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The Reliability of Emails
Did ever happen to you that you had been waiting for an email for months, eagerly, patiently, opening the email inbox every day again and again to finally see that particular email in it? I am sure!
So this is the story of a poor very important email:
I submitted an article to an international SCI;) journal a while ago, and at the confirmation of my submission I was informed that my paper ‘now goes into a reviewing process’ and I would be informed in 3-5 months of the ‘result’.
So the months passed by … junjulaugseptoct … and I thought, sometime at the end of October that would have been appropriate to send an email and ask about the current status of my article. I received no reply, so I tried to send another and another email. Then I thought I was being impatient so I decided to wait a bit longer.
Then, two days ago, I received an email from the journal, saying:
“I am writing again as I have had no reply from you to my October 26th e-mail regarding your paper”
I was staring at the email for quite a while, happy to have finally heard from them and surprised about the October email that I have never received. It turned out at the end that I hadn’t received their email and they hadn’t received any of mine.
Now, in the publication processes, which are already long as they are, this is the worst that can happen. For two months, my article *was accepted* for publication, and I was in the dark.
I am happy that the secretary of the editor was so kind as to send me the email on Wednesday again. I am grateful to her to the moon and back. They could have simply thought I was being an ignorant weirdo, whilst I have been thinking that they are taking waaaay too long to respond. All that just because we take emails as ultimately reliable, as something that absolutely tells whether something was received or not.
Well, I have learned my lesson;)
By Nana | January 5, 2007 | Topics: Research |
January 10th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Hi Bojana, congratulations for your article. It’s an important achievment and it would be a shame if nobody commented on it.:)
January 10th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Thank you Sonia;)
January 24th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
That’s so true that we take Email too reliable, but it’s strange sometimes, because why wouldn’t it send? if it’s said sent.
Anyway, congrats on your article.