"Awaiting AE assignment" how long?

[tktk]

I submitted my paper to a peer-reviewed academic journal about three months ago.
Right after the submission, the status changed to "Awaiting AE assignment" but it remains for about three months.

Last month, I sent an e-mail to the administrator, and I received response which said "Senior editor will respond to your query". But I have not gotten any response from the senior editor.

How long should I wait? Should I be more patient? I would not like to obsesssively urge the editor again and again, but I wonder if my paper will be neglected.

Please give me advice.

[Hold your horses]

If you're talking about a normal sociology journal, 3 months would be fast. Stop pestering them. It isn't going to help.

[slow is the new normal]

Since about three years, average review times increased from 3-4 months to 5-7 months, at least in the non-top 4 journals. So, yes, it is always good to write an email after three or four months of unchanged online status, but it won't help very much. Good luck!

[structural]

It's a structural problem. As profs retire in this age of budget uncertainty, lots of tenure-track/tenured jobs go un-replaced. So, there are just fewer people around to do reviews. At the same time, there's still a big glut of grad students and post-docs who need more publications than ever to get one of the scarce gigs.

Lots more papers to review + fewer people to review them = Slow review times.

Journal editors could address this problem through increasing the percentage that they desk-reject (reject before sending out to review). That way, less reviewer time is wasted, and it would have a general downward effect on the number of publications that those grad students and post-docs could amass.

I'm an Assistant Professor and I get far more review requests than I could ever handle, at the same time that my institutional service responsibilities are ramping up (fewer T-T profs around my university to do the work). So, my call is to Editors: Please reject more papers before sending them out.

[alternative]

And/or include more postdocs and PhDs with at least one decent publication into the review process instead of continuously asking the usual suspects in the field.

[tktk]

Thank you for your kind advice and comments.
I will be more patient, and wait, wait...

The unchange status of "Awaiting AE Assignment" have made me anxious.
I wonder it may mean that AEs are unwilling to take their role.

But, based on your advice, I should and will WAIT!!!

[Had Similar Experience]

It sounds to me as though your submission might still waiting for assignment to an Assistant/Associate Editor, and is unlikely to have been sent to reviewers (i.e., not listed as 'under review').



If I were in your position, I would likely send a polite note to the Managing Editor (or whoever is acting in that role) inquiring about the status of the paper. This might prompt them to send it to reviewers.



I have had this happen previously, and my follow-up note was well-received (led the Associate Editor to send the paper to reviewers, which automatically updated the status in the submission system to 'under review').

[It depends]

Note that some journals use the online system for everything (A), and other outfits have their internal processes and update manuscript central rarely (B). So not hearing anything from a journal of type A is a cause for concern, but without additional knowledge, they might be a journal of type B.

So unless you know for sure that they're very systematic about entering every single decision point, I would suggest chilling out, because it's more likely that the paper is moving along in their internal systems. Check back in a month or two, and then maybe send a note if it's still not listed as under review at the 6 month mark.

This is also why you need to have other papers to work on, because fretting about this one is a less good use of your time than working on your next paper.

[tktk]

Thank you for your comment. I will wait but sometimes send a polite note to the manageing editor. And I will embark on a new work!

[penny]

I submitted my manuscript to a peer-review journal and waited for 8 months since submission until they gave me the decision of rejection...