publications - Manuscript in pipeline, corresponding author between jobs

What happens to manuscripts needing revision while the corresponding author is between academic jobs?

Not every academic will always find a new position seamlessly after the previous one. For example, PhD students may still have papers in the pipeline after finishing their PhD, before finding a post-doc. What do academics do when a manuscript needs revision under such conditions? Note that I'm exclusively thinking of people who do aim to remain in academia; if people leave academia, the situation is different in any case.

Some alternatives I can think of:

• 
  

  Wait until one has a new position. This implies a considerable delay, possibly meaning resubmitting a manuscript needed only minor revisions.

  
  


• 
  
  

  Make another co-author corresponding author.

  
  


• 
  

  Finish it in their own time. This might have practical issues; for example, they will have no affiliation and might not even have an academic e-mail address (depending on how quickly the previous institution removes accounts).

  
  

There may be other alternatives that I'm not thinking of.

What are peoples' experiences about this?

Answer

Finish it in their own time (that is, if they want to) The only downsides you mention are of a practical nature. I'll explain below why they are not actually relevant.

You don't need an academic affiliation in order to publish in journals. But, I believe you might have a misconception of the affiliations listed on paper: affiliations listed are institutions that provided resources for the job. In particular, while your current employer should in most cases be listed as an affiliation, it doesn't mean that stops when you leave. If part of the work was performed with their resources, they should be listed as an affiliation. In particular, if your performed at least part of the work under their employment, you should list them.

As a special case: if an author (not just the corresponding author, but any author) has a new employer, but the work was entirely done without their resources, it is not an affiliation but they can usually be mentioned as a footnote with the text “Current address”.