Request an extension of revision deadline over the holidays

Question

I have submitted a paper to an Elsevier journal. They sent the first decision on my paper as a major revision on October 28 and gave me two months to revise the manuscript.

Currently, the deadline is so close while I am stuck in a problem with my manuscript. I sent a request of extension on the night of December 24 to the editorial office of the journal.

Now, I am worried about not hearing from them before missing the deadline due to the holidays.

Is their office closed on December 26? (I think their office is located in the UK.)

What is your suggestion in this case?

If I miss the deadline without no hearing from the editor due to holidays, the editor will extend the deadline after seeing my request sent on December 24?

Answer 1

Let me recapture my understanding of your situation:

• You cannot make an appropriate resubmission in time.
• You informed the appropriate person of this fact (hopefully giving appropriate reasoning).

I further assume that:

• The person who will decide whether you get an extension can decide on a per-case basis using common sense and is not dogmatically bound to rules.
• Further communication cannot possibly have any positive effect.

Then, there is nothing you can do, except hoping the person deciding upon the extension is reasonable and decides in your favour. Whether this is actually the case is something that we cannot predict any better than you. Whether the journal office is open should hardly matter (and again is something that we cannot tell any better than you).

Answer 2

In my experience, these deadlines are more "suggestions" than hard deadlines (as always, this may be field-specific). If you miss them by weeks with no communication, that's a problem and the associate editor is going to be annoyed and bug you. A few days (or anything reasonable with communication) shouldn't be a problem. After all, the journal has invested resources in the paper already and, presumably, wants to publish it. They'd rather you send work that doesn't require a second round of revisions.