Q: What do the statuses 'Awaiting Final Decision' and 'Awaiting Reviewer Selection' appearing together mean?

Detailed Question -

I have submitted a manuscript to a pediatrics-related journal. My manuscript had earlier gone through English proofreading by a professional vendor. The day after the submission though, the two statuses of ‘Awaiting Final Decision’ and ‘Awaiting Reviewer Decision’ were displayed together. What does this mean?

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

This is odd. It could be a glitch in the system or an erroneous update made by either the Associate Editor (AE) or an administrator. About the statuses, here’s what they mean (as you may probably know too).

  • Awaiting Final Decision: This is the decision by the Editor-in-Chief (EIC). This is based on the AE’s recommendation. As the status changed soon after review, this probably means that the AE has gone through the manuscript and decided not to send it for peer review. This could be for any of several reasons: a scope mismatch, a matter of novelty, or a matter of quality. However, this may not always mean a desk rejection. If it’s a scope mismatch and if it’s a big publisher with many journals, they may ask you to submit to a related journal with a greater scope match. At times, it may also be a reject-and-resubmit decision. So, you have some reason to hope. :-)
  • Awaiting Reviewer Selection: This means that the AE has gone through the manuscript, and based on the factors mentioned above, decided to send it for peer review, and is therefore, now looking out for suitable reviewers.

Again, the two statuses occurring together is surprising. In case one happened before the other, that could help clarify the matter a bit. For instance, if ‘Awaiting Final Decision’ happened earlier, it may mean the AE first decided to refer their decision to the EIC, but changed their mind, and then decided to send it for review. In case ‘Awaiting Reviewer Selection’ happened earlier, they initially decided to send it for review, but changed their mind, and decided to refer it to the EIC instead.

You should wait for the next update for things to clear up. However, in case there is no update for, say, a week, you should write to them to check on this.

For more help with understanding journal statuses and communicating to journals, you may find the following handbooks useful:

Finally, as you mentioned that you used a professional vendor for the English editing, we hope you will consider our English editing service for future manuscripts. You may learn more here: English Editing Service

For now though, all the best for the next update!

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