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I received a major revision from a high-impact factor journal. I implemented all the suggestions by the 2 reviewers, but one of them is unresponsive. The second one is responsive and will submit their report soon. What happens now?

cconsta1
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Newbie
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    Likely has an answer here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/55665/75368. I suspect the editor waits for the report. Don't expect fast turnaround, especially for a major revision. – Buffy Jan 06 '24 at 11:51
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    How long have they been ‘unresponsive’? Remember many folks are just getting back to work and digging through their emails. – Jon Custer Jan 06 '24 at 16:24
  • What does "responsive" mean? You get a second feedback round from the reviewers? – Karl Jan 07 '24 at 02:38
  • "The second one is responsive and will submit their report soon. " How do you know what they will do soon? can you read in their mind? – EarlGrey Jan 08 '24 at 11:22

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The editor in charge (or in fact the editorial computer system) waits until the other reviewer answers. If it takes long, reminders are sent to the reviewer. First automatic, then by the editor.

If there is still no reply, the editor will likely review your changes and rebuttal letter himself, and then make a decision. Or make it without taking into account the second reviewer.

Or maybe look for another reviewer even.

Nothing you can do but wait.

Karl
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I'd ask the editor for advice on what to do. If the responses have been supplied and implemented in your work and one of the reviewers has answered, ask for what the reviewers' deadline is and how to proceed. The worst thing that can happen is that the editor assigns the paper to another reviewer (not the best scenario) or, the best, is that the editor will consider the lack of response of the reviewer as if everyhing is alright and accept the paper as is.

Diego
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    I disagree. Do not contact the editor until after a long delay. It is up to the editor (not the author) to deal with a slow reviewer. – GEdgar Jan 06 '24 at 16:55
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    I agree with @GEdgar, there is nothing to do but wait. What happens is that the editor does their job. – Buffy Jan 06 '24 at 19:56
  • Indeed, I must have said to contact the editor after a long time (three weeks?) – Diego Jan 06 '24 at 23:41
  • "I'd ask the editor for advice on what to do." What do you expect them to answer? At best they may answer "Wait until further updates". Reg the "long time": a review as well as a review revision is an highly professional and skilled job that require 100% attention from a qualified reviewer. This job is unpaid. How can you expect anything decent before a couple of months? A long time is 6 months. – EarlGrey Jan 08 '24 at 11:20
  • Thanks for the discussion. I am familiar with the peer review process as a contributor and as a reviewer. Please read the question posted originally: In the context of a contributor that has already addressed the concerns of the reviewers and one of them has already given the okay and the other is unresponsive, following up is not a bad course of action. – Diego Jan 09 '24 at 12:34
  • Reading the original answer does not help: how can OP state "The second one is responsive and will submit their report soon."? this is a guess, and hopefully an unfounded one, unless OP has a direct contact with the reviewer or the editor gave them this information (both things would hint at the journal being of extremely poor ethical standards, whatever its high impact) – EarlGrey Jan 09 '24 at 15:31
  • @EarlGrey Nowhere in my answer do I say "The second one is responsive and will submit their report soon." and perhaps that would be a question that only the original poster can answer... Still, I'd been in a very similar situation and when we asked the editor after about a month-ish he helped us to see our work published... Nothing wrong with asking a question within reasonable timeframes. – Diego Jan 09 '24 at 15:46
  • I am happy for you. As a reviewer, if the editor would push me because the authors contacted the editor, I would feel uncomfortable. If the editor decides to skip my review because the authors contacted the editor, I would think the editor is extremely unprofesisonal and that the journal is promoting fast turnaround instead of high quality high impact. Nothing wrong with that, there are paper that belongs to the "out quick" category and other to the "slow, thorough paper", but being fast are not the premises for a high impact journal (unless the impact is social media impact...) – EarlGrey Jan 09 '24 at 16:07
  • From my experience, every mail from editorial systems to the reviewers comes with a reply deadline, after which you're getting another email, etc. They're not leaving it to the editors to keep track of who's supposed to deliver what and when. ;) – Karl Jan 09 '24 at 22:17