After submitting a paper to a journal, usually an email is sent to the corresponding author and the co-authors, wherein it demands the approve of them for their contributions to the paper. If the corresponding author and all of the co-authors except one, have approved their contributions to the paper by the link provided in the email, can it cause some problems and issues in the initial screening stage of the paper, such as obliging the corresponding author to get the approval of the co-author who did not approve his contribution to the paper before any further action or decision by the journal?
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7I'd expect so. Otherwise it would be pointless to ask for co-authors' approval. (Not every journal does that though.)– Christian HennigCommented Jun 2 at 23:00
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3It's entirely up to the individual journal how to handle that situation.– Bryan Krause ♦Commented Jun 2 at 23:01
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@ChristianHennig The question is at what point does it make a difference? A journal could reasonably go to pre-screening or perhaps review before a missing approval would hold things up. The majority of cases are overlooked e-mail type issues, not actual authorship disputes.– user71659Commented Jun 3 at 17:09
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Can you email that coauthor with a reminder that approval is needed?– Andreas BlassCommented Jun 3 at 19:00
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@Andreas Blass, Sending an email to inform the coauthor which hasn't approve the paper is possible, but i want to know what happens if the journal does not receive the coauthor's approval upon the submission/before the assignment of an editor to that paper?– sherl.lolCommented Jun 4 at 2:04
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2 Answers
Some journals, such as the one you've submitted to, require explicit approval from all co-authors, other simply assume implicit approval (which can be problematic if an author later states they don't approve). But obviously, all authors of a manuscript must approve of it, since they are ultimately responsible for it.
Clearly, in your case, approval of all authors is required for the submission to proceed. There are two scenarios.
Your co-author simply forgot to approve and/or is currently unable (on holiday, offline etc) to do so. In this case, you simply have to wait this out.
Your co-author genuinely does not approve of the paper. In this case, the paper should never have been submitted. I recommend to retract the submission and seek to alter the manuscript such that all authors approve of it, then re-submit. This may not be easy, if there are opposing opinions, but even that can be resolved by giving space to all such opposing opinions (and stating that the authors couldn't resolve this issue between them -- I have seen this in published papers). Ultimately, if one person cannot be made happy, they may/should consider to withdraw their authorship.
I can't say about the situation you describe, but in the setup I'm familiar with, approval by co-authors is implicitly assumed. You email all coauthors to say a manuscript has been received, and you cc them in decisions or status updates, but you don't expect a reply from them, and you assume that if they do not approve they will notify you.
Because approval is implicitly assumed, it's possible to proceed directly to peer review before every co-author responds. In fact, if you are after shorter turnaround times, you can reasonably send the manuscript for review while waiting for the co-authors to respond.
Of course, if there is a "I did not approve of this paper" reply, then the manuscript is immediately put on hold while the authors figure it out.
