SLRSystematic Literature ReviewFrom Literature Discovery to Publication

STAGE 4 · BEYOND SUBMISSION

After Submission: Review, Revision and Acceptance

What happens after submission

  1. Technical check: the editorial office checks files, formatting and declarations. Missing items are returned to you — respond quickly.
  2. Editor screening (desk decision): scope, contribution and reporting quality are judged. Desk rejections often happen within 1–3 weeks.
  3. Peer review: typically two or more reviewers; duration varies widely by journal and field.
  4. Decision: accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject (sometimes with an invitation to resubmit or transfer).

Common reasons SLRs are desk-rejected

  • Topic outside the journal’s scope, or the journal does not publish unsolicited reviews.
  • Very similar recent reviews exist and the manuscript does not explain what is new.
  • Search not reproducible: missing strings, sources or dates.
  • No quality appraisal and no justification for omitting it.
  • Descriptive, paper-by-paper results without synthesis or a clear contribution.
  • Inconsistent PRISMA counts, missing checklist or unverifiable references.

Responding to reviewers

  1. Read all comments, wait a day, then classify them (major / minor; method / reporting / language).
  2. Agree a plan with co-authors and the deadline for resubmission.
  3. Respond to every comment in a table: comment → response → change made → location (page/line).
  4. Be courteous and specific. Thank reviewers once at the top, not in every response.
  5. If you disagree, explain respectfully with evidence or a methodological reference, and consider a small change that addresses the underlying concern.
  6. Mark changes in the manuscript (tracked changes or highlighted text) as the journal requests.
  7. If the search is more than 12 months old at revision, consider updating it and report the update.
Weak response

“We have revised the paper accordingly.”

Strong response

“Thank you for this point. We added full search strings for Scopus, Web of Science and IEEE Xplore with the date last searched (Supplementary Table S1) and revised Section 3.2 (p. 6, lines 112–130) to justify the choice of databases.”

Download the response-to-reviewers template (DOCX)

If the paper is rejected

  • Use the reviews to improve the manuscript before resubmitting elsewhere.
  • Move to the next journal on your shortlist and reformat to its guidelines — do not resubmit unchanged.
  • Consider transfer options offered by the publisher, which may keep the existing reviews.

After acceptance

  • Check the proofs carefully: names, affiliations, tables, figures, numbers and references.
  • Deposit the accepted manuscript in your institutional repository where the journal’s policy allows.
  • Share the data and supplementary materials, update ORCID and Google Scholar, and plan a review update if the field moves quickly.

Your notes

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