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In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:
Whether and when to retract a journal submission? Is delay, silence a good enough reason? How much delay is enough? Prudentially? Morally? Will it be held against you?
I'm pretty sure we've discussed the first question on several occasions. But I don't know if we've ever exactly examined moral and prudential considerations per se.
Do any readers have any helpful insights?
Obviously it varies a lot among journals, but my sense of when one should start thinking about withdrawing is around the one-year mark. What I would do is (1) write to ask for an update, and (2) if that returns silence, then write again to ask again for updates and whether the journal editor recommends withdrawing.
I don’t have a sense of when it’s best to do (1): five months? Ten months? But I think (2) should happen at around the eleven-month mark.
I think that with most journals, it’s perfectly okay to ask whether it’s best to withdraw around that time. Some will say yes and be relieved not to have to deal with your paper anymore; probably these are cases where they’ve been struggling to find reviewers and/or get reviewers to submit their reports. Others might take it as a show of bad faith and a mark against you in the future.
But if you’re asking for updates and they’re not responding to your emails, especially more than once, I take that to be a bad sign.
The question of morality (e.g., how withdrawing negatively affects all of us in the profession) is an interesting one. Nothing springs to my mind, but I’d be curious if others have thoughts, especially on this day on which amorality again begins its waxing ascension here in the ‘States.
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