Q: What should I do if I have only received auto-replies from a journal after submission?

Six-and-a-half months is a long time since submission to not have heard anything from the journal. This could be because the journal recently became a fully open access (OA). Transition is usually a tricky/challenging phase for most individuals/organizations to manage. Incidentally, the ‘WOA’ probably refers to ‘Wiley Open Access.’ The ‘Under Review’ could refer either to an internal review or a peer review, most likely, an internal review. The change to ‘Admin, WOA’ indicates the change of hands based on the transition. Anyway, that was a possible explanation. Here is what we suggest you do.

Write to the EIC asking them about the status and possibly inquiring about the delay. If it has affected you academically/professionally, you could add this information, thus urging them to expedite the processing of the manuscript. If needed, you could also say that if you don’t hear from them within a certain time period, say, a week or 10 days, you will withdraw the manuscript or consider it withdrawn. You can then go ahead and submit your manuscript elsewhere, so that you don’t lose any more time. For this, it may also help to write presubmission inquiries to other journals. Here are some tips to do so: How to write a presubmission inquiry

Finally, as there is a fair bit of communication involved in all these actions, you may find it worthwhile to invest in this handbook of communication templates: A practical handbook of templates for communicating with the journal

Hope that helps. And all the best for the next actions!