On sending your paper out for review (and finding patience).
Patience is one the hardest things to learn as an early career academic
You spend months working on the submission - coming up with an idea, gathering & analyzing data, polishing the paper again & again - iterating with your author team - and waiting for the green light to submit.
Finally the day comes - you upload - and you hit submit.
While you are relieved to say bon voyage, you are also stressed.
You wonder - will the reviewers like it?
You look over the paper? And find a minor error & feel panicked. You wonder, should I retract and resubmit?
Your advisor talks you out of it and tells you to let go.
Yet, you find yourself checking the paper’s status in the review system every day.
The stress is brutal.
You email the editor and ask for an update.
Not once but three times.
You tell your advisor / who turns a shade of purple.
And says: that wasn’t very smart!
You wonder? What did I do?
Three things.
First, once you submit a paper, you need to let it go.
You’ve done all you can. You need to take a day off. Clear your head. Let the stress go.
You can’t work with a head full of worry. So learn to empty your head or to set the emotion aside.
Once you are ready, start on the next project.
So get out your singing voice & belt out “let it go!”
Second, once a paper is assigned an editor, leave them alone.
The editor will make the decision on the paper.
Not much you can do will speed up the review process.
Let them do their job.
If you do email, do it just once.
When I email an editor more than once, I’ve never received good news.
Maybe I’m just unlucky?
But seriously. Don’t pester the editor.
Be patient.
Third, you didn’t talk to your coauthors before emailing the editor.
I have always found when I am impatient, my coauthors talk me off the cliff.
Usually, early career authors want feedback quickly.
It’s not going to happen.
Fast review cycles run 30 days. Most run 90 days. Badly run last 120+ days.
Bc the work is collaborative, you need to let yoir coauthors help you gauge when to contact the editor.
I’ve never had a coauthor say hurry up an editor. They always counsel patience.
In fact, It’s always better to wait six months, then a few more before emailing again.
So what to do? To manage the nerves?
Keep working. Find a hobby. Sitting around doing nothing doesn’t help. You need to stay busy.
Also, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
If you have multiple good projects running, your anxiety about the one under review will be lower.
Finally, learn to wait.
No one warned me that being a professor involved patience.
But it does.
Research takes patience.
Training students takes patience.
Peer review takes even more patience.
So learn to wait.
Be patient.
You’ll be happier.
Best of luck!
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