Q: What should I do if the editor is not responding to my inquiry about errors in my published paper?
My manuscript was published online before formal publication, but I found that some items, like an error in a table which I asked for correction at the proof stage, have not been corrected. I sent an email to the journal editor about the items to be corrected, but I have not received a reply after several days. Does it take a long time to get a reply in such cases? If the situation would not change without reply, should I contact the journal again in a different format like Letter to Editor?
Firstly, we have modified your question slightly to better reflect the nature of your query. If we understand correctly, while your article has been published online, it is yet to be published in print. If so, this may be one of the reasons for the delay in response from the editor. They may be prioritizing communication as they receive a large volume of mails and submissions and because there may be some time before your article gets published. So, they may respond to you shortly. However, if they do not, and if it has been about two-three weeks since your last correspondence, you could write to them again. If the print version has not released, this time, you could ask them for its potential publication date. You could also use this opportunity to share how eager you are that the errors be corrected in the online version and also not be replicated in the print version, as these are more difficult to correct than those in the online version. In case the print version has been published, you could write to them again sooner, sharing the concern to have the errors corrected as soon as possible.
Finally, note that a format such as Letter to the Editor is typically used as a way to respond critically to a previously published article in the journal. In some cases, it is also used to feature only certain aspects of a submitted paper, as decided by the editor. So, it would be better not to correspond with the editor using this format; rather, you can stick to the format you have been following so far.
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This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage