Re: Still hoping?

From: Tim Peters (tim.one_at_comcast.net)
Date: 02/19/05 

Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 03:55:10 -0500

[JSH]
[...]
> I'll admit that I have been thinking to myself that maybe talking a lot
> about the Annals of Mathematics having my paper isn't the best idea.
[...]
> So yeah, they still have the paper. After the four month point I think
> I'd start getting a feeling of certainty that it'd get accepted.

If you go to

    http://www.math.princeton.edu/~annals/issues/issues.html

and click on the "Accepted Papers" links, you'll see that the time between
submission and acceptance is usually at least a year, sometimes as long as
four years. That's not uncommon at a major print journal.

The amount of time you wait without getting feedback isn't really related to
its chance of acceptance or rejection -- odds are high in either case that
an honest-to-gosh reviewer hasn't even looked at it yet (there's always a
backlog to work off first).

BTW, SWJPAM closed down because it ran out of money. That's not uncommon
for minor e-journals either. Is it possible that not everything revolves
around you? Nah, that can't be it.

[...]
> Are any of you ready to proclaim your great intellectual superiority to
> that journal, which has a paper of mine for now over three months that
> many of you would loudly proclaim as just total crap not worth
> considering?

Have you shown this paper to anyone here?

[...]
> And, make no mistake, I have no problem with some of you setting
> yourselves up for some of the worst days of your lives.

Thanks for sharing that -- I know it can feel threatening to share your good
feelings about others, and it takes real courage to open yourself up like
that. I hope you have a nice day too.