Q: Should I contact the Editor-in-Chief or the editorial office about the status of the second round of review?
I submitted a manuscript to a journal, and it was judged “Major Revision” by one of the two reviewers. I submitted a revised manuscript, and the status has been “Under Review” for more than 2 months now. I am going to inquire about the current status of my manuscript. However, who should I contact: the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) or the editorial office?
The status might be Under Review for so long now because the original peer reviewer might be busy with other assignments or on leave (due to the approaching holiday season). For the same reason, it is likely that your revised manuscript might take some more time to review, and perhaps, you will be updated about the status only sometime in January. I understand your concern and eagerness. However, it may not be necessary to write directly to the EiC for now. Although EiCs make the final decision on the manuscript, the decision is communicated by the original handling editor, who has also been handling other communication so far. So, you could write to the editorial office (handling editor) and wait for their response. If in a rare case they don’t get back by an appropriate time, you could consider writing to the EiC later.
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This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage