Q: Do I need to inform the journal about withdrawal after missing the deadline for confirming submission?
After submitting to a journal, the corresponding author is required to log in to their email box to confirm the submission. Then, I need to confirm once again after that. But I missed the confirmation deadline. Now, I want to submit to other journals. Do I need to write a withdrawal letter?
Firstly, if you are still keen on submitting to the journal, you could write to them about what happened and check if they will permit you to make a repeat submission. As your reason seems valid, they might allow you to do so.
If not, and you indeed wish to withdraw and submit to another journal, it would still be good to inform the journal about this. Although they may not have received your manuscript and therefore may not have started work on it, it would be best to send a withdrawal request to confirm that your manuscript is not under consideration by the journal. Additionally, do not submit your manuscript to another journal until you get a confirmation of withdrawal from the editor as this could be considered a case of duplicate submission. In case the journal does not respond, you can send an email saying that you will consider your manuscript "unsubmitted" if they don't send you a confirmation of withdrawal by a certain date (give a deadline of 1-2 weeks).
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This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage