Q: How should I resubmit 'safely' if I haven't heard from my target journal for a year?

Detailed Question -

I submitted to an international journal one year ago, but have not heard from it so far – even though the website said that a confirmation email would be sent one or two weeks after receiving the manuscript and another email in three or four months providing an initial evaluation. I am not sure if the submission was successful, as my account in this journal's system does not show any record.

I am worried about submitting again. I wrote to the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) and several associate editors (AEs) asking for an update, but have not got any reply so far. Now, I want to submit again without procrastination as this journal is the one I have been wishing for.

My question is: In this case, where I have not heard from the journal for a long time, how can I submit again rapidly without any risk of ethical/academic misconduct? Or, can I write to the editor, explaining the reason and asking for a withdrawal, then improve this manuscript, and submit to other journals?

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

Thanks for providing so much detail. It’s easier to provide guidance with such precise detail. :-)

Quite simply, you should not pursue this journal anymore, but begin looking at other journals. We understand you are very interested in getting published here, but look at all the ‘negative’ signs so far:

  • It’s been a year, and they haven’t replied to you even once.
  • There’s been no action in the system, and you also think there may have been some problem with the submission.
  • You wrote to them again (in fact, multiple times), but have still received no response.

If you insist on persisting with them, you may have to start the process all over again, also informing them of the earlier submission. If they do get back to you, they will take some time to find out the exact status of the earlier submission and only then give you the go-ahead for the new submission. As it seems to be a reputed journal, after you eventually submit again, it’s likely to take a while to get reviewed and published. As you can see, it’s better to look away from this one and toward some others.

Of course, you need to send a mail saying you’d like to withdraw the manuscript. Also say something like: if you don’t hear from them within a certain time period, you will consider the manuscript withdrawn. Save all these emails – you will need it as proof of the withdrawal when submitting or making presubmission inquiries with the next journal. To know more about the to-dos for a withdrawal, you may go through this similar query by another researcher: Should I withdraw my paper if the journal is taking unusually long to process?

As you are looking to make up for the lost time, you may also consider our new AI-powered platform, R Pubsure, which aims to help authors minimize/reduce the chances of a desk rejection. It does this in two ways. Firstly, its machine checks enable you to keep improving your manuscript until it’s submission-ready. Then, when it’s improved, you get a chance to showcase the manuscript to several editors on the platform itself, one of whom may consider it for their journal. Of course, as with other journals, you cannot submit to both this platform and some other at the same time (to avoid duplicate submission). You may learn more about the platform here: R Pubsure

Hope all these alternatives help. All the best for the next steps!

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