I submitted a paper to a journal, which was accepted for publishing. I made the payment and signed the copyright form. I enquired the state of the transaction of the bank and the amount was credited to the journal’s account. After that, I got no response from their side.
What should I do?
Before jumping to conclusions, the first thing to do is to send a polite email to the editor for an acknowledgement or current status of transaction. Short delays are manageable, but how long or short differs from one journal to another.
There are several factors that you might have to think through to determine your next action.
Whether you have submitted your manuscript to a hijacked/predatory journal; these journals might pretend to be a reputable journal by sounding the same but differing in spelling to mislead you.
Whether the journal is reputable; one of the ways to rule this out would be to check the volume and issue number. This would give an idea of how long was this journal was publishing.
Whether this level of delay is usual; sometimes even if the money is credited on the other end, it may take some time reach the necessary department.
Resorting to legal action would be the last thing to do.
