41st Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology
and 9th International Conference on Bacillus thuringiensis

From the time you upload your manuscript to a journal website, it is in the hands of the editorial staff. Many journals have chief editors to assign each manuscript to an associate. This associate editor has the job of inviting appropriate reviewers and making decisions at steps along the way. Your paper will be read, at least briefly, by the chief editor and the associate editor before reviewers are invited. A copy of the paper will be sent to those who agree to review it. Reviewers are asked to complete their reviews, typically, within 3 to 4 weeks. Journals and editors work to minimize the amount of time it takes to reach any decision, either interim or final. If editors and reviewers are reasonably prompt, a decision may be reached within just a few weeks. Reasons for delay in the process are several, but most often are due to delays by reviewers or authors. Journals vary in their overall acceptance rate, but this can exceed 50%. In my presentation, I will describe the editing and reviewing process and offer suggestions helpful to authors.