Minerals

2022.1.27 Submission, reviewed on the same day
2022.2.17 Major revision
2022.2.20 Revised
2022.3.1 Minor revision
2022.3.3 Revised
2022.3.10 Accepted
The reviewers were all very professional, and their questions were targeted. I had to consult many references before replying, so it was not as easy as I imagined. The review process was not as fast as I expected.
During the major revision, I hadn't finished making the changes yet. The editorial department skipped the academic editor and directly messaged me, asking for the revised version as soon as possible, saying they were planning to publish it at the end of the month. It was quite confusing. However, even after the revision, I still had to wait for a long time, and it was not published at the end of the month.
I sent multiple reminders to the assistant editor during the process, and the assistant editor had a good attitude. Every time I reminded them, I quickly received a response.
I managed to graduate as planned, and everything went smoothly.

How should I put it, one advantage of OA journals is that the processing time is fast. Whether it's a donkey or a horse, someone will quickly inform you. You don't have to anxiously wait and waste time like non-OA journals. The reviewers are acquaintances or relevant personnel in your field. They will give review comments based on the journal's level and the quality of your article. If there are errors, they will definitely point them out. There is no binding between the reviewer and the journal, it's either a donkey or a horse. If your article's research workload, thinking capacity, and innovation meet the standards of this level of journal, then you can submit it. The downside is that authors have to pay fees, which can be as high as tens of thousands of yuan. Non-OA journals usually charge around 4K to 5K yuan. Also, for the sake of efficiency, the journal's typesetting is really ugly. For those who are used to symmetrical things, the web version's typesetting looks better.