Three strikes…
Dear Dr. Bacon,
We regret the delay in obtaining a review on your manuscript.
The paper has been sent to three referees who have not provided
reports. We are now sending to a fourth referee asking that he/she
expedite review. As soon as we have additional information, we
will advise and thank you for your patience.
But, wait, who is out?
Now, I should preface this with the note that I’m not bitter about this and it is entirely possible my paper was complete crap, but, in any case, ‘fourth’ *wasn’t* the charm for yours truly. A recent paper I sent along to JPhysA was eventually reviewed (original reviewer didn’t respond), suggestions for alterations were sent, I made the alterations (this happened twice more, and each time I made the requested changes), and, finally, after making all the alterations requested, four months later the paper was ultimately rejected and they suggested I send it to Foundtions of Physics since JPhysA had recently made an attempt to increase the quality of their papers – those were roughly their words and thus, in one sentence, they b****slapped me and another journal while (oddly) admitting they used to have looser standards (what does that say about older papers from JPhysA that end up as citations?).
Ian – that’s some harshness right there. I guess scientists sometimes lack tact 😉
I can’t believe reviewers would *not* review a manuscript they had been assigned to. I mean, isn’t there such a thing as timely publication. And for heavens’ sake, isn’t it *their job*? I mean, tell people you’re too busy, and then get taken off the list.