Q: Can I send an inquiry to the journal if the status shows "Under Editor Evaluation" for a month?
I submitted a paper to an Elsevier journal, and some time agao, the status of my paper changed from "Required Reviews Completed" to "Under Editor Evaluation." But it is in the same position for the past one month. Generally how much time does it take for this status to change? Can I I send an inquiry to the editor about the status?
Since the status has changed from "Required reviews completed" to "Under editor evaluation," it means that the review for your paper is done and the editor will now go through the reviews and make a recommendation on whether your paper should be rejected or accepted with major/minor revisions. This status can take more than a month. The reason for this being that there are often a number of papers queued up at the editor's desk waiting to be evaluated. However, it would be a good idea to send an inquiry to the editor as this sometimes helps quicken the process. You can send in a polite email asking by when you can expect to see a status change.
We have a handbook on templates for communicating with the journal which includes a template for inquiring about the status of a paper.
Related reading:
Tracking your manuscript status in journal submission systems
This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage