It is truly unacceptable that a decision on the manuscript took over a year. I had already followed up six months into the process, highlighting the delay, yet no meaningful action was taken to address the situation. Such treatment of authors is both disrespectful and highly unprofessional.
If a paper does not correspond to the scope or focus of the journal, it should not take more than a year to communicate this decision to the authors. The extended delay and lack of communication undermine the trust that authors should place in this journal.
