Q: Does a direct "Decision in process" for a revised paper without a second round of peer review indicate rejection?
I would like to ask whether you had a similar experience. After 1.5 months since the first submission, I got a major revision but it made me happy as all the comments were positive mainly on the restructuring of some words, adding references, etc. Then I revised and sent it back. The status (as usual) changed directly to "With editor" on the system and after 3 days, I received a notification in my email that my manuscript was assigned to an editor. Yesterday after 10 days, I checked the status again and saw that it had changed to "Decision in process". Does this indicate a rejection?
Asked on 13 Nov, 2018
While most papers that receive a major revision are sent for a second round of peer review, there are exceptions. The editor might not send a revised paper for peer review if he/she feels that he/she will be able to evaluate whether the revisions have been done successfully without inputs from reviewers.
In your case, you have mentioned that most of the revisions were related to grammar, word choice, and formatting. This probably means that you were required to make very few subject-specific corrections. Revisions with regard to language and formatting would not be difficult for the editor to evaluate. Therefore, he/she could probably arrive at a decision without the help of a reviewer. Thus, this status change does not necessarily indicate a rejection. In fact, since the reviewers' comments were positive, you can be hopeful.
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