I sent off a journal paper for review back in February and I'd really like to chase it up now with the editors. Waiting to hear back this long is not unusual in social sciences, and people I have co-authored with have chased up articles but I have never done so myself. I am unsure of the protocol for doing this and what kind of message to send to the editor? I don't really want to sound unprofessional or give any easy excuses to have my paper rejected!
Anybody had any experiences in this?