Q: What does a change from "Awaiting ED recommendations" to "Awaiting reviewer invitation" mean?
For at least one month, my paper's status was "Awaiting ED recommendations," then it changed to "Awaiting reviewer invitation," is it good or bad?
You have not mentioned the statuses that your paper went through before reaching "Awaiting ED recommendations." Generally, the status changes to "Awaiting ED recommendations" once peer review for the paper is done and the reviewer comments have come in. If that was the case for your paper, then a subsequent change to "Awaiting reviewer invitation" would mean that the editor is sending your paper for an additional review.
This is often a part of the journal evaluation processes, especially when the reviews that have already come in are conflicting or weak and the editor is unable to arrive at a decision based on them. The editor then feels the need for an additional review to be able to give a fair judgment on the manuscript.
In my opinion, this is probably what has happened to your paper, which is why the status has changed to "Awaiting reviewer invitation." Once the reviewer accepts the invitation, the status will change to "Under review" once again.
Related reading:
'Awaiting reviewer invitation' probably means that the manuscript is waiting to be assigned to a peer reviewer.
This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage