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I have submitted a paper to an SCI index journal on Jan 15, 2020. After writing to the handling editor a couple of times, they said that the paper was under review. On Dec 10 2021, I received an email from the journal asking for a revision. I revised and submitted it again to the journal.

But, I have not heard back from the journal yet. Now, it has been over 2 years since my paper was under review. I wrote to the journal and the handling editor 2 times but none replied.

Previously, when I wrote to the handling editor, I used to get a reply after 5-6 days. Now, I don't even receive a reply. Why is the editor behaving like this toward me?

What should I do now?

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Charlotte
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    I wouldn't say they're rude. They are simply not doing their work. They can have any combination of overflow and laziness. Two years after the revision is too much in every field, I guess. – Alessandro Della Corte May 06 '22 at 06:21
  • The editor has no reason to reply. He/she can't do anything. – Prof. Santa Claus May 06 '22 at 11:08
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    What makes you so sure that the editor is doing something wrong? It might just as well be that the reviewer(s) is/are very slow. – Jochen Glueck May 06 '22 at 11:26
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    @JochenGlueck well, in that case it is responsibility of the editor to act accordingly (and well before two years after the first revision) soliciting the reviewer or sending it to someone else. – Alessandro Della Corte May 06 '22 at 13:26
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    @AlessandroDellaCorte it hasn't been two years after first revision. The decision was in December 2021; even neglecting the time taken to revise the paper it's still only been 6 months. – Allure May 06 '22 at 13:27
  • @Allure oh, sorry, that’s a slightly different story then. I would just write politely summarizing clearly and shortly the situation. Please take into account that the editor usually remembers very little of what happened before to single items on their dashboard. – Alessandro Della Corte May 06 '22 at 13:31
  • We are all guessing as the the field of research. In some areas, withdrawing and sending to another journal will typically add a year or two before publication. In other areas, waits should not be so long. What is typical in your area? If journals usually take a few months, it is well past time to give up on this journal. In pure math.... – Terry Loring May 06 '22 at 21:19

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Why isn't the editor answering your emails? There could be all sorts of reasons, e.g. they are on maternity leave, they are busy grading papers, the email address no longer works, they think you are spamming them, the journal recently swapped handling editors for your paper, etc etc etc. Nobody without inside information will be able to tell you what happened.

Try to communicate with someone at the journal. The editorial office is my preferred choice because they work full-time on the journal, but you could also try to contact the editor-in-chief. Then depending on what they say you could decide to wait or withdraw.

If nobody responds, you could assume the journal is dead and send a "if I don't hear from you by [date] I will withdraw my paper" email. This would be unusual for a SCI-indexed journal though, so chances are there's someone on the editorial board who's active, it's just a matter of finding out who.

Allure
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  • I mailed the editorial office, i received an email that I should contact the Handling Editor instead, and the Handling Editor does not respond. So I am back on the same loop. – Charlotte May 07 '22 at 03:09
  • @Charlotte try telling the editorial office the handling editor is not responding and asking them for ideas. – Allure May 07 '22 at 03:49