IEEE Transactions on Systems Man Cybernetics-Systems

Personal Submission Timeline:
March 20, submitted manuscript, received first round of comments (minor revisions) 6 months later, with 5 reviewers and no deadline for revisions;
November 20, revised manuscript, received second round of comments (minor revisions) 5 months later, with an additional reviewer and no deadline for revisions;
April 21, revised manuscript, currently in "Awaiting Decision" status for 3 months, based on the editor's speed, the results are expected to be out by October at the latest.

Compared to the review time and control theory journals (which is also around 6 months), the acceptance speed is acceptable, but for an applied journal, it is indeed too slow.

Additional Information:
1. The review speed of this journal is highly dependent on the speed of the editor. I have seen another article that was submitted and accepted within 8 months, with two rounds of revisions. However, my own article has been submitted for 15 months and still no results.
2. The rejection rate of the journal is very high. If the first round of review results in a rejection, the time cost is relatively low. I have seen an article that was rejected after 18 months of revisions.
3. Due to the decrease in journal submissions, the impact factor has skyrocketed to 13.451 this year. If you are in a hurry to publish for graduation, I do not recommend submitting to this journal. However, if you have already graduated and have some results to publish, you can give it a try.

2021.02.03 submitted
2021.07.13 Reject with major revision and encouragement to resubmit
2021.08.24 Resubmit
2022.01.06 Reject with major revision and encouragement to resubmit
2022.01.25 Resubmit
2022.07.15 Revise/Minor Revisions
2022.07.22 Resubmit
2022.09.03 Accept
The process took 17 months with a total of 9 reviewers. Here are my experiences:
1. Having multiple reviewers and adding more midway was frustrating, especially when some reviewers lacked professionalism.
2. The process was slow and difficult, with an acceptance rate of around 10%. There was a large volume of submissions and a significant backlog, leading to increased requirements and longer review periods.
3. It may not be necessary or worth the high submission cost, as there are many other high-impact journals similar to this one. It's not necessary to struggle unnecessarily.
4. In the future, the process may become more normalized. The backlog of manuscripts is not as significant as before, and I believe it will eventually align with other journals in terms of reviewer numbers and review periods.
I hope everyone submits to appropriate journals!