Q: What does it mean paper status reverts to Editor assignment pending after review complete?
Respected Guys. Greetings. On April 2nd, I have submitted Revision 3 . The comments after R2 were The paper can be published. But yesterday I saw Editor assignment pending, then reviews completed, then back to editor assignment pending. What does this inversion mean?
Answer: I really wish that I could answer your question. I think the editor may be looking for an additional reviewer to look over the manuscript. The thing that an author may not realize is that there are also private comments that go directly to the editor from the peer reviewer. They may have suggested something that you may not be aware of. Also, if the R3 version was too different from R2, then also they may need to review it again. One other possibility is that the original reviewers were not available and the editor had to find new reviewers this third round. Hopefully things will be expedited. Since the R2 peer review seemed positive, I think the additional time delay may be simply getting one more opinion - rather than any detailed review. If you wish, you can send an email to the editor asking about the status of the manuscript.
