How long is too long for advisor to not read my manuscript?

[egFace]

I worked very hard on a set of experiments that took a very long time. I wrote a manuscript detailing the results of the experiments and sent it to my advisor exactly 1 month ago. I didn't get a reply, so I sent a follow-up email a couple of weeks later. I still haven't received a reply, and I sent an additional follow-up email today. I am his only grad student, and he does not have any postdocs. He teaches one course. I feel like he should have time to read my manuscript (which is a brief communications paper, so it isn't even that long), and I am frustrated. How long is too long for an advisor not to read or reply to my request to read my manuscript? By the way, his name is on it so he has good incentive. 

[juilletmercredi]

I will warn you that my answer is partially colored by my three years in non-academic research in industry, where not responding to emails within 24 hours is enough to make people concerned that you didn't receive the email or maybe you are sick or dead. Personally, I think more than a week without even replying (sure, I got your email, I am reading it over, expect to be done by X date) is too long, but a lot of academics don't confirm receipt - they only send you mail back when they have something to send you. Even in that case, though, a month is a reasonable period of time to expect someone to review a paper in or at least give you an update on where they are. It's definitely enough time for him to at least respond to you and let you know where he is in the process (even if the response is to say "sorry I haven't responded, I got your chapter, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.")

Is this a paper for publication, or a paper you need his sign-off on (like a thesis or MA essay or something)? Or both? I'm not advocating that you do this, but one of the tactics I took for an advisor who wasn't super responsive to requests to review is that by my second or third follow-up (and after ample time - usually about 3-4 weeks) I let him know that if I didn't hear from him I was going to ahead and submit the paper.

IF you need sign-off - does your advisor have an office? Does he have an office phone number? If he's not replying to your emails, I'd stop by his office and/or call him on the phone to politely inquire if he has seen your emails.

[iwearflowers]

21 hours ago, juilletmercredi said:

IF you need sign-off - does your advisor have an office? Does he have an office phone number? If he's not replying to your emails, I'd stop by his office and/or call him on the phone to politely inquire if he has seen your emails.

Another option is to find out if there is an administrative person (or even another researcher) who helps with his schedule or can at least prod him about things like this. I've definitely worked with faculty who you'll never get a response from unless you copy their assistant/the department admin/the PD or PM for their study. Good luck!