Paper Review Process and Time Frame
The general review process and duration are shown below
1 week: initial screening completed by administrator (first pass)
1 week: EIC screens and assigns the paper to proper editor (second pass)
1.5 weeks: Editor assigns paper to reviewers
6 weeks: Review work completed by adequate number of reviewers (the last reviewer controls this duration)
1.5 weeks: Editor makes recommendation
1 week: EIC makes decision
The above process takes about 12 weeks (or 3 months) in total. This happens to about 70% papers going through the review process.
For about 25% papers, however, one or two reviewers do not respond by the 6th week or their reviews are not adequate (such as no support comments). The editor has to remind the reviewers personally or find new reviewers. For such cases, additional 2 to 6 weeks are needed. The total time taken to complete the review becomes 14 to 18 weeks (or 4.5 months). The most common causes of such a situation are (a) the paper has difficulties to attract the interest of the reviewers (about 60% cases), (b) the reviewers just don’t respond (about 40% cases).
There are about 5% cases where the 2nd round reviewers still cannot complete the work. All reminding emails have been “spent”. The process gets stuck.
If an author don’t get a decision after 4.5 months (i.e. 18 weeks) for R0 papers or 2 months for non-R0 papers, he/she is recommended to write to EIC or pes-status@ieee.org with your paper number identified. We will try best to address the delay. Please don’t write earlier as we will not be able to manage the workload. It typically takes about 1 to 2 weeks for us to respond to your email.
Additional Information
1. PWRD editorial board processes about 1500 papers per year or 120 papers per month. The editorial board needs about 2500 reviewers per year (assuming each one is willing to review about 2 papers). Data showed that there were only about 35% submitting authors reviewed papers in 2015. (Some of the co-authors did review papers). If more authors contribute to the review process, all authors will benefit from a more dependable review system.
2. The weakest link of the review process is the lack of response from a reviewer after 4 to 5 weeks of assigning a paper to him/her. Obtaining comments from a substitute reviewer will take another 4 to 5 weeks. Therefore, if a person does not want to review a paper, it is very important for him/her to inform the editor as soon as possible. This will enable the editor to find a substitute reviewer in a timely manner. Editors appreciate a dependable response, even if it is a decline to review.
3. In order to keep authors informed about the progress of paper review, status notification has been implemented. Authors will get automatic emails for the following milestones: (1) the paper has passed screening by EIC, (2) reviewers have agreed to review the paper, (3) reviewers have submitted comments. [If an author receives new emails for the above milestone (2) after 3 months, it is likely that the editor is trying to find new reviewers], (4) Editor has made a recommendation to EIC. Note: Due to a system design problem, the submitting author may get emails of type (3) after he/she has received the decision letter. This is caused by a review that is submitted after the decision has been made. For such cases, please ignore the status update email.