Stem Cell Research & Therapy

Very frustrating magazine! After submitting the manuscript, it was quickly reviewed and requested to supplement experiments. After completing the experiments, it took about a month to be accepted and paid the publication fee. Then the frustrating part began. The editor kept asking questions. Because we had sequencing data, they first requested it to be publicly available in a database, as we wanted to continue exploring the data. We uploaded it to GEO and selected to make it public after two years, but the editor disagreed and demanded immediate public access. We had no choice but to make it public. Afterwards, they raised issues with our Western blot (WB) images. Our WB was used to validate the overexpression and knockdown effects of a gene in different human samples, and then exposed on a single membrane. The editor claimed that the intensity difference between the control bands of the two groups was too large and did not accept the results. Human samples naturally have different expressions, and we were only verifying the performance of the vector. We also provided the raw data and detailed explanations, but it was still rejected because of this reason. Dealing with these issues took almost half a year after receiving the response, which was particularly frustrating. It is very unprofessional to accept and charge a publication fee before resolving the problems.

I am in the same situation as you. After receiving it, the ethical review took one and a half months. Four ethical review reports were issued back and forth. It was a constant struggle. Then the data was reviewed, and it was also a struggle in various ways. In the end, it was rejected. You can download the MESS app to have a look. There are a lot of such problems in it. I do not recommend submitting.