Journal Submission Response Times

[sircatlington]

After submitting a paper to a journal, when should you expect to hear back?  Is there a generally accepted timeframe for (humanities) journals

Comments

[sammason]

I'd ask colleagues in the Faculty, esp anybody who has published in this particular journal.

[poldyb]

expect irrelevant or downright stupid reader reports back between 3 and 9 months. Though it could be a shorter turnaround (unlikely) or much longer (likely)

[max_ambiguity]

It depends on the journal. Some are notorious for taking 6 months or more to get back to you. Some aren't. You can ask the person you sent your manuscript to what their expected/average turnaround time is, though.

[zcat_abroad]

I've been waiting 6 months for a 'grad-friendly' journal which promised a quick turn-around...

[sacredchao23]

There are a lot of humanities and interdisciplinary journals logged in the MLA Directory of Periodicals. The database contains information on usual response times, average number of submissions vs. acceptances. Their numbers seem to be fairly accurate from my small amount of experience. Your institution should have a subscription.

I don't know if there are equivalent databases in other fields.