Q: Can I submit an accepted paper from a predatory to a reputable journal without a confirmation of withdrawal?
Hi, I submitted my paper to a journal not listed in Beall's list of predatory journals, but it proved to be a predatory publisher, due to which my "Acceptance for Publication" was denied by our school's director. I wrote the editor to provide me comprehensive details of the review performed as a supporting document for the doctoral requirements at my school, but I didn't get one. I wrote again to withdraw my manuscript so I can submit it to another journal, but I received no response. Should I resubmit the paper to another journal? I am catching up with the deadline, 8 weeks to get an acceptance letter for publication so I can finish my doctoral program. Please advise.
You should send a follow-up email to the journal asking them to confirm your withdrawal request. Give them a deadline of 2-3 days and mention that if you don't get a confirmation within that time, you will consider your paper withdrawn. If you don't get a response to this email, send a final email stating that since all your efforts at contacting the journal have failed, you are considering your manuscript "unsubmitted" from this journal. Once you have sent this email to the journal, you can submit your paper to another journal. However, make sure you preserve a copy of all your emails/fax to the previous journal. In case there is any problem in the future, you can always produce these documents as evidence of your efforts to contact the journal.
Since you have only 8 weeks to go before your deadline, consider submitting your paper to a rapid publication journal.
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This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage