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Editorial Decisions
Functional Ecology accepts less than 20% of standard papers submitted to the journal. Our average time from submission to first decision is now 39 days and we endeavour to provide all authors with a first decision within 6 weeks of submitting their manuscript. Our average time from acceptance to Early View publication on Wiley InterScience is now 45 days.
Types of Decisions:
- Immediate reject
- Rejection after peer-review
- Reject for resubmission
- Major revision
- Minor revision
- Provisional acceptance
- Final acceptance
Immediate reject
The Executive Editor rejects a small proportion of papers soon after submission if they are too long for the message they contain, fall outside the scope of Functional Ecology, or have flaws obvious to the Executive Editor. In addition to these papers there are some papers that are rejected following advice from a member of our editorial board where the papers are technically sound but not sufficiently novel, technically flawed, or poorly written. Details will be provided in our comments to the authors to explain this decision.
Reject
The Editors will decline for publication papers that typically do not receive enthusiastic reports from the reviewers who comment on the paper. In addition to the reviewers’ comments the author should expect to receive comments from the editor who handled their paper explaining the reason for this decision. Papers that are declined are not eligible for resubmission.
Reject for resubmission
Papers that have been identified as having potential but where extensive revision is required will be rejected by the editors and the authors will be offered the opportunity to resubmit their paper as a new submission. There will remain concerns regarding the suitability of the paper for publication until the editors are convinced by the authors that their paper fits the scope and standards of the journal. Once re-submitted the manuscript will receive a new number and will be returned to the original associate editor if possible for further consideration. Authors should expect resubmitted papers to re-reviewed.
Major revision
Authors are invited to revise their paper where the comments received from the reviewers mean that major changes to the paper are required before the journal can consider it for publication. Most papers that receive this decision will be re-reviewed by one or more of the original reviewers and, if necessary, by a new reviewer. If the authors do not revise their papers to the satisfaction of the editors the paper can still be declined from publication in the journal.
Minor revision
A minor revision decision is made when positive reviews have been received and the paper is considered suitable for publication but minor changes are still required before being considered ready to receive a final accept decision.
Provisional Acceptance
Papers receive this decision where editorial changes are required before final publication. At this stage Exclusive Licence Forms will be requested plus additional material such as supporting information files, colour artwork forms and images.
Acceptance
When papers are ready to be sent to the production team a final acceptance letter will be sent informing the author of the services provided during the production process such as author services and details of the Early View publication of all papers prior to issue publication.
Appeals
Authors from time to time appeal a decision made by the journal. Appeals should be sent by e-mail to the editorial office addressed to the Executive Editor and contain detailed comments outlining the reasons for the appeal . All appeals in the first instance are considered by the Executive Editor. Most are then returned to the editor who handled the review of the manuscript and they are asked to re-visit their decision. Whether the appeal is upheld or denied additional comments will be provided to the author with constructive feedback either reinforcing the reasons for the final decision or providing direction to the authors if a resubmission is allowed.
