SOIL SCIENCE SOCIETY OF AMERICA JOURNAL

On the one hand, the journal currently does not have a formal and complete open access (OA) policy. Learning from the current trend of charging for services, offering money for open access would certainly increase the citation efficiency of the journal. On the other hand, as previously mentioned in response to the experience of peer review, we are not a self-service platform. It is a normal phenomenon in any country that the efficiency of peer review is low when there is no funding. Finally, in the current situation between China and the United States, domestic journals are gradually breaking free from constraints imposed by American journals. In the future, these journals will gradually decline in the constantly evolving domestic evaluation system. Based on the current situation of journal rankings and the emphasis on impact factor, it is difficult for this journal or this type of journal to bring greater practical benefits to authors. After all, survival in the current scientific research community takes precedence, and other aspects will gradually follow.

Submission is a unique system of SSSAJ, more complex and strictly double-blind compared to the Elsevier submission system. I chose SSSAJ for submitting a special issue for a conference, but the experience was very average. It took a week for the submission to enter the process, which included "ADM-ED-TE" for technical review, and then it reached the status of "AE: Not Assigned," indicating the preparation for assigning an editor, which lasted for 40 days without any editor being assigned. Unable to bear it, I contacted the journal's work email to inquire about the status. The staff was very efficient and replied the next day, urging the previous technical editor to assign an editor quickly. Even more efficiently, on the third day, the technical editor issued the judgment of rejection, stating that it did not meet the scope of the journal. In my mind, I could only say some expletives.
This was the worst submission experience, so I advise the experts to be cautious in submitting. The speed is truly slow.