Q: What does 'Editorial assignment pending' on resubmission mean for a Springer Nature journal?

Hi Ramesh – Welcome to the forum!

To start off, six months since submitting your paper is a bit of a while, but given that it’s a Springer Nature journal, it seems understandable. However, in these six months, your manuscript has been progressing along in the system – from submission to peer review to revision to resubmission. So, while the final decision may take some time, you may have some reason to be hopeful. :-)

Coming to your query, what ‘Editorial assignment pending’ at this stage means is that your revised manuscript is awaiting a review by an associate editor (AE). It was perhaps a minor revision or not a very extensive major revision. So, perhaps the AE believes they can check the manuscript on their own. In some cases, it may also mean that the AE wishes to see it once before sending it to the peer reviewers for a second review.

As it’s about three weeks since this status, you could wait for a week or so to see if there’s an update. If not, you could drop them a mail. All the best for the next stages!

In the meantime, you may find it worthwhile to go through these related resources:

• What does a status change from "Awaiting reviewer score" back to "Awaiting reviewer assignment" mean?
• Editorial decision-making: what are the possible outcomes for a manuscript?
• Behind the scenes: How a journal editor reaches a decision on a manuscript after peer review

Dear  Irfan Syed,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply.

Thanks

Ramesh

You are welcome, Ramesh. :-)