system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
My advisor hasn't read my paper draft I sent him 2+ months ago. Should I be more forceful in my request or keep waiting?

At the beginning of December, I sent my advisor a draft of a paper I want to submit which he'll be a coauthor on. I need held deciding *where* to submit, and putting some finishing touches on it. As far as I can tell, all he needs to do is read the paper and say, "This is good, submit to the Journal of Really Cool Findings", or say "If you do XX and YY, you'll be able to submit to the Journal of Really Cool Findings."  It's frustrating because this paper is just about done, but I'm awaiting his final approval. I really want to submit before I forget the details of the work I did.

I think this is taking so long because he's unusually busy this semester. He's normally very busy, but this semesters he's developing a class from scratch in addition to his standard research load. I do not want to keep asking my advisor to help me push out this paper; he is always respectful of my schedule and never forces me to work at a pace I feel uncomfortable with. I would like to extend the same courtesy to him. At the same time, I want to get this done, and I think relatively little work is required from him to do that.

What is the best way to handle this? Should I wait until my advisor helps me through the submission processor on his own time (maybe with occasional gentle reminders), or should I be more forceful with my requests? I lean towards the former, but I wanted more input.
gpt
Maybe you could send him an email suggesting two journals where you think you could submit the paper, and ask if he has any preference among the two options.

Then you can politely ask if he had time to read the paper, or, if he is busy, when does he expects to be able to do it.