Q: Because of our oversight, returning the proof was delayed and no response from the journal. Should we contact the journal?

Detailed Question -

Our manuscript was accepted by Orthopaedic surgery (Wiley) on Dec. 10, 2020. The proofreading was arrived 2 weeks after the acceptance, but our corresponding author missed the mail, and finally responded at the end of March 2021. After that we heard nothing from the journal for more than 3 months. Until when should we wait for the response from the journal? Should we make inquiry to the editorial office?

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

We understand that you had received the final galley proof but only responded to the journal after 3 months and are still awaiting a response from the journal. Yes, you should definitely write to the Editor-in-Chief/ production manager handling the proof, about the status of your accepted manuscript. In addition, you should check if the article is appearing in the journal’s published archives as “Early View” or “All issues”. If it appears in the early view section, it means that the accepted article has still not been assigned a volume and issue number. However, if it appears with a volume and issue number, it means that it is already been published.  You should also pay close attention to see if the revision requested (if any) in the galley proof are reflected in the published paper or not and inform the journal accordingly.