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I submitted a 60-page paper to a reasonable math journal (Journal of Algebra) about 6 months ago. A few days ago I received an email stating that my paper was accepted. I did not get a referee report. I did not get any comments on my paper. Just an acceptance notice.

Is this usual? it seems very strange to me that the referee has absolutely no comment on a 60-page paper!

Should I ask the editor what happened?

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  • 9
    Yes, do ask, but you may have been very thorough and submitted a perfect paper - surely it must happen sometime.... – Solar Mike Oct 29 '18 at 11:41
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    Since the paper has been accepted, is there something more you're looking for from a report? – Lawrence Oct 29 '18 at 12:04
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    @Lawrence Even reports recommending acceptance tend to have some suggestions for improvements, even if it as trivial as a typo. – Anyon Oct 29 '18 at 12:30
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    @Lawrence Even in a case of no comments, I would expect a referee report stating this, so not having such a report indicates that there may have been some mistake, and clearing that up now may be easier than later on. – Tobias Kildetoft Oct 29 '18 at 13:29
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    @SolarMike: A 60-page paper? Without so much as a typo? In theory, yes, it might happen. In practice... Nah. – tomasz Oct 29 '18 at 16:50
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Yes, asking the editor about this seems very reasonable, as not getting any sort of report from the reviewers sounds like an error.
(I have published one paper in J. Algebra, and we did get a reviewer report, just as one would expect).

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