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What to do with a paper in limbo at a journal?

In our November “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

I submitted a paper to one of the Springer journals seven months ago. Since then, I’ve twice emailed the handling editor, and these emails have not received any response. I wrote to the Journal’s Editorial Office Assistant, and that person acted in a professional manner, emailed the handling editor, but also didn’t get any response. However, the status of the paper changed in the meantime to “Reviewers Assigned”. But it seems fake – Editorial Office Assistant told me that no invitation for review has been sent, the editor just clicked something to pretend that they are doing something.

I find this unacceptable and disrespectful. C’mon, 7 months is not enough to take a look at the paper abstract/intro and make a decision on whether it will be sent for review? What should I do? Should I simply withdraw my paper? Or perhaps I should try emailing the editor-in-chief first? Honestly, I’m inclined to write an angry email stating that not only will I withdraw my paper, but I will also refuse to consider sending them any of my work in the future, and they should refrain from sending me invitations for review. If we, the authors, accept anything, then journals have absolutely no incentive to change bad practices…

I think at this point I would probably send a polite email to the EiC describing and inquiring about the situation, and go from there. The EiC could be helpful or they might not be. If the latter, I would probably politely inform them that I withdraw the paper. One could always add a missive that one plans to never submit there again, but if the EiC isn’t helpful in the first place it’s not clear that telling them that would have any real practical effect.

What do readers think?

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4 responses to “What to do with a paper in limbo at a journal?”

  1. Anonymous

    I don’t think it’s wise to send an angry message e.g. that you won’t send your work there again.

    No editor will care in the least about this threat – journals are swamped with submissions. So it certainly won’t have any positive effect. The worst case scenario is that the person receiving the email casually tells people in their social/professional circle about it, in a one-sided way. Since you have no idea who inhabits that circle, you shouldn’t risk people forming negative opinions about you when you might encounter them in the future.

    Email the EiC – if you don’t get a response, inform them you are withdrawing the paper and make sure you don’t delete the email in which you inform them (in case they later claim you were double-submitting).

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    Sorry that this happened to the reader. It must be very frustrating. I had experienced the same issue: despite several inquiry emails over a period of more than twelve months, I received no response whatsoever from the handling editor. In my case, the Springer journal involved was Philosophical Studies. I second Marcus’s advice to withdraw the paper and submit it to a better run journal.

    Reply
  3. NonTT

    The OP and commentators point out my own impatience. My co-author and I have been waiting to see if our paper will go to review for about 3 months, despite inquiries about it. We thought that was excessively long.
    But I agree with Anonymous: wether you withdraw or not, angry emails are probably not going to get you far, won’t really affect the EiC and staff of the journal, and (in worse case scenario) might have some negative consequences on your reputation.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    Angry e-mails go nowhere good. In fact, as others say, soon after you might find that people are talking about how difficult YOU are (not that you are difficult). Either let it run its course, or withdraw the paper. There are plenty of journals out there.
    If it is a Springer journal, and you find yourself at a conference, and Springer has a table there, perhaps mention the issue to Ties. It may go nowhere, but if anyone can move things along it might be him.
    I am late career, and I have never withdrawn a paper, never (and I have waited an awful long time sometimes).
    I would strong recommend that you avoid submitting papers for edited volumes. Early in my career I was invited to submit a paper after a conference, and it took six years for the volume to come out. I was discussing some really new material, and by the time my paper came out a number of people had already discussed this stuff in articles in journals (even friends … who were kind enough to thank me for drawing such and such a paper to their attention).

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