In the first of an occasional series about publishing with P&P, I’ve written here about the life of a P&P article from submission through to publication. You probably know, or could guess, most of it. But we like to be transparent (and in any case it doesn’t seem fair to assume that everyone knows the process) so here goes. All submitted articles are read in the first instance in the editorial office. If they are really totally unsuited to the journal we’ll let you know straight away, so we don’t waste your time. Most, however, will be sent out to our readers. Nearly all refereeing for P&P is carried out by members of the Board. Often, we’ll subsequently send it to further readers (again, usually from the Board) for their opinions too. In due course (usually within four months of submission), the editor will write to you with a decision. It’s often a rejection: we are sent more than five times as many articles as we can publish. We try to make rejections as helpful as possible by including the comments from the readers and indicating why we don’t think the piece is right for P&P. Often it’s a question […]