Maybe COVID 19 has its effect on the peer-review process. I had submitted a revised article that is still under review for 5 months. Still with the editor. the reviewer has not responded and the editor not taking any decision.

You need to email the journals to find out

In my experience, it is fairly common to wait two to three months for initial feedback from high impact factor journals. It is understandably frustrating to wait such a long time, but sadly this is the status quo in much of the academic publishing world. It is a rarity to have feedback within one month.

Some journals offer transparency on "average time to first decision" and "average time to publish" on their website.

Hang in there and stay motivated! Best wishes for a smooth and successful publication journey.

Best regards,

Hamed Bazaz | Founder, Managing Director | www.journaledit.com

I Agree With Hamed Bazaz

Dear Muhammad Adil, waiting for 6 weeks after submission of a manuscript is not at all the "ever worst publication experience"! Even waiting for 2-3 months until a final decision has been reached is rather normal! Generally, reviewers are given some time first to decide whether they agree to review or not. Then they have 2-3 weeks to write their review. However, this often takes longer, and in corona times it can be even further delayed. Thus I suggest to stay patient and start working on the next paper.

Dear Muhammad Adil

I correspond the answer provided via Frank T. Edelmann

I advise you to go on and not look at the time but on the result.

Regards

Considering that we have a pandemic going, it's outrageous Mr. Adil..

In the capacity of Editorial member of IEEE Access, I would like to ventilate following:

Actually, the required review time varies from case to case basis. IEEE Access don't compromise with the review quality at the cost of time frame. The review time may be 4-5 months also.

As per IEEE Access policy, reviewers get time extension. Although, this journal try very hard to give decision within 4-6 weeks, but review quality is never sacrificed.

Sudipta Chattopadhya Thank you for your response. During the initial time of COVID-19 the review process in IEEE Access was effected in term of slow response, but currently, I have published two paper this month with quick response time.

Adil, as you said 2 publications in ieee access. did you get acceptance after round of reviews or ar first place?

I have three publications as a first author in IEEE Access.

Two of them are of August 2020 (@Majida Laxmi)

Bro, when i read your msg. I thought you had experienced something negative about it. When I read your post, it was about the review time period. Many journals claim to have a fast review but sometimes it gets delayed. It is so normal. Bro just chill and enjoy.

Its good that you have publications in IEEE Access......

I have a publication with IEEE access and it takes a lot of time to publish with IEEE access but its worth in general. It has the binary review process which was annoying coz no matter what reviewers always have some concern. :) But in overall, the result was good.

I even have a paper under review with a journal that has lasted one year and still counting.😊

I have one paper with same problem

My both papers are published

Dear Muhammad Adil good to hear that your two papers have been successfully published. Congratulations! Thank you for providing this valuable information. Good luck with your next publications!

Dear Muhammad Adil I have worse experiences than you. Yours is just a matter of 1 and 1.5 months but in my case, one of my papers is under review for the last 1 year and 6 months. A few days back I received a rejection decision on my paper after waiting for 6 months. Likewise right now also I have 4 to 5 submissions in different journals that have already taken more than 3 to 4 months already. Still, I am optimistic and looking forward to the editorial decisions. I found the normal peer-review process takes at least 6 months on average for the good journals. It is good to learn that your papers are published so Congratulations! You are lucky enough I should say because the publications took only 1 to 1.5 months. Best of luck with your future endeavours.

Dear Frank T. Edelmann Thank you very much, I have three published paper in IEEE Access and 4th is under review after minor revision. So, overall IEEE Access is prestigious journal with quick review and publication process.

Congratulations @ Muhammad Adil.

Well, IEEE access journal is mostly the researcher's choice because of its quick review process; I had one experience; it took 3 months for the first decision.

I have sufficient publications in IEEE Access now. My current works is under review in different IEEE Transactions Zulfiqar Ali Arain

That’s very impressive; keep it up. Muhammad Adil

these journals can take up to 3 months...! can't publish a paper on the second day... wish u good luck..!

I have reviewed around 20 papers for IEEE Access in one year. They give one week (yes, one week) to the reviewer to submit the review report. So, the person to blame for the delay is mainly the associate editor/ editor.

IEEE Access is a quick review journal, which aims to accomplish a review process within four to six weeks. However, the publication recommendations are either Accept, Reject but encourage to resubmit, and Reject. That means if the paper is not accepted, it has been to revised and resubmitted. A new review process has to be restarted.

IEEE does not maintain a fair evaluation process. 7 referees evaluated my article that I sent in 2020. When I revised and resubmitted it in 2021, they said that this publication is not recommended for publication by IEEE Access. Therefore, I think it is not a fair practice.

I think I hold the record for the longest review cycle: 6 years.

The paper is "Measurement Procedures and Uncertainty Evaluation for Electromagnetic Radiated Emissions from Large Power Electrical Machinery", doi: 10.1109/TIM.2007.908351.

IEEE writes in the footer "Manuscript received October 8, 2006; revised April 4, 2007", but that's the 3rd review, and -- as you see -- it took about 6 months between review ad revision (and the author has few weeks for uploading the revision). The 1st submission (on paper, 5 copies) was Nov. 27, 2001.

Nowadays, with tracking online and soft copies, it is much faster and lighter on author's side.

For the fairness, rapidity and completeness of the review cycle, many things may be said, and of course it is hard to have the complete picture.

1A) Fairness (A): is it better a rigorous but "temperamental" and "hazardous" review cycle, where a Reviewer may reject a paper with no clear comments on deficiencies and the Editor does not catch this flaw (even when the Author points it out)? ... or a more easy going process, "possibilist", where you are rejected if your work is really weak and you haven't caught Reviewers' suggestions?

1B) Fairness (B): what about when evidently you have two opposite judgments from two Reviewers , or one judgment has fragile legs and is based on some grumble about lack of state of the art, unclear/long sentences, bad English form (that for non native language author is always a sword of Damocles)? Hardly, to say never, the Editor will reply to your complaints. That's a +1000 if a Journal has a good record of interactivity with the Authors.

2) Which speed of review is satisfactory? most of the time reviewers are pushed for 1 week, 2 weeks, maximum 1 month. Then the rest of the time is lost in the process (as Zhiwei Gao pointed out). I would be happy to know that 6-12 months is guaranteed.

3) Completeness. Too many papers flooding journals, and good Reviewers are at premium these days. You want to be a reviewer because it's good for your Publons profile or CV, but then you do not have time, or ... the Editor has contacted you for something to review that is not in your field.

... hard times for the ideal "peer review" where peer is sometimes lost along the way ....

In my experience, IEEE Access takes longer peer review time compared to the claim of 4-6 weeks on the website. It has been almost 3 months without the first decision.

Subhan Khan Thanks for your reply, my all papers published in IEEE Access

Congratulations.