Working with this journal was an absolute nightmare. We submitted a manuscript at the end of January, and were promptly told our citation style wasn’t what they wanted and to resubmit. That’s where the promptness ended. From early February when we resubmitted to the end of September when our manuscript was rejected, only one review was performed.
Both I (the corresponding author) and my professor (the submitting author) reached out to the listed contact for the manuscript multiple times for an update and heard nothing back. I eventually reached out to someone listed on the journal’s editorial board after Googling their university contact information, and it turns out that the person listed for our manuscript support wasn’t even the actual person overseeing the submission. The board member told me one review was complete, but they need 2 before making a decision, and so that was the hold up. I believe they also contacted another board member, the person who was actually overseeing our submission.
Maybe a month after this conversation, we got the rejection with only the one reviewer. The reviewer’s comments can basically be summarized as “this isn’t how *I* would have done this research and I therefore disagree with your title, introductory information, methodology, analysis methods, and conclusion.” I’m not kidding; they disagreed with EVERYTHING we did. It was brutal.
To make a long story short, the Digital Health journal’s website boasts of a thorough, professional, and efficient peer review process. It was definitely none of those things. It took 9 months for only ONE reviewer to completely shut us down with no second opinions from anyone else.
Working with this journal was an absolute nightmare. We submitted a manuscript at the end of January, and were promptly told our citation style wasn’t what they wanted and to resubmit. That’s where the promptness ended. From early February when we resubmitted to the end of September when our manuscript was rejected, only one review was performed.
Both I (the corresponding author) and my professor (the submitting author) reached out to the listed contact for the manuscript multiple times for an update and heard nothing back. I eventually reached out to someone listed on the journal’s editorial board after Googling their university contact information, and it turns out that the person listed for our manuscript support wasn’t even the actual person overseeing the submission. The board member told me one review was complete, but they need 2 before making a decision, and so that was the hold up. I believe they also contacted another board member, the person who was actually overseeing our submission.
Maybe a month after this conversation, we got the rejection with only the one reviewer. The reviewer’s comments can basically be summarized as “this isn’t how *I* would have done this research and I therefore disagree with your title, introductory information, methodology, analysis methods, and conclusion.” I’m not kidding; they disagreed with EVERYTHING we did. It was brutal.
To make a long story short, the Digital Health journal’s website boasts of a thorough, professional, and efficient peer review process. It was definitely none of those things. It took 9 months for only ONE reviewer to completely shut us down with no second opinions from anyone else.