While desk rejection is not a big issue, I find the Editor's practice highly unprofessional. I contacted Elsevier support to check whether there is an issue with the paper's status not changing after almost 7 weeks, given that 12 days was the median first decision time advertised on the Journal page. I did not ask for the Editor to be contacted.
The next day, on a saturday morning, less than 10 hrs after i made the contact with Elsevier support team, the paper was rejected without any reason. What i can say is that Editors need to be held accoutable for their behaviour. If the paper has to be rejected, why waste 2 months of the authors' time when your median first decision time advertised was 12 days? The Editor did not read the paper and, I guess, was annoyed that an enquiry was made about it. Although I heard about the journal's poor practice of selective pal publication, I felt science should prevail, but I was wrong.
What is the essence of Elsevier support if authors can ot make a polite enquiry? This is poor governance, and I find the conduct highly unprofessional.
