In our June “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:
Perhaps June is the month for journal questions. I have a paper that is going on 18 months under review. The confusing thing is, it isn’t being held up by lack of reviewers or long review times. Instead, the reviews come in, and then it stalls at “decision in process” for long stretches. For instance, it sat at this stage for nearly 6 months before I got my first decision. I’ve been through a round of revisions, and I’m back at “decision in process.” My question is, how long should I wait before contacting the associate editor (or should I contact the associate editor at all)? I don’t want to annoy the editor, but I’m also very junior and worry about hitting another job market without many publications to my name.
I don’t know, but it might depend on the journal. For example, I recall that Ethics has what looks to be a very involved decision process (involving the entire editorial board) after reviews are received. But in any case, given the length of time involved, I guess there’s no harm in checking with the journal.
What do readers think?
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