TUNNELLING AND UNDERGROUND SPACE TECHNOLOGY

In early 2021, I saw the special issue of "Fire Safety for Tunnels and Underground Space" and felt that it was closely related to my research in the field of safety. Therefore, I submitted my paper. The following is a timeline of the submission process, which lasted for 19 months. I noticed that several articles published in this special issue took more than a year and a half, so I advise everyone to be cautious when submitting papers in the field of safety.

- February 3, 2021: Submitted the paper.
- May 16: Found the first reviewer.
- June 1: Found the second reviewer.
- July 10: Sent the first reminder. Sent the second reminder in early September, the third reminder in early October, and the fourth reminder in early November.
- November 17: Received feedback from two reviewers, both requesting major revisions.
- December 3: Resubmitted the paper. This time, I included experimental validation results, which were not mentioned by the reviewers in the first submission.
- December 6: Sent for review.
- February and March: Status updated once.
- March 9: One reviewer completed the review.
- April 4: Sent the fifth reminder.
- May 25: Both reviewers completed the review.
- June 1: Reviewer 1 still requested major revisions and asked 9 new questions.
- June 6: Submitted the revised version.
- June 12: Sent for review.
- August 12: One reviewer completed their review, but on August 17, they sent an email asking for confirmation that the previously agreed acceptance decision still stands.
- September 11: Sent another email, marking the 7th reminder.
- September 14: Accepted.

I feel that the speed of journal publication has increased significantly compared to before. Two years ago, the submission process took a total of 13 months with three major revisions, each taking two months. This year, I submitted two articles, one was rejected and the other was accepted. The majority of the reviewers were friendly.

First article:
- March 1st: Submitted
- March 3rd: Under editor review
- April 7th: Under review
- June 4th: Major revision (15 comments, given 21 days)
- June 24th: Submitted
- June 27th: Under review
- July 18th: Rejected (3 comments with no substantial issues)

There were a total of 4 reviewers, 2 accepted and 2 rejected. The editor-in-chief was Zhangqianbing.

Second article:
- March 3rd: Submitted
- March 5th: Under editor review
- March 6th: Under review
- May 29th: Major revision (30 comments, given 21 days)
- June 20th: Submitted
- June 21st: Under review
- July 7th: Minor revision (3 comments, given 14 days)
- July 19th: Submitted
- July 19th: Accepted

There were a total of 4 reviewers, and the editor-in-chief was Wout Broere. The processing speed was very fast!