Q: How long does an experimental paper remain under editorial processing in an Elsevier journal?
I submitted a experimental paper to an Elsevier journal(Franklin) 53 days ago. The status of the manuscript changed from "With Editor" to "Editor Invited" after one week. Then it came back to "With Editor" again. Now, the status of the manuscript has remained "With Editor" for 34 days! Is it normal time for this journal? Should I send a message to speed up the editorial process?
From your status descriptions, it seems that the paper is not making progress, but it could be otherwise. The first time the status "With Editor" appeared, the paper was probably with the Editor-in-chief (EiC). The status changed to "Editor Assigned" when the EiC assigned the manuscript to an Associate Editor (AE) who would be responsible for your manuscript till it is accepted or rejected. The status change back to "With Editor" indicates two possibilities:
1. The EiC assigned the paper to an AE, but the AE declined the invitation, so the manuscript came back to the EiC. In this case, the "Editor" in the "With Editor" status is the EiC.
2. The second possibility is that the EiC assigned the paper to an AE who accepted the invitation. In this case, the "Editor" in the "With Editor" status would refer to the AE.
If the second option is true, the paper has definitely made some progress and is now possibly going through the editorial screening to determine whether it would be sent for peer review or desk rejected.
However, it would be a good idea to send an inquiry to the journal asking for an update on the current status of the paper.
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This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage