers withdrawing a manuscript when the peer-review takes longers than ca. 6 months. If you do not get any response from the journal, this shows to me that the editor doesn't work professionally. This is particularly true when you already contacted the editor by e-mail and received no answer.

For more information about withdrawing a submitted article please see this very recent (published 7 days ago) link entitled

How do I withdraw a submitted (but not published) article from peer-review?

https://support.jmir.org/hc/en-us/articles/115001438787-How-do-I-withdraw-a-submitted-but-not-published-article-from-peer-review-

Withdrawal of your manuscript gives you the chance to re-submit it to another journal ( perhaps an even better one) and get it published in reasonable time.

That's right, if the editorial board does not fulfill its obligations within a reasonable time frame, why should you feel obligated? Moreover, a person is treated the way he allows to be treated. You should not start a scandal, but fulfillment of obligations (as a rule, this is reflected in the charter and other documents of the journal located on its website), this is their responsibility.

On the other hand, it should be understood that no one is obliged to publish any article. If the editorial board has a choice (they usually have a choice), it will publish a better one, despite positive decisions.

On the other hand, it is necessary to write more, then the fate of a separate article will not attract so much attention. I, my colleagues and my wife had cases when articles appeared that the authors had already forgotten about - yes, we sent it, yes, there was a decision to publish ...

Yes, why not (?), if you are the author.

Dear @Aditi Apte Yes, you can unilaterally withdraw it if you didn't enter into any agreement with the journal's publisher at the time of your submission. Even after signing an agreement, you can do so after intimating its Editor-in-Chief. As the author, you hold very right in case of such a gross negligence.

Thanks 😊