Q: Does a quick change from 'Awaiting ED decision' to 'Awaiting decision approval' mean desk rejection?

The journal Electron Device Letters (EDL), as the name suggests, is for publishing letters, that is, shorter articles – about four pages long (including references), going by the description on the journal site. This could be another reason for the swift movement from submission to the ED/EIC decision – as this is a shorter piece.

However, there are other possibilities for such a quick movement: they may ask you to reject and resubmit or to submit to another journal from IEEE. As IEED has many journals, they may feel the letter/article might fit better with another journal from the same publisher. In some cases, based on the quality of your manuscript, it might even be a direct accept, again, going by the shorter length of these articles. While we hope this could be the case, you would know your submission best and be in a better position to assess.

What we would suggest though is to simply wait to hear from them, as they seem to be quite prompt with their evaluation and decision-making. In the ‘worst’ case that this is indeed a reject, as you may know, you could make changes to the manuscript and submit to another journal.

Based on the points discussed above, you may find the following resources helpful:

• Does a direct 'Decision in Process' status indicate rejection?
• A guide to understanding journal statuses [Handbook]
• Most common reasons for journal rejection

All the best for the next update!