How-to · Step-by-step
The journal publishing process
The journal publishing process is the sequence a manuscript travels from submission to publication — editorial checks, peer review, revision, acceptance, production and release as the version of record.
The step most authors miss
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Step by step
How to do it
1.Submission
The corresponding author submits the manuscript through the journal’s online system, supplying the text, figures, a cover letter and any required declarations on ethics, funding, conflicts of interest and authorship. Following the journal’s author guidelines exactly at this stage prevents avoidable delays and technical-check returns.
2.Editorial check and desk decision
An editor screens the submission for scope, quality, originality and adherence to guidelines, often with plagiarism screening. Papers that clearly do not fit the journal or fall below threshold are desk-rejected without review, which spares everyone time. Suitable manuscripts proceed to peer review.
3.Peer review
The editor invites independent expert reviewers to evaluate the manuscript’s validity, significance and clarity. Reviewers recommend acceptance, revision or rejection and provide detailed comments. Review may be single-anonymous, double-anonymous or open, and typically two or more reviewers assess each paper following COPE’s ethical guidance.
4.Decision and revision
On the basis of the reviews, the editor issues a decision: accept, minor or major revision, or reject. Most papers that are not rejected require revision. The author resubmits with a point-by-point response to each reviewer comment, and the revised manuscript may go back to the reviewers for a further round.
5.Acceptance
When the editor is satisfied that the work meets the journal’s standards, the manuscript is formally accepted. At this point the text becomes the author accepted manuscript, and the author typically completes a publishing agreement or licence and any open-access arrangements.
6.Production
Production turns the accepted manuscript into a finished article: copy-editing for language and style, typesetting into the journal’s format, and author proof-checking to catch errors before release. A DOI is registered so the article can be cited and reliably located.
7.Publication
The article is published as the version of record — the definitive, citable version — online and, for some journals, in a numbered issue. Metadata is deposited with Crossref, indexing services pick the article up, and the corresponding author handles any subsequent enquiries or corrections.
Common questions
FAQ
How long does the journal publishing process take?+
It varies widely by field and journal, from a few weeks to well over a year. Peer review is usually the longest and least predictable stage because it depends on reviewers’ availability and the number of revision rounds. Many journals now publish accepted articles online ahead of formal issue assignment to shorten the time to availability.
What is a desk rejection?+
A desk rejection is when an editor declines a manuscript before sending it for peer review, usually because it falls outside the journal’s scope, duplicates existing work, has serious methodological flaws, or ignores the author guidelines. It is a routine, time-saving filter, and a desk rejection on scope grounds is often best answered by choosing a better-matched journal.
What happens after a manuscript is accepted?+
After acceptance the paper enters production: copy-editing, typesetting and author proofing, alongside completion of the publishing licence and any open-access steps. A DOI is registered, the article is published as the version of record, and its metadata is deposited with Crossref and indexing services so others can find and cite it.
