Why did COVID-19 slow down the editorial and peer-review process?
I had this experience and I can't explain it since the laboraotry work might have slowed down and I believe this would give more time for scientists to help with the peer review process
Malik Sallam
The COVID-19 has impacted all and decelerated all other activities. But this COVID-19 has accelerated the research sector more and more. New submissions are increasing day by day, as every researcher try to explore something new idea from his/her expertise areas. As a result, unprecedented pressure has created on the editorial and peer-review process.
Work has simply increased and the number of editorial boards and reviewers has remained the same ...
The fact is that many researchers have had more time to write scientific papers. Consequently, the number of articles received by the Scientific Journals has grown indefinitely. This resulted in a slowdown in editorial processes (not associated with an increase in editorial members).
Matteo Nioi
I agree
But I believe that this issue highlights the flaws of the peer review process, despite its role to ensure the publication of quality research
Pietro Emanuele Napoli Your argument is reasonable and I believe that this issue can be solved by recruitment of more editors as timely delivery of quality research is of great importance during the current pandemic
Original findings on covid-19 are being crowded out by reviewers, openion pieces, and editorials, slowing down the process.
Malik Sallam I agree with you, i experienced same thing during this covid period.
Malik Sallam if you don't publish a COVID-19 related work, you should notice no major difference (at least in the case of reputable journals).
Abdulridha Taha Sarhan Md. Israt Hasan Frank T. Edelmann Amr Hamdy Thanks all for your reply. I still believe that something should be done to deal with the chronic flaws of the editorial and peer-review processes. I think that COVID-19 augmented such flaws, which should be addressed by the scientific community, to help in timely dissemination of much needed findings and insights.
Many universities were closed in our country. Also a lot of people were in isolation or suffered from COVID-19 themselves. As the school were closed parents had a lot of work to teach their children. Certain areas of our countries were closed and risk groups had to move to the country-side from the capital an so on. More unusual things to do. International research was possible through advanced technique. Our contribution:
Laparoscopic Surgery And The Debate On Its Safety During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review Of RecommendationsArticle
- August 2020
- The surgeon: journal of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland
- 📷Michael El Boghdady
- 📷Béatrice Marianne Ewalds-Kvist
S. Béatrice Marianne Ewalds-Kvist when so many researchers are working at home due to the corona pandemic, they should have more time for reviewing manuscripts...
We do not know anything about their circumstances. You are not paid as a reviewer, it is a lot of work "nur aus Liebe zur Kunst".
There are few retractions from big publication houses. Now peer review processes are going on slowly. That's good to review correctly than hurriedly.
The impact of COVID-19 on the the editorial and peer-review process is not always negative. Sometimes the process is faster. Several prestigious medical journals (Elsevier IF>5) published papers related to Covid-19 within 7 days. So it's very relative, sometimes it's faster and sometimes it's slower. But it all depends on the conditions of the reviewers et and the editorial board and committee of journal and journal policy.
In corona times many researcher work at home and should have more time for reviewing manuscripts.
Ouaïl Ouchetto You might be right that the experience can be variable (faster or slower process). However, many journals had a slower review process compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, and this slower process can be partially seen in their announcements (e.g. in BMC journals "As a result of the significant disruption that is being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic we are very aware that many researchers will have difficulty in meeting the timelines associated with our peer review process during normal times.Our systems will continue to remind you of the original timelines but we intend to be highly flexible at this time."), and for my own experience, one manuscript has not been assigned to an editor for more than six weeks.
Frank T. Edelmann I totally agree with you, and since the number of publications and manuscripts increased during the COVID-19 period, I am inclined to believe that researchers found more time to analyze data and write papers.
Hermann Gruenwald It is unfortunate that some parties exploited the pandemic as an excuse to serve their own agenda (with good or malintent). But I believe that this should not be the case in the scientific community
Malik Sallam even in the scientific community not everybody is a saint...
Malik Sallam , I agree all journals display this kind of messages. Personally, I have submitted two papers since May. The first paper is on the Covid-19, it's with the editor since two months without sending it to the reviewer. The second paper has not in medicine, I had a positive response in three months. I think medical journals are inundated with papers. The treatment priority is given for famous authors and affiliations.
Frank T. Edelmann Hermann Gruenwald True, but I still believe in the integrity of the majority of members of the scientific community
Ouaïl Ouchetto An interesting take regarding the priority of submission handling... Thank you!
Malik Sallam you should keep your good faith in the scientific community!
Malik, although the coronavirus pandemic is being used as an excuse for the slowing down of the reviewing process, it should also be noted that even before the crisis hit, there were severe delays (sometimes in excess of a year) in receiving reviews on articles. What the pandemic did was to exacerbate an already stretched outlet given the fact that a growing number of scholars are sending articles for reviews to an ever tight set of journals. Perhaps, this pandemic has provided ample reason to look for alternatives. Interesting...
I agree. Our paper has been under review for more than 3 months now, and we are still waiting. Compared to pre-covid time, it often takes 2 months to get comments from reviewers. Not sure whether this is because of Covid-19, but we could feel the lower speed.
Changrang Zhou Recently, I noticed that the slow response from academic editors of some journals can be a limiting factor. You might wait for more than a month before an editor accepts the invitation to handle the manuscript
Looking at the severity of infection and fatalities recorded globally due the COVID 19 pandemic, one cannot but expect disruption in the peer-review and editorial processes. Some contributory factors may include: severe sickness/sudden death of some editorial board members and reputable reviewers, itches in internet connection in some regions of the world and financial constraints due to closure of workplaces, etc. These factors, among others, have led to long queues of submitted manuscripts resulting in longer time duration to complete peer-review process. Thanks.