EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS

The process was tortuous, and the ending was not satisfactory, but it is still worth recording. Submitted in mid-April, returned for major revisions at the end of June, with one positive and one neutral feedback, mainly emphasizing the need to enhance the article's innovation and significance. Made corresponding modifications according to the suggestions of the two reviewers and resubmitted in early August. After half a month of editing, the original two reviewers were invited to review, but reviewer 1 and 2 did not accept the review for over 20 days. Therefore, new experts were invited. Later, it showed a 2+ agreement for review. On October 25, which is today, the review comments were received. Reviewer 1 is still the same as the first review and agreed to accept it. Reviewer 2's review system and email did not show up, so the reason is unclear. The new reviewer 3 believes that the scope of the article is not suitable for EPSL readers, and the opinions are relatively impartial, but also provided some difficult-to-implement suggestions (partially denying the research significance). In the end, the editor suggested transferring to Tectonophysics or Geomorphology through Elsevier, with a one-month deadline to decide. Reflecting on the excitement and anticipation at the beginning of the submission, it is not realistic to pretend that nothing happened when being rejected. The submission experience indeed shows that EPSL requires higher innovation and research perspectives, and I can only blame my limited abilities. Perhaps comforting oneself that the research journey without rejections is incomplete. The road ahead is long, so let's keep going, little research chick.

The process with the editor is quite fast, taking about 2-3 days. It may go through around 2 editors before reaching the actual chief editor. The duration with the editor is uncertain, as I have waited for about a month and it changed to "under review". However, it may not necessarily mean it is truly under review, as contacting the reviewers can change the status to "under review", but it may take a long time for someone to agree to review it.

Be patient and good luck.