Given a "Date Revision Due" for revised submission of a journal paper, am I required to submit before the beginning or the end of that date?

Question

I am submitting a revised manuscript to an Elsevier journal. However, English is my second language and I am confused about the meaning of "Date Revision Due"!

The journal editorial system indicates "Sep 19, 2015" as Date Revision Due. Please tell me should I submit the revised manuscript before "Sep 18,2015 11:59 PM" or "Sep 19,2015 11:59 PM"?!

I guess the local timezone of the journal should also be considered. In addition, Can I submit the revised manuscript by automatic editorial system even if I miss this deadline?

Answer 1

Unlike conferences, a journal's "date due" is rarely quite so precise a moment; this is because papers are all being dealt with asynchronously, on an as-arrived basis, rather than as a massive batch of hundreds all arriving near-simultaneously as for a big engineering conference.

Most journals will be comfortable with you submitting a little late if necessary (though there are some that will automatically discard your paper if you don't hit their deadline). Thus, rather than fretting about time-zones, I would recommend that if you are worried about a last-minute submission, you instead email the handling editor and ask for a short extension.

Answer 2

In all cases I know, submission dates mean "on that date", not "before that date". This means it's the 19th of September, 23:59, the publisher's local time.

...and if you think it's getting tight, you should be able to nicely ask for an extension:

This is not a conference or similar, where the server will stop accepting submissions at midnight. This is usually done to limit the number of abstracts that organizers have to sift through. If your article is already accepted for publication, they won't discard it because you submitted the revision half a day late. That said: of course asking before things go awry is always better than saying nothing and submitting late.

Answer 3

Date revision due means the you should submit your revised manuscript by that date and time. However in case you think you could not submit, then you can always request the editor at least 3-4 days before to make an extension for a week or two.

Answer 4

At the very bottom, they are doing you a favour publishing your paper. Don't make their job harder than absolutely necessary. I.e., try to submit on (or before) due date, or ask politely (with enough time beforehand!) for an extension. Or just submit your paper for the next issue (unless it is some special issue on your particular topic).