Journal title
Dur. 1st rev. rnd
Tot. handling time
Imm. rejection time
Num. rev. reports
Report quality
Overall rating
Outcome
21.7 weeks
21.7 weeks
n/a
2 reports
4
3
Rejected
17.4 weeks
17.4 weeks
n/a
2 reports
3
2
Rejected
16.7 weeks
16.7 weeks
n/a
2 reports
4
2
Rejected
Drawn back before first editorial decision after 365.0 days
Drawn back
n/a
n/a
6 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
9.7 weeks
21.7 weeks
n/a
3 reports
5
5
Accepted
Motivation: Excellent communication with the journal editors, high quality peer review process. The acceptance to print time was long but that's because Nature Energy seem to put considerably more effort into the aesthetics of their articles.
Immediately accepted after 3.0 weeks
Accepted (im.)
3.3 weeks
4.4 weeks
n/a
2 reports
5
5
Accepted
Motivation: The revision based on the comments from two Reviewers significantly improved the quality of our manuscript.
11.6 weeks
13.4 weeks
n/a
2 reports
4
4
Accepted
Motivation: Overall, the reviewers' comments were appropriate and pointed out reasonable points for improvement. The text was improved by their suggestions, which were largely in line with each other. P
4.9 weeks
5.7 weeks
n/a
3 reports
5
5
Accepted
7.7 weeks
7.7 weeks
n/a
3 reports
2
0
Rejected
Motivation: Most of the comments raised by the reviewers were already explained or figures were present in the supplementary materials. Reviewers seemed subjective and even stated wrong literature information. It was a poor handling of the manuscript and it took more than two months.
8.7 weeks
15.6 weeks
n/a
2 reports
4
3
Accepted
Motivation: The processing time was very long, although I could track the overall progress using the new Elsevier tracking tool. Most of the 'Review' time was spent on Reviewer #2 who did not seem very interested in this paper. That Reviewer submitted one short comment following the first round of reviews stating that they didn't believe the problem was posed correctly but presented no evidence. However, Reviewer #1, obviously an expert in this field, was very thorough and considerate and suggested useful additions to the manuscript. I waited for about 1.5 months before the Editor communicated their final decision to me but no reviewer comments came through, it was just an 'accept' letter.
15.4 weeks
20.7 weeks
n/a
2 reports
3
3
Accepted
Motivation: The most surprising thing was that the journal needed 1 month to assign the paper to an editor, that we never know who she/he was. Then, although the information on the website read as "review received" the editorial decision was not made until one month later.
Drawn back before first editorial decision after 69.0 days
Drawn back
Motivation: The manuscript has been sitting with the editor for a couple of months; then, we sent a message offering help finding reviewers with no answer. So, we decided to withdraw.
17.1 weeks
22.6 weeks
n/a
2 reports
4
4
Accepted
3.7 weeks
3.7 weeks
n/a
2 reports
5
4
Accepted
22.1 weeks
29.6 weeks
n/a
3 reports
5
4
Accepted
Motivation: The review process took more than usual timeframe but it was worth the wait as the peer-review was so detailed and helped a lot to improve the manuscript.
n/a
n/a
4 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
n/a
n/a
16 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
n/a
n/a
5 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
n/a
n/a
43 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
n/a
n/a
18 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
14.3 weeks
14.3 weeks
n/a
2 reports
3
0
Rejected
Motivation: The handling editor recommended to reject the article after one month of review, but for some bizarre reason his decision was not finalized in the website. We had to wait 2 more months to get the final decision.
8.7 weeks
14.7 weeks
n/a
2 reports
4
4
Accepted
Motivation: Rigorous review process. Managed to convince one reviewer of our approach.
25.0 weeks
25.0 weeks
n/a
2 reports
1
0
Rejected
Motivation: Rejection after many, many months under review, and based on biased, technically incorrect reviews, because a paper "cannot compete for space" is signs of gross editorial failure (without even mentioning the dubious papers that do manage to compete for space). The review process here is not objective and has no connection to science.
7.7 weeks
7.7 weeks
n/a
2 reports
5
4
Rejected
Motivation: The review process could be faster. The reviewers comments were overall very good, so the rejection was a little unexpected.
5.9 weeks
5.9 weeks
n/a
1 reports
1
1
Rejected
5.0 weeks
14.3 weeks
n/a
1 reports
4
3
Accepted
n/a
n/a
62 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
Motivation: Very bad review process, with different types of bias and personal attacks
32.7 weeks
44.3 weeks
n/a
2 reports
1
0
Drawn back
Motivation: Not recommended. Manuscript sent out to different reviewers multiple times; extensive periods of time "awaiting Editor decision"... 1.5 years later and still waiting.
7.0 weeks
7.9 weeks
n/a
2 reports
5
5
Accepted
6.7 weeks
6.7 weeks
n/a
2 reports
4
2
Rejected
Motivation: Both reviewers acknowledged the novelty and importance of the work but recognized some problems with methodology. If the editor was knowledgeable enough in the subject area, they would have been able to make a much better decision as the methodological problems were contrived and easily remedied by re-writing for clarity.
8.6 weeks
8.6 weeks
n/a
2 reports
3
4
Rejected
4.3 weeks
4.3 weeks
n/a
2 reports
3
0
Rejected
Motivation: Our manuscript was rejected by the associate editor because we were falsely accused of being arrogant and ignorant. The first reviewer who made these accusations also portrayed himself/herself as an expert, but sentence after sentence in the review was false and can be proven false. The review was set up to make us look as if we were attacking the scientific community, and the associate editor bought into it. So disturbing!
10.1 weeks
10.3 weeks
n/a
2 reports
4
4
Accepted
9.7 weeks
9.7 weeks
n/a
2 reports
2
4
Rejected
4.9 weeks
5.4 weeks
n/a
2 reports
5
5
Accepted
Motivation: The journal provides a swift and clear pathway to process the manuscript submission. It was a good experience to submit my work to this journal with constructive feedback.
n/a
n/a
62 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
Motivation: To justify the manuscript's rejection (without external review) the only comment was as follows: "Comment by the editor: We have again decided against publication in our journal for the following reasons. Firstly, the theoretical embedding of the model into the scientometric context seems to be problematic. The same questions regarding quantification and measurement of the notion of quality (both peer review and journal) can be quantified and measured. Again, we do not see any attempt of giving empirical examples to show concrete implications for quantitative science studies. Finally, the grandiosely introduced free online tool proved a formula for just calculating sensitivity/specificity values based on partially obscure parameters without any other features."

We sent an email to the EiC of Scientometrics (without response). In our email, we said that such an editor's comment shows a content-based bias in our research. This is so because the purpose of peer-review is not to ”kill the paper,” but to evaluate it in terms of its strengths and limitations. However, the editor's comment involves partiality against our submission by virtue of the content (i.e., methods and theoretical orientation) of the work. This is the confirmation bias that challenges the impartiality of peer
review because an editor should evaluate a submission on the basis of its content and relationship to the literature, independently of their own theoretical/methodological preferences and commitments. Furthermore, this is a disciplinary editor that prefers mainstream research and exhibits bias against our interdisciplinary research that used Bayesian inference and Information Theory to define the optimal value of sensitivity and specificity of the peer-review process. In addition, he or she also has a contemptuous and little considerate treatment of us authors.

Please, see the repetitive use of “again”, and the lack of sense of some of their sentences. Especially disrespectful and with a complete lack of rigor and knowledge is their comment “the grandiosely introduced free online tool proved a formula for just calculating sensitivity/specificity values based on partially obscure parameters without any other features." On the other hand, it is especially relevant that their comment (without external review) of 7 lines of text, took them a total of two full months. In my opinion, it is another clear attempt to hinder our work.

By definition, mathematics and computer science are quantitative fields and also we published more than 30 papers in the same journal using a similar theoretical orientation.

However, in the last year, it seems that this same approach (theoretical and mathematical) is no longer valid for this editor repetitively assigned to our submissions. He or she is clearly an editor opposed to our approach and work, who does not send the works for external review, although showing that he or she is clearly not an expert in his/her comments that lack (in our opinion) the minimum rigor necessary to evaluate the work of scientists (more after publishing around thirty papers in Scientometrics).
4.3 weeks
4.3 weeks
n/a
3 reports
0
1
Rejected
Motivation: The reviewers were basing their arguments on information that was not true. Editor did not intervene. One reviewer gave 21 major comments, most of which were already present in the manuscript. There was a fundamental flaw in the way the manuscript was handled. The manuscript was published somewhere else with a higher impact factor a few months after the rejection.
n/a
n/a
7 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)