Understanding the review process
Submission quantity
#EditorObservations 16 Submission quantity (YouTube, 1m 1s)
This subsection serves to illustrate to authors, especially to those who are waiting desperately to hear about the outcome of their submission, just how high the workload of journal editors is today. All journal editors, not only those of the most prestigious journals in the field, are facing avalanches of new submissions every day. It takes a lot of self-discipline to keep processing them. It takes even more self-discipline to give each submission the time and consideration it deserves. Please don’t assume the worst when you interact with journal editors. Remember that they are only human and that most of them are genuinely doing the best they can to process your manuscript professionally and as quickly as possible.
#editorobservation
No, please.
Seriously?
15 new assignments?
Did I not just work through the last 8?
Could I maybe get one quiet day?
Please.
#editorobservation
Back at work.
Annals of Tourism Research authors clearly did not have a break.
Manuscripts just kept rolling in.
After my 6 day break, I come back to 22 submissions.
Feeling anticipatory exhaustion.
Yet, I am also excited because there will be at least one gem in there!
#editorobservation
School holidays in Queensland.
Went for a lovely road trip with the family🚘
First trip since February!
Good fun😀
Good for the tourism industry🏖️
Back to work today.
25 new manuscripts on my Annals of Tourism Research to do list…
…exhausted already.
#editorobservation
YES
Did it.
Beat the continuous flow of incoming manuscript submissions for a minute or so 😃
Better close the browser quickly before the next one lands on my editor to do list 😉
#editorobservation
Took 5 days off.
Lovely family beach holiday in Queensland 🏖️
Back at work today.
16 new manuscripts submitted while I was enjoying sand-between-the-toes.
Not complaining
It is my choice to serve as an editor.
Just offering a backstage view of the role.
#editorobservation
Different journals operate differently.
At Annals of Tourism Research, Scott McCabe and I and our AEs barely manage to keep up with daily paper submissions (>1400 pa).
Not being full-time editors, we simply do not have the time to offer manuscript pre-assessments via email.
Sorry.
#editorobservation
Some more 2020 Annals of Tourism Research stats.
Manuscript submissions more than doubled since 2017.
Like most journals, we experienced a massive jump during COVID-19.
No wonder Scott McCabe and I, our Associate Editors + our reviewers are struggling to keep up.
#editorobservation
Seriously?
13 new manuscript submissions since Friday night?
Scott McCabe + I…and probably most other journal editors…are seriously overwhelmed by the current COVID-19-level of submission activity
It’s going to be a long night…
#editorobservation
I’ve had a particularly bad editor day yesterday.
Made 5 mistakes processing manuscripts too late in the day 😖
Then I wrote 5 letters to apologize and fix the mistakes
So kind of our Annals of Tourism Research Associate Editors and authors to appreciate that I am only human 🥰
#editorobservation
I attended the AIEST conference last week.
Was away from the computer for 5 working days.
Returned to 27 new Annals of Tourism Research submissions.
5.4 new submissions to process per day… CRAZY!
Yet, each one of them deserves to be looked at carefully.
So I better stop posting and get started…
#editorobservation
Last processed Annals of Tourism Research submissions before the weekend, on Friday, just a couple of days ago.
It is wonderful, of course, to receive many exciting new submissions. As journal editors we love exploring new research and discovering gems of new knowledge.
But the huge number of submissions that seems to be relentlessly landing in our inbox also explains why we can no longer enter one-on-one email conversations with authors… just not enough time 
