BMC PUBLIC HEALTH

I also submitted it in August 2020, and it was revised in February 2021. Because it was during the Chinese New Year period, I didn't want to be too tired, so I delayed it for more than two months and revised it by the end of April. Then it was revised again in mid-May. I still didn't want to be too tired, so I delayed it for another month, and then revised it in June. An expert gave me some good advice, which I didn't understand at first, but later I made the modifications according to his requirements. It was accepted in mid-July, and I paid the publication fee. I received the proof in early August and it was published online 4 days later. I think the journal is super nice. Every time I exceeded the deadline, I would email to explain the reasons, and the editor would always reply to me. It's really good.

After three months of submission, there was no assigned editor. During this period, two reminder letters were sent. Finally, in the third month, an editor was assigned. Soon after the assignment, an external reviewer was invited. The review process by the expert was quite fast, and the review was received in about a month. One of the external reviewers provided a very negative evaluation, while the other one raised some professional questions. In the end, after more than four months, the manuscript was rejected. The early-stage editorial process was too slow.