Dear Gratien

One year under review is excessive by any standard!

Having said that, from experience I know that finding appropriate and willing reviewers can be a lengthy and tedious process. Even if reviewers accept, there may be cases that their report does not materialise, which means that the editor will have to start all over again. Sometimes, if two reviews are required, the first review may have been submitted, and the second may - for whatever reason - be delayed.

Still, a year is a very long time, and you would expect that the handling editor actively chases reviewers for a quicker turnaround.

I would try to contact the editor, and when they do not reply, try someone else on the editorial board for that journal. If that does not help, I would write to the publisher.

Good luck

John

Dear Prof.John F. Hiemstra

Thank you very much for well and narrated advices.

God bless you,God bell your family

Stay healthy

Some reviewers don't review very fastly, because they don't receive any benefits from reviewing as well.

Dear Zaib Ullah

ok! That's why manuscript spend long time in reviews hands.

Thank you for narrated response

Prof. Gratien Twagirayezu: Please tell them to withdraw the manuscript from that journal and go to another one. One year is a tragedy!!! Three to seven weeks is a reasonable period.

I know that these types of journals always complaining of a time shortage. But, one year is a very long time.

Dear Prof.Nidhal Kamel Taha El-Omari

Thank you very much for good advice

Stay healthy

Dear Prof.Omar H. Abdalla

Thank for your valuable advices

I have to tell him these crucial opinion

God bless you and your family

stay healthy with your family

I can advise him/her to withdraw the paper officially and submit it to another journal. One year is so long.

Dear Gratien Twagirayezu,

In my opinion,

1.Multiple reviewers are used to reviewing a manuscript,

2. Decision is made only after all the reviewer's response are received by the editors

3. Some reviewers may take time to review the manuscript

But these two points should be checked by the authors to ensure the waiting time is not too long

1. Median submission to first decision before peer review

2. Median submission to first decision after peer review

Dear Theogene Hakuzweyezu

Yeah! I have to tell him your advices

Dear Prof.Rajiv Ranjan Thakur

Thank you very much for good explanations

God bless you and your family

4,5 weeks is sufficient time,if they don't processing your paper then mail then at least once in every week and if not proceed again then you can withdraw the paper.

Thank You Gratien Twagirayezu

Dear Anjna D. Bhardwaj

Thank you for advices

I really appreciate

God bless you

Yes, there are some SCOPUS Indexed Journals, which takes more time for reviewing a manuscript. But, one year of time for reviewing a single document is really the waste of time of the author. You just need to withdraw the manuscript and upload your manuscript to some other journal. Definitely you will get the response within 2-3 weeks that your manuscript has been accepted for possible publication in our journal.

Dear Sourbh Garg

Yeah! I really appreciate your valuable advices

God bless you and your family

Stay healthy

Dear Gratien Twagirayezu . Your question is a rephrasing of a question I asked before:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Paper_review_time_suggestions_You_are_kindly_asked_to_give_your_suggestions

Regards!

Dear Ahmed T. Hussein Remi Chukwudi Okeke

Thank you very much for your participation

Stay healthy

It's happening due to the non-cooperation by Reviewers

Dear Aijaz Panhwar

OK! Thank you for good idea

God bless you endlessly

I agreed with Aijaz Panhwar

I agree with Aijaz Panhwar

Dear Prof. Rajesh A M Prof. Manickam Ravichandran

Thank you very much

Dear Gratien Twagirayezu

I think in some cases, journals slow the review process to increase their importance and IF.

In some other cases, reviewers in this field are not available al the time and they delay the reviews.

Dear Abdelhameed Ibrahim

Okey! Thank you for your contribution

Stay safe and healthy endlessly

Reveiew of the journals depends on the experts and their expertise and most importantly their time available for the work to look into as the experts are busy in many of their works and this is what consumes time to an extent

Dear Ali A. Al-Homaidan

Thank you for your contribution

Stay safe endlessly

Gratien Twagirayezu

Reviewers read the manuscript and submit their reviews, which the AE uses to guide their decision. Therefore there are three places to lay the blame for the slow turnaround: the editorial office, the AE, and the reviewers. The editorial office is staffed by paid professionals.

https://www.editage.com

Dear Prof. Nirmala S.V.S.G

Thank you very much

I really appreciate your contribution.

God bless you,God bless your family

Poor organization.

I think it depends on the journal's policy.

Dear Neil Dagnall , Neil Dagnall

Thank you very much for your contribution

Be safe endlessly

Effective review process for the journal depends up on the efficiency of reviewer and editorial office.

Thank you very much Madhukar Baburao Deshmukh for fruitful contribution.

Be safe and healthy

Let the corresponding author write the editor of the journal

Let them make you understand why there is a delay

That would let you know the next step to take

Thank you Oluwadara Pelumi Omotayo for your contribution.

Be safe and healthy

Dear Deepali Seth

Thank you very much for your valuable contribution

Stay safe

Depends on type of journal and it's policies

Dear Rajesh A M

I really appreciate your contribution

Keep healthy

A year is too much for reviewing an article!

Tell your friend to send an urgent message to the journal, and if he will not receive a suitable response within a week, tell him to immediately withdraw his MS from this journal and never submit any article there.

Unfortunately, one of the major issues of the reviewing delay is lost citations and your content may be supposed to be stealing!

Dear Karim El-Sabrout

Thank you very much for your valuable advice

Stay safe and healthy

Usually journal team invites those reviewers who even do not respond even in a year. I myself submitted a research paper to Japs 8n 2019, still the editorial board sys the paper is under review. It been since 3 years.

Another reason is that, journal team not provided any benifits to reviewers, that why they are not talking it seriously. Being a reviewer, I reviewed an article just in two days after they invited me for the review.

Thank you very much Zaib Ullah for your valuable contribution.

Stay healthy

Dear Professor, I also think it is right to withdraw the manuscript from this magazine and go to another. Last year I also pulled out an article from a similar magazine - there is no point in waiting. Unfortunately, there are many similar journals...

The reasons for the slow review process for the journal depends up on how the reviewer respond, as it is honorary work.

Because of the slow editorial board members, and reviewing by the non interested reviewers.

Hi Dr Gratien Twagirayezu . I think Once the required number of reviewers have agreed to read and comment on author’ manuscript, the journal then have to wait for them to submit their review. Reviewers will always be given a timeframe in which to return their review, how long they are given depends on the journal and the subject area. See the link: https://www.theeditorialhub.com/blog/authors-editors-peer-review/why-peer-review-taking-so-long

Also, reviewers read the manuscript and submit their reviews, which the associate editor (AE) uses to guide their decision. Therefore there are three places to lay the blame for slow turnaround: the editorial office, the AE, and the reviewers. See the link: https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/why-the-peer-review-process-is-so-slow/

Moreover, see the link: Article The limitations to our understanding of peer review

I agree with Ivona Dimitrova and some others that in this case it is appropriate to withdraw the manuscript from this journal and submit it to another. It is true that sometimes journals have challenges to find reviewers who are doing their review in time but one year is definitely too long time to wait the feedback.

Dear Ivona Dimitrova, Madhukar Baburao Deshmukh , Zaib Ullah , Aref Wazwaz , Raimo Kaasila .

Thank you very much for your valuable contribution.

Stay safe and healthy

Slow review process some times is projected as a special feature by some journals and in fact they take pride in showing their longer timeline from submissions to review to acceptance.

But unfortunately many research articles lose their relativity and importance during this long time. Many contemporary topics lose their purpose of collecting current data if it's not punished timely.

You are most welcome dear

Dr Gratien Twagirayezu . Wish you the best always.

Dear Prof.Aref Wazwaz

I really thank you for your fruitful contribution.

Stay healthy

You are most welcome dear. Prof. Gratien Twagirayezu always.

Dear Prof. Preeti Oza

Thank you very much for your greatest contribution

Stay safe and healthy

There are journals and journals.

Some have objectively long evaluation times; others much shorter.

Before submitting an article, it is good to inquire about the average evaluation times.

However, it is always possible to withdraw it.

Dear Prof Gioacchino de Candia

Thank you for your response.

I really appreciate you.

Stay safe

It happens; some reviewers may not give their review results in time, some journals may not have enough number of reviewers, there may be large number of papers in the journal at a time...

Hence, it is better to wait for the review results for some specified periods. If no response at all, trying other alternative journal (modifying the paper) can be decided. It would good if reviewers consider ones work in more responsible way than their own work.

Many thanks!

This is a very disturbing trend. Personally, I made a submission last month. I was askes to revise it which I did within a couple of days, and it took four weeks and a reminder email, for the journal to write me to say I had to re-revise the work and resubmit. For another submission, it is over 2 months now, and it is still 'Awaiting Reviewer Assignment'. Others will accept your work, and take forever to publish it.

Agreed that in many LMICs, most of the journals are poorly funded/subscribed, hence do not publish regularly, leaving the few active ones under a lot of pressure. Most unfunded researchers in LMICs are also unable to pay the huge APCs for publication in many subscribed Open Access Journals, and therefore, there is a lot of submissions to journals that publish free or have cheaper/affordable APCs. While all these may contribute to delays in review processes, researchers should not helplessly be at the mercy of journal editors.

It takes so much time, resources and all to do meanigful research, it should not be more herculean publishing such research findings. Editors and reviewers should also note that unduely delaying publications may make a lot of research findings irrelevant when eventually published. Papers are also needed for academic promotions, tenures and grants, which are all time-bound. Keeping a paper for one whole year defeats the whole sense of temporality in resaerch. Journal editors should do better. 6-12 weeks review time should be aimed for by all journals.

Dear Umar Ashraf , Tekle Gemechu , Akaninyene Eseme Bernard Ubom

Thank you very much for your valuable and fruitful response

More blessing up on you.

Journals are swamped of submissions from people who are not even experts, and that holds them back. Take care.

Some journals are very lousy. I wont mention them by name and some of them are in Africa. They take very long to respond to manuscripts on topical issues, and sometimes by the time the manuscript is rejected or accepted it has lost its value. I act as a peer reviewer for many journals, and I normally complete review within a week to two weeks. I dont know why some journals are so inefficient but I think its time to move away from such.

Dear Jose Risomar Sousa , Grant Murewanhema

I am very grateful for your opinion

Stay safe and healthy

Always remember that researchers are busy with their regular job, including their own research. So patience implies you should forget your submission and carry on with a new project.

Thank Chuck A Arize for your response

The reason for this may be due to the fact that they are free magazines, which are very popular with researchers.

The delay in the response means the possibility of accepting the research to a large extent, but it takes its role in arbitration and publication

Thanks Prof@safaa

Sometimes the editors take a long time trying to find reviewers for some highly technical papers and hence the delay.

Dear Vincent O. Nyangaresi , Abdullah Ali .. , Safaa Salah Sanad , Chuck A Arize

Thank you very much for your response

Stay safe and healthy

In one reputed journal my case is completed 6-months and now they are telling that no active reviewers they have with my manuscript since last 5 months but journal web page still showing the paper is UNDER-REVIEW.

Similarly in the era of changing technology after one years the honorable REVIEWERS will try to find novelty.

Too many people scribbling.

Too many magazines online.

Too much chatter.

Please, see the following helpful link:

https://www.theeditorialhub.com/blog/authors-editors-peer-review/why-peer-review-taking-so-long

Bureaucracy

Sometimes intentional

Lack of interest in paper.