I had submitted a research article related to the field of mechanical engineering (CFD) on the last December, 2019 in a Scopus Indexed journal. It has been around 6 months but the journal dashboard is showing that the article is on the review stage and yet a reviewer is to select the article. That means the review process in not even initiated in 6 months! I emailed the editor in chief but did not get a definitive reply. Will it be a wise decision to retract the submitted paper from the journal? I know it is my own decision but being a very early stage researcher, I am in doubt which decision to make?
Some journals take a long time even more than 1.5 years for the review process. It is wise to check the review period from other published articles before submission if possible. If you have an urgent to publish for academic requirements, it is better to retract the manuscript and select another journal.
It is not unusual for a journal to take 6-12 months to complete the review process. However, for some articles, the review time is less than this while for others it takes even more than 12 months. This depends on the availability of appropriate reviewers. Sometimes it is very difficult to find suitable reviewers for very specific topics. Perhaps, your journal has already contacted potential reviewers, but none of them accepted the invitation. Perhaps, your dashboard may not provide you the status up to date, the journal has found reviewers though. Therefore, my personal advise to you is to allow some more time for the editor to find appropriate reviewers. Usually, editors inform authors if it is difficult to find reviewers after attempting a number of times (and after definite time). However, even if the status is same after 1-2 months you can contact the editor and discuss the possibility of retracting.
Yes. Your research may be time-critical and you don't want it being bottle-necked at the review stage.
In any case you should always have a number of journal options in mind before submitting an article in order to handle this kind of situation. Before I submit a piece I always wish to have three preferred journals in mind so that I can keep the momentum going. I only submit to one journal at one time, but if the first journal either (a) rejects or (b) takes too long then you are entirely free to cancel your submission and submit elsewhere. Which means you need to know the field of available journals relevant to your area of research.
Otherwise if you rely on only one journal it can be dispiriting.
I can understand your frustration Shamudra Dey . If it is a really reputed journal and will enhance your academic standing if published in it, please wait some more. If not, retract and send to another journal. Please be prepared to have a holding time at that journal as well.
Some journals take a long time even more than 1.5 years for the review process. It is wise to check the review period from other published articles before submission if possible. If you have an urgent to publish for academic requirements, it is better to retract the manuscript and select another journal.
I also faced this problem, I had submitted to Saudi journal of biological Sciences, since 19th December dashboard shows under review,
Shamudra Dey
An interesting question indeed! Here are my two cents:
It is not uncommon that the journal takes six months or even more which is why, a lot of people are critical in choosing journal if they are in time constraints. Now, if it is about very good journal, you can always wait for their reply. However, if the review doesn't get started, you can try looking for alternative journals and their time frame. At this point, I think it is perfectly fine to withdraw and submit your article to a new one. But, It highly depends upon you, i.e., how badly do you want to publish in a particular journal? The saddest part is that sometimes, journal can email you saying that they don't find appropriate reviewer for your article and they will encourage you to submit it elsewhere. I know cases where editor emailed after 6 months saying that they couldn't find reviewers.
Most of the researchers are in the same boat. Too long time for review is not desirable. We expect rapidity from the journal authority.
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