I have submitted my first paper to a journal and been informed that my paper is being reviewed by an editor who is also a co editor of the journal. I am not sure if it will be published. But i still feel happy because the journal editor did not reject my paper at this initial stage. I heard that most journal papers are rejected before they are sent to editors for peer review. But how long does it take for the review process?

It varies from journal to journal, and electronic only journals have a faster turnaround. Was there information about review turnaround time in the instructions to authors section for your particular journal?

Once it's been reviewed by an editor, it will get sent to two subject experts in your field for review. This process can a very long time, from three months to six months and in some cases, a year.

This is because two subject experts need to be available/accept the task of reviewing, and this process of locating reviewers that are available/have the expertise needed can take a while. Then it needs to be reviewed, which can also take awhile, depending on the reviewer's time. Reviewers aren't paid for this work, and in most cases journal editors aren't either, so there is no monetary gain for them to get these reviews done as fast as possible, as it's a volunteer/prestige thing that builds up a CV. Subject experts are generally quite busy and may not have the time to review your article.

Sometimes, reviewers are picked, read the article, then choose not to review it. So the process begins all over again of finding someone, which can lengthen the process. Sometimes, your supervisor or someone you know is chosen, and they may reject the offer of reviewing as its a conflict of interest. For example, a paper I had submitted was sent to my thesis supervisor for review, he had to reject it because 1), he had already read it/offered suggestions for improvement meaning that it would not be a blind review, and 2) he was my supervisor.

That paper from submission at the end of July 2013 was not given the green light for acceptance until January 2014 for publication in the May 2014 issue. So be prepared to wait a long time and not have heaps of time to do your revisions if accepted! You may also have to do a second set of revisions.

Good luck!

Thanks for your replies. I have checked the review time. The journal says '4 to 8 weeks'. That means I need to wait for at least one month or even a longer time. I hope that they will not reject me directly and I won't mind making another set of revisions if they accept my paper. But I know the chance I have of having my paper published is still unknown. Do journal editors always ask authors to revise their papers? I mean 'big revisions'.

I think its very rare for a paper to be accepted without revision.