Why Does Peer Review take so long? (Part I)

Questions from the Audience: Why does Peer Review take so long? (Part I)

This is one of the most common questions about the publishing process. You’ve submitted a paper and have been patient. You’ve checked your paper’s status through the online portal (or have received an update via whatever system the journal uses), and it still says Under Review. You go back to your daily life. You check again three weeks later and it still says Under Review. Same a month later. What’s taking so long? As many emails from authors asking about the delay often ask: reviewers are given deadlines, so what’s taking so long?

There are a myriad of reasons it could be taking so long. I’ll cover a few below and a few more in the next post. Whilst I do sympathise with authors and do empathise that it can be really quite anxiety-inducing waiting for the verdict, it can be quite frustrating when authors fail to take into consideration everything that happens on the editorial front. 

So, without further ado (and in no particular order), some reasons that it’s taking so long:

1.) It’s a workload issue.

By this, I mean that your paper is not the only submission we have. We have a lot of papers to evaluate and process, comment on, and think about suitable reviewers. Because your paper’s status says Under Review does not necessarily mean it has moved to peer review. Some journals operate a two-stage review, which means that the editor has the paper and is considering it. Editors also have to balance a full academic workload, so papers have to wait until we get to them. Which leads me to the next one..

2.) Someone is on leave

This could mean the administrator, the editor, or a reviewer who has agreed to do the review after s/he returns from leave. Yes, it’s frustrating to find out that your anxiety has been due to someone being on holiday, but there’s a few reasons that we would see this as a favourable option:

·         If the reviewer has been a particularly good (and reliable) reviewer in the past, then it is often worthwhile to wait for quality.

·        Having someone who agrees but flags up that they will be on leave for X amount of time still means we have a reviewer. Usually this person will get the review to us when they say they will because they are aware that we are being flexible.

·        Depending on the paper, it usually proves quicker to wait for someone to get back and do the review than try to find an alternate. Finding alternate reviewers is a very time consuming process (more on that in the next post).

3.) The paper is difficult to find a reviewer for

Some papers are just more difficult than others to get reviewed. This is usually due to the subject area being highly specialised, or the paper having a very unique methodology. Another reason could be that we’ve just reviewed a paper on a similar topic so have already engaged a list of reviewers in the area so must find more suitable reviewers. Reviewers aren’t paid, so we have the balancing act of being careful not to overuse them and take up too much of their time. We also have to check all the co-authors and the acknowledgements to make sure we don’t send the paper to someone involved in writing it. This sounds like a no-brainer, but for highly specialised papers, it can sometimes be difficult to find someone who won’t endanger the integrity of the double-blind system. 

4.)  It’s conference season/end of term/holiday season

When you have time to research and write papers, so does the rest of academia. This means that time pressure is on for everyone, including the editor and reviewers. They can take longer than planned, ask for extensions, get side-tracked – you name it, I’ve gotten it as a reason a review has been delayed. Still, it’s quicker to be flexible and allow an extension than start over finding another reviewer. People also refuse reviews if they are under pressure to finish their own papers and conference presentations. It’s understandable; they’re academics, too. But this means that the process takes longer as we have to ask, and, more time-consumingly, wait for replies from, more people. If they are away from the office, we can’t just assume they’ll say no and move on. Again, it’s a balancing act. If we just moved on and they were perfectly willing to do a review, then we run the risk of not only missing out on getting this review completed but also affecting future requests.

And all of these things can (and have) happened to a single paper. And we have a lot of papers.

Stay tuned, more reasons to come in the next post. In the meantime, hit the comment section or email with any questions.

-theAdmin.

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