Q: Can I request the editor who is responsible for my paper to be changed?
I submitted my paper to an Elsevier journal. The first-round reviewer comments were quite positive, but the editor gave major revisions. I resubmitted my paper after revising it, and the status has remained "With editor" for 15 weeks. Is it proper to request changing the editor now? Is there any better strategy?
Congratulations on receiving positive comments from the reviewers! It is not advisable to request for a change of editor at this stage. The handling editor of your manuscript would know about your manuscript and will be in a better position to evaluate it. It generally takes some time for the editor to review the appropriateness of the author's responses and decide whether to send the manuscript for a second round of peer-review. However, 15 weeks is too long for this. Therefore, you should write to the journal editor to update you about the status of your manuscript and request him/her to speed up the process.
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This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage