Q: Should I withdraw my manuscript if it is still at the 'Editor Invited' status after couple of months?

Detailed Question -

It’s been couple of months already and I do not know what to do about it. Can I just resubmit it?

3 Answers to this question
Answer:

Understandably, it can be quite a nailbiting time while waiting for the manuscript to make progress. Journals often struggle to handle the numerous submissions they receive, which can often cause delays. Since you've mentioned that it's been a few months since the status has shown any change, it would be a good idea to write to the journal and inquire about an update. Once you get a response you will have a better idea about what to expect in terms of processing time. Another thing you could do is send presubmission inquiries to other target journals so that in case you decide to withdraw the submission and submit to another journal, you would be able to save time. 

Related reading:

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Answer:

But the guys at Home-Work Writer say that all I need to do is just resubmit the manuscript

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Answer:

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your comment/query. There are actually a few points to this one, so let’s take them one by one.

Firstly, it’s not entirely clear what is meant by ‘resubmit the manuscript.’ You may mean resubmitting to the same journal or submitting the same manuscript to another journal.

If the first, that may not be possible in the journal system. If however the system in some way allows you to do this, that may end posing a problem. There would then be two manuscripts in the system, and in case you made some changes to the second version, you may not entirely know which one would be processed/assessed.

If you mean submitting to another journal, sure, you can do so. However, as mentioned previously, you need to first withdraw from the first journal and only then submit to the next journal. If not, this would be unethical as this may end up being a duplicate submission and if the first journal does get around to processing your manuscript, it may end up being a duplicate publication, in case the second journal decides to publish it too. So, if you do decide to withdraw from Journal 1, you need to inform them of this. In case you don’t hear from them for a while (just as there’s been no update about the editor), you need to write them a final mail saying you are considering the manuscript withdrawn as you haven’t heard from them. Also, you need to save these mails, as you may need to share them with the subsequent journal as confirmation of having effected a clean withdrawal.

Finally, the site you have referred to seems to be a ghost-writing service, which comes in a bit of a grey area as far as manuscript support services go. Editing services, however, are industry-recognized. So, you may choose to follow the provided suggestion at your discretion.

Hope that helps. For more on the various points discussed above, you may find it helpful to refer to the following resources.

All the best for your next steps!

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