Dur. 1st rev. rnd
Tot. handling time
Imm. rejection time
Num. rev. reports
Report quality
Overall rating
Outcome
Year
12.0 weeks
13.4 weeks
n/a
2 reports
5
4
Accepted
2018
Motivation: In retrospect the process was relatively painless but it felt very long during the review. Two weeks after the submission the manuscript was sent to review. Judging from the 'last activity date' two reviews were back within about 2 weeks but we were left waiting for 6 weeks. Upon our inquiry the editor decided to go with the reviews at hand -- then the manuscript remained "under evaluation" for a month before the decision. The reviews were of high quality, but not particularly different from the kinds we get for the society-level journals. Taking two weeks to revise, we resubmitted, and the manuscript was accepted in 10 days. Overall it took 15.5 weeks to get accepted after the initial submission. I believe this was a relatively uncontroversial case and it would have been accepted in less than two months at a society-level journal in our field, but the outcome was worth the wait.
n/a
n/a
7 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2018
Motivation: It is difficult to pass the barrier of the inner review process set by the members of the editorial board (some big guys). They gave us low points in the initial evaluation, making the manuscript cannot be further reviewed by external reviewers. Though rejected, I appreciate the decision speed and the editor's attitude.
n/a
n/a
29 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2018
Motivation: In the cover letter we suggested a number of possible editors listed on the website, but the manuscript was sent to someone outside of our field of study (and not on our list in the cover letter). Given the importance of the manuscript and the scientific discovery we thought it would still be evaluated as an important paper, even by a scientist who is not an expert in this field of science. We checked the daily the submission system online, and saw that the manuscript bounced between two different editors outside of our field of study over the 4-weeks it was evaluated. From the rejection email we received it was clear that the editor had not added any comments, and there was no reason given for the rejection (Given the statements made in the form email it was clear it had not been written by a human). It took 4 weeks to receive the form rejection letter from the journal! We will resubmit the manuscript elsewhere given how important this discovery is. Hope this helps fellow scientists looking to submit to Science.
n/a
n/a
12 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
20.4 weeks
20.4 weeks
n/a
2 reports
2
3
Rejected
2018
Motivation: Article was first reviewed by two advisory board members (apart from the editor handling the manuscript). They suggested some changes before it can actually sent out to the external review. After a month, we re-submitted the article and it was sent to two reviewers. One was positive and recommended the article for publication and second reviewer one was too naive (someone who is a direct competitor in the field), and tried to block the article from publication in Science and hence gave very bad rating to the manuscript. Editor decided to reject the manuscript based on second reviewer's comments.

My experience is that once the article is under review, it does not matter that its Science or whichever journal, it's just an ordinary article and one should not expect good detailed comments on the name of journal's reputation.
12.0 weeks
15.1 weeks
n/a
2 reports
5
4
Accepted
2017
Motivation: The reviews were of very high quality, and the referee comments certainly improved the manuscript. The complete process outcome was positive. The editorial times, however, were very long: both the initial filtering and the final editorial changes took longer than the referee process itself, which we found surprising.
n/a
n/a
5 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
n/a
n/a
17 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
Motivation: Very long desk rejection process, zero personalised feedback. Waste of time.
n/a
n/a
3 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
Motivation: It was fast and painless process.
n/a
n/a
7 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
Motivation: Desk rejection prior to review claiming the paper might be better suited to a specialist journal.
n/a
n/a
9 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
n/a
n/a
14 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
n/a
n/a
3 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
Motivation: Manuscript was not given a sufficiently high priority rating during the initial screening process.
n/a
n/a
2 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
n/a
n/a
11 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
Motivation: standard rejection: "The overall view is that the scope and focus of your paper make it more appropriate for a more specialized journal."
overall submission process quite pleasant (online information on status of submission etc)
n/a
n/a
2 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2017
n/a
n/a
16 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2016
Motivation: Passed to Advisor stage before editorial rejection. Slower than usual decision due to holiday period.
6.0 weeks
6.0 weeks
n/a
3 reports
2
2
Rejected
2016
Motivation: The overall process was relatively fast. The manuscript was assigned to three different referees, nevertheless their background on the topic studied in the manuscript was apparently poor and resulted in several naive comments. I do not know if the journal's policy, regarding its broad readership, includes inviting not specialized reviewers, however, we finally got only a minimal feedback, despite the three different reports we received. The manuscript was rejected because the reviews were "not positive enough". We ended up surprised, not by the rejection per se, but by the unexpectedly low quality of the reviews.
n/a
n/a
26 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2016
Motivation: Almost 4 weeks to immediate rejection, with generic rejection message (manuscript not given sufficiently high priority during the initial screening process).
n/a
n/a
4 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2016
Motivation: A general "low-urgency" response template. No details.
n/a
n/a
10 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2016
Motivation: The editorial rejection did not include specific helpful information giving the reason for the rejection. However, the process was relatively fast, and the manuscript tracking on the author website was informative, showing which editor the manuscript had been assigned to and indicating when the manuscript was passed on to the board of reviewing editors. Online submission at this journal has improved substantially since I last submitted a manuscript there in 2012.
n/a
n/a
31 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2015
Immediately accepted after 3.4 weeks
Accepted (im.)
2015
8.7 weeks
9.1 weeks
n/a
3 reports
5
5
Accepted
2014
5.0 weeks
7.0 weeks
n/a
6 reports
4
4
Accepted
2014
n/a
n/a
7 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2015
7.4 weeks
81.7 weeks
n/a
4 reports
3
3
Accepted
2015
n/a
n/a
7 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2015
n/a
n/a
17 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2015
Motivation: Reasonably fast, though it's a bit tannoying to have to wait for two weeks for what is essentially a desk rejection.
n/a
n/a
4 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2014
n/a
n/a
14 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2013
Motivation: Our manuscript was rejected without in-depth review process, the journal did nor provide any scientific reasons for the rejection. The editors have felt that the scope of the manuscript would fit to a more applied and specilized journal.
n/a
n/a
7 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2014
Motivation: There was really no justification except its not interesting enough to a broad readership. However, they have, over the past years, published much more specialized papers from the big names in the field. I guess the name is more important than the scientific quality.
n/a
n/a
21 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2013
n/a
n/a
14 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2013
n/a
n/a
9 days
n/a
n/a
n/a
Rejected (im.)
2013