Hi all,

I submitted to a peer review journal about a month ago, and I'm just wondering how long these things usually take before a decision is made?

The journal stated somewhere that there is a turnaround time of 8 weeks, are these timescales usually adhered to ?

Hey! I think it probably depends quite heavily on the journal and on the individual reviewers. I recently got 2 reviewers' comments back after about 7 or 8 weeks which seemed quite reasonable, but others in my department have waited for 4 or 5 months for theirs and had almost forgotten that they had ever submitted a paper to start with...Just a case of fingers crossed I think! Good luck, KB

similar experience here.. i submitted a paper last year in july, they got back to me pretty quickly to say that they will look at it only in October when they have their next board meeting, only then will it be sent out for review.. but once they had sent it out, it also took about 8 weeks until I got the reviewers comments.. the second round took longer though. After I made the corrections in late February, it took until July to hear back from them again. So a year altogether between submission and (luckily) acceptance (with 2 rounds of reviews).

But I'd also think that these things are heavily field- and journal-dependent.

Best of luck to you!

Yep, depends on the journal and timing. I submitted to one journal in May and heard back within three weeks that it was accepted. This was so quick because this journal has an editorial committee who ALL read everything rather than send it out to others (so there were 6 people reading it rather than 2) and I had submitted a couple of weeks before their scheduled meeting. Any later and it would have been 6 months before they made a decision.

By contrast, I am currently editing a special issue of a journal which is out for review, and that has been AGES. Maybe 5 months? But possibly it was submitted at the wrong time (not much gets done between May and September regarding reviews, I think, in my field). But they possibly also had problems finding someone willing to spend the time reading all 6 articles: quite a commitment! If I haven't heard anything by the end of September, I'll start chasing more.

Long-winded way of saying it depends! But if you are in a humanities discipline, I would prepare yourself for a longer rather than quick decision!

I'm in the social sciences - the thing is, I was recently contacted by a professor about a special issue he may be editing, and i'm very likely *i think* to published in that journal, however it is a 'lesser regarded' journal to the one I am awaiting a reply from.


I don't want to let the second publishing opportunity pass, and it should be ok as long I get my first decision within the 8 week timescale. Ah well, will just have to see what happens.

Hi Phdnewbie,

as mentioned it strongly depends on the journal. I think the good ones really indicate what their turnaround time is. However unfortunately I think the shorter, the less chance of getting published (but at least one can then send it do another journal). Problematic is, as you know, that one can only send a manuscript to one journal at the time.

:-)