I submitted a manuscript to a very respectable journal in communication studies. The paper has been under review for 9 months! I have contacted the editors several times and they always said, two reviews are in and they are waiting for the third which might take a couple of weeks.
I'm getting a bit impatient since it has been 9 months and I don't even have the reviews yet. Is this a normal waiting period? What would you do? Any experiences?
Hans - the process is variable. In your case what I would challenge is, given the circumstances and delay, is there a need for the third review. Most journals will suffice with two. The current two could be released to you - with the proviso that, if the third comes in soon, it can be passed onto you as well. The dilemma for the editor, in this case, may be that they have one positive review and one negative review in so far - so the third one becomes the 'decider'.
The main question is ... who is reviewing all that? Is it blind review? And if you withdraw at this point of time, then what about the ideas that got expressed in the meanwhile? Are your intellectual property rights properly recognized or protected at all? You must go for some kind of copyright protection before actually entering a review process.
Hans - the process is variable. In your case what I would challenge is, given the circumstances and delay, is there a need for the third review. Most journals will suffice with two. The current two could be released to you - with the proviso that, if the third comes in soon, it can be passed onto you as well. The dilemma for the editor, in this case, may be that they have one positive review and one negative review in so far - so the third one becomes the 'decider'.
Hans, I am in the same situation, for over a year now. I am still waiting because what happens if I pull out the paper for another journal house? Probably another 6 months or a year or more. Meanwhile, I think Editors can do better by encouraging reviewers to review and submit reviewed papers on time.
Yes, I did and the Editor said "oh one is in but waiting for the other one, as soon is in, I will contact you". I am still waiting for over 3 months from that conversation.
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