Q: How long should I wait for a paper under minor revision to get a decision?
I received a letter from the Editor stating that although my work is interesting and the results are correct, my paper contains typos, missing brackets, and punctuation marks. If I fix them, he will be pleased to reconsider his decision. I did accordingly. However, now, it has been over two weeks since I sent the revised manuscript, but the status is still showing as "With Editor". Why is it taking so long? When should I contact the journal? What should I write? Please help.
Hello Amit – Welcome to the forum! And first things first: thanks for responding to not one but two queries on the forum. Both were rather on point. So, let’s return the favor now. :-)
There are actually two points to note in your query.
Firstly, you have mentioned that the editor said that he would reconsider his decision if you made some changes. Note that in the case of either a minor or a major decision, the editor says so explicitly, even if it’s conditional/provisional. From what you have mentioned, it seems that they had considered a possible rejection earlier and that there may be no guarantee of acceptance if you make the changes. This could be the reason they haven’t yet picked up your revised manuscript.
Apart from that, note that editors have a lot of manuscripts to go through at various stages of consideration and publication, even more so in the case of a top-rung journal. This too explain the delay in picking up your revised manuscript.
Coming to your other queries, it should be fine to write to the editor about now, as two weeks have passed and you are no doubt eager to know the fate of your manuscript.
About what you should write, you could say that you have made the changes as suggested and await (are eager/expectant of) a decision from them. You could see how much to push the communication. For instance, see whether you should add something like informing you within a certain period even if it’s a rejection. (They will understand that you may want to submit this elsewhere – journals are aware of this.) In case you are looking for some mail templates you could use, you could check out this handbook: A practical handbook of templates for communicating with the journal
Also, for the future, to ensure you submit a manuscript that’s as clean as possible (not having even some typos and missing some grammar fundamentals) and thus increase your chances of acceptance, you may wish to check out any of our suite of editing services here: Editage editing services
Hope that helps. And all the best for the next steps!
This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage