 Also, as part of the publishing process, it's important to know, is this journal topical or is this journal what we call mixed topic journal? Topical journals, the topics are selected at least a year in advance so that the whole publishing process moves along in a rather smooth and timely way. Mixed topic journals, it's somewhat easier for the publisher and the editor because you can fit any paper in at any time. There's no constraints by a theme. Let me describe next the typical schedule for a journal. The author submits their paper and that's usually done through an electronic system and so be sure when you submit your paper to be clear of how to use that electronic system. The editor will screen your paper first to make sure that it's appropriate for the journal. If it is an appropriate paper and it meets minimal standards for the journal, then the editor will send the paper out to the reviewers. When we send papers to reviewers, we ask that they return the paper in about three weeks, but this is where we get hung up. Reviewers agree, they have good intentions, they mean well, but they often delay and don't get it done. So then as an editor, I will contact the reviewer at about week four and say what happened to the review. Then often they'll say oh I'm really going to get to it this week and I promise I'll get to you in a week and then it doesn't come. So the tough decision of the editor is when do you stop and just start all over with that paper with a new reviewer. I've had to send papers to over six reviewers to get two reviews back. Meanwhile the author is very anxious, where's my paper, what's the decision, when will I hear? So just know as an author it's usually at the review process where things are held up. It's ideal to have a minimum of two reviewers for a paper, but sometimes if the reviews have very different opinions then you may want to engage a third reviewer to see if they can break the tie. So the review process can take long, unfortunately that's often the case. When the reviews come in it's up to the editor to read those reviews and make a decision. The decision rarely is to accept the paper as is. As an author you should be thrilled if you get a decision that says revise. Unfortunately if the decision is reject some journals will give you feedback as to why your paper was rejected others do not. If the editor is still concerned about your paper as I mentioned they may send it to additional people. But it is the editor who's making the decision whether or not your paper is revised or rejected. The paper is returned to the author and let's suppose we're asking now for a revision. Unfortunately you'd probably be surprised to know this is where many papers are lost. Authors refuse to revise for whatever reason I'm not sure. Is there angry about the comments sometimes maybe they think it's like a term paper once you hand it in it's over and it's really not in journal publishing. So you'd be surprised that the number of papers that are really lost at this stage that the editor requests a revision and it's never done. If a revision is requested usually the editor will ask for it back in a certain period of time but often it's not returned in that period of time. It may take an author months to return the paper. When the revised paper comes in it's up to the editor to either accept those revisions or to send the paper back out to the reviewers. To ask the reviewers did the authors do what you requested. As a reviewer I one time reviewed the same paper four times and that was a very patient editor who gave an author four chances to get it right. So hopefully now the paper will be accepted and when the author sends the paper back they send it back with an explanation of how they've met all the requests of the reviewers. So let's hope it's accepted now and then next what will happen is that the paper will go to the publisher and there the paper will be edited copy edited and ready for publication and then that paper will be returned again to the author for the author to make final edits in the final copy and unfortunately the publisher usually only gives you a very short turnaround time to review that final copy of the paper. It's important that you proofread the entire final version before you return it and then hopefully in time you'll see your published paper but it can be up to a year unfortunately before you see it in print if that journal has a large backlog of accepted papers so it can take time.