Appeals & Complaints

Appeals

If you wish to ask for the rejection of a manuscript to be reconsidered, you should, in the first instance, contact the Handling Editor through the instructions on the journal’s website. Priority is given to active submissions under consideration, therefore, decisions on appeals may take longer. Final decisions on appeals will rest with the editorial team. 

Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision should check the journal website for directions on how to submit an appeal. 

If appeals are successful, authors will be given information about how their manuscript will be further handled. 

Complaints

The below procedure applies to complaints about the failure of processes, such as long delays in handling papers, and complaints about publication ethics, such as author misconduct. To make a complaint about an editorial decision to reject a manuscript, please see the above policy on appeal against a rejection. 

Complaints about the failure of processes should, in the first instance, be handled by the Chief Editor/Editor-in-Chief responsible for the journal and/or the Editor who handled the paper. 

Complaints about processes, e.g. time taken to review 

The Chief Editor/Editor-in-Chief together with the Handling Editor (where appropriate) and/or a member of the journal staff  (where appropriate) will investigate the matter. The complainant will be given appropriate feedback. Feedback is provided to relevant stakeholders to improve processes and procedures.

Complaints about publication ethics, e.g., researcher, author, editor, or reviewer conduct

The Chief Editor/Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor will follow guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics. External Editors-in-Chief or Handling Editors will reach out to their in-house contact for advice on difficult or complicated cases. The Chief Editor/Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor, or where applicable, the journal staff, decides on a course of action and provides feedback to the complainant. If the conduct of the Chief Editor/Editor-in-Chief is the subject of the complaint, please contact the Springer Nature Research Integrity Group by email.  

If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint, it will be escalated to the journal's editorial management team for investigation. If no publishing contact is identified, please send your query to the Springer Nature Research Integrity Group, by email.