Understanding the review process
Processing speed
#EditorObservations 15 Processing speed (YouTube, 1m 47s)
When Scott McCabe and I took on the role of co-editors-in-chief, we agreed that processing time was one of the most important editorial duties. We both supervise PhD students and postdoctoral researchers and know just how important it is for early career researchers to find out as quickly as possible if their manuscript will be sent out to review or not. We therefore committed to make a decision on each newly submitted manuscript that lands in our inbox within 48 hours of receiving it. Of course, both of us got sick every now and again, or we went on vacation or we attended a conference. But in a regular working week we still turned initial submissions around in 48 hours.
The processing speed from submission to publication depends not only on the editor-in-chief, but also on the associate editors, the reviewers and the authors themselves, who can be very quick or very slow to revise a manuscript.
The #editorobservations in this subsection offer some insights into our thinking around processing speed and illustrate, I hope, just how important it has always been to us to keep it as short as possible.
#editorobservation
Looking though the 2021 Annals of Tourism Research report
One thing we feel strongly about at Annals is to provide decisions to authors without unnecessary delays.
Nice to see this commitment by our editors and reviewers manifest visibly in our average processing speed stats.
#editorobservation
Lovely email ☺️
Scott McCabe + I usually desk reject papers within 48 hours.
What motivates us?
We are authors ourselves.
We supervise PhD students who are under pressure to publish.
We know that nothing is as frustrating as a desk-rejection after 3 months.
#editorobservation
The Annals of Tourism Research team is not perfect. But we do our best to serve our scholarly community. For example, we turn around submissions as fast as we can, especially at the start of the submission process. We know just how important quick journal decisions are to PhD students and early career academics, in particular. Once a manuscript lands on our desk, Scott McCabe and I aim to inform the authors of our decision (desk reject or pass on to an Associate Editor) within 48 hours.
Sure, we get sick sometimes, we go on holidays, we are subject to all the other surprises in life, which can lead to delays.
But we do try really hard to stick to that timeline.
#editorobservation
I forgot to mention: Manuscript processing speed is a team effort.
The average speed of the first decision made by a handling Associate Editor is driven entirely by our Annals of Tourism Research dream team of Associate Editors and Reviewers.
#editorobservation
Improved transparency on Annals of Tourism Research.
Scott McCabe, our Associate Editors and I excited about improved review speed.
Extremely grateful to our reviewers🙏
Submission to 1st decision:
- 2017 – 8.5 weeks
- 2018 – 6.4 weeks
- 2019 – 4.6 weeks
- 2020 – 3.3 weeks😊
#editorobservation
Life’s too short to be waiting around for months until a journal decides to consider a paper for publication.
The Annals of Tourism Research team works hard to make good decisions quickly.
We don’t always succeed, but overall we do OK.
Grateful to our Associate Editors + reviewers
#editorobservation
The average Annals of Tourism Research manuscript processing times are getting shorter every year.
We are deeply grateful to our brilliant Associate Editors and reviewers for their ongoing commitment to processing manuscripts as quickly as possible!
