Q: How many days it takes for the status to change from 'AE Not Assigned-Submitted'?

The current status, as you may possibly know, means that the system has acknowledged receipt of your submission, but an Associate Editor (AE) has not been assigned yet. It’s not always easy to say how long it will take for an AE to be assigned to your paper – it could well be a few days to some days to a couple of weeks or more. This depends on factors such as the stature of the journal, the number of submissions, and the topic and/or field of your paper. However, as this is an internal check, they should be able to get to your paper soon. In case you don’t hear from them for, say, a month or so (in a worst case), you may consider writing to them requesting an update.

For the two points discussed above (status update and communication), you may find the following handbooks helpful:

• A guide to understanding journal statuses
• Templates for communicating with the journal

Here’s hoping you hear from them soon!