Q: Manuscript status changing from "Under Review" to "Reviewers Assigned" after four months
I have submitted a manuscript to a Springer journal. The status turned to "Under Review" after two weeks and remained the same for four months. Then, it changed back to "Reviewers Assigned". What could be the possible reason for such a change? Does this mean, I have to wait at least another four months to get a first decision?
Dear Author,
Thank you for your question. The peer review process does seem to be taking longer than usual. Most journals take 3-5 months to complete the entire peer review process.
Based on your question, it seems that you submitted your paper 4 months back. The status changed to “Under Review” after 14 days but then remained the same for 4 months. However, now, the status has once again changed to “Reviewers Assigned.” This means that the peer review process is restarting once again. I would recommend writing to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal asking for an update regarding the review status (instead of directly asking the Editor-in-Chief a reason for the delay).
This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage