Latest review
First review round: 158.1 weeks. Overall rating: 0 (very bad).
Outcome: Accepted.
Motivation:
If you are considering submitting your research to Soft Computing, think twice. Our experience with this journal was marked by extreme delays, poor communication, and a complete lack of accountability. After submitting our manuscript, we waited four months to receive a major revision decision. This was reasonable, and we promptly revised and resubmitted our paper, expecting a timely response. However, what followed was months of complete silence. Despite multiple follow-ups, the only response we received from the editorial office was a generic message stating, "Your manuscript is under review."
After waiting one full year, we escalated the issue to Springer, only to discover that one of the reviewers had never responded, and the journal had simply left our paper in limbo without reassigning it to another reviewer. It was only after over 20 follow-ups and another year of waiting that the manuscript was finally accepted. Even then, it took four more months for the paper to appear online. In total, the process from initial submission to final publication took an astonishing three years. By the time our work was published, several similar studies had already appeared, severely diminishing our research’s novelty and impact.
Soft Computing Journal's editorial process is unprofessional, inefficient, and unresponsive. If you care about the relevance and timeliness of your research, avoid this journal at all costs. There are many reputable alternatives that respect authors’ time and contributions—this is not one of them.
