Q: What does it mean if a day after the submission of a manuscript, the status is shown as 'Decision in progress'?

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

This typically does not spell good. :-/ This means that the Associate Editor (AE), the one who oversees your manuscript, has had a look at it and is probably not considering it for peer review/publication. This could be for any of several reasons, but the usual ones are that there could be a scope mismatch, the study is not novel (enough), and the findings are not solid enough.

The AE communicates their decision to the Editor-in-Chief (EiC), who makes the final decision (indicated by the ‘Decision in Process’ or ‘Decision in Progress’ status). However, at times, the EiC may rescind the AE’s decision. At other times, they may suggest submitting it to a sister journal (in case this is a big publisher). So, despite the quick change to Decision in Progress, you do have some reason to hope.

You could wait for the next update, and then decide your next steps. In case it’s a (desk-)rejection, as you may know, you may make some changes to the manuscript as necessary (based on any feedback the AE provides you) and submit to another journal.

Additionally, you may wish to consider our new AI-powered platform, R Pubsure, which aims to help you avoid or minimize desk rejection. It does this in two ways. First, its machine check allows you to make improvements to your manuscript until it’s submission-ready. Once so, you then have the opportunity to showcase your improved manuscript to several editors on the platform, one of whom may consider it for publication in their journal. If interested, you may learn more about the platform here: R Pubsure

And here are some resources you may go through to learn more about how to reduce your chances of desk rejection:

Hope this helps. All the best for whatever’s next!

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