Hello everyone!!
I have submitted a manuscript to an Elsevier journal last July, almost 10 months now. In the journal website they mentioned it takes around 7 weeks until the first decision. However, 10 mother later we still did get any replay. We had sent several e-mail to the editor and no replay yet. And, we have asked help from the Elsevier support 2 times so far, they just forward the discussion to the editor.
At the end, I don't know what to do anymore.
Is there any suggestion??
Thank you in advance.
I would suggest one more attempt to the journal editor, also writing to the journal mail box. In this email, I would explain that you have written on several occasions, providing the dates of every email sent. In addition, I would look up the email address of the most relevant member of the editorial board and write to him or her, explaining that you have received no response to your letters, giving the submission date, the dates of all correspondence and requesting that the board member investigate why the review is taking so long. (I would strongly advise against writing to all of the board members – they will be less inclined to respond if they are aware that you have written to everyone else!) I have had the experience of having a paper "lost" – it was sent for a plagiarism check and the journal staff either did not receive the result, or failed to react once the response had been received. As the manuscript was both lengthy and broad in scope, I waited some months before investigating, only to find that the review process had yet to begin.
A final thought – you might ask a colleague to send the emails in for you from a different address just in case your mails are being identified as spam.
Don't forget that, if/when you decide to abandon the journal, it is important to withdraw your paper prior to submission elsewhere.
I wish you the best of luck!
One can take 10 months time and that can't be an issue. The main issue is that the editor is not responding. You yourself have to take a final decision.
I would suggest one more attempt to the journal editor, also writing to the journal mail box. In this email, I would explain that you have written on several occasions, providing the dates of every email sent. In addition, I would look up the email address of the most relevant member of the editorial board and write to him or her, explaining that you have received no response to your letters, giving the submission date, the dates of all correspondence and requesting that the board member investigate why the review is taking so long. (I would strongly advise against writing to all of the board members – they will be less inclined to respond if they are aware that you have written to everyone else!) I have had the experience of having a paper "lost" – it was sent for a plagiarism check and the journal staff either did not receive the result, or failed to react once the response had been received. As the manuscript was both lengthy and broad in scope, I waited some months before investigating, only to find that the review process had yet to begin.
A final thought – you might ask a colleague to send the emails in for you from a different address just in case your mails are being identified as spam.
Don't forget that, if/when you decide to abandon the journal, it is important to withdraw your paper prior to submission elsewhere.
I wish you the best of luck!
Suzy Lidstrom Thank you so much for these suggestions. In the meantime, I'm writing an e-mail to the editorial once again and one of the editorial member.
Good luck, Hosni.
A ten month delay with no information is certainly indicative of a problem of some kind.
All the best,
Suzy
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