Q: What does a change of status from 'Under Review' to 'Editor Assigned' mean?

Detailed Question -

I submitted a manuscript to a Springer journal after a major revision. The manuscript was under review for a duration of five months. However, suddenly, the status changed from 'Under Review' to 'Editor Assigned.' What does this mean?

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

The status ‘Editor Assigned’ is typically an initial status update, made soon after the manuscript has been submitted to the journal. However, statuses can vary from journal to journal. In this case, the status probably means that the manuscript has been assigned to the initial Associate Editor (AE) - who sent your manuscript for peer review - for an evaluation based on the peer review comments. If this is indeed the case, you should see another status update soon. If not, you could write to them requesting an update and also seeking clarification on this somewhat atypical status change.

Hope that helps. For more information on journal statuses, you may find this handbook handy: A guide to understanding journal statuses

All the best for the next update!