Q: What does the status 'Awaiting reviewer scores' without assigning GE mean?

Hi. There are some parts of your query that were not clear. So, we have either edited them or are attempting to clarify them here.

Firstly, you have talked about ‘ED’ and ‘GE.’ These stand for the associate editor and guest editor respectively. (For most journals, the associate editor is referred to as the AE.) A manuscript can have either an ED (AE) assigned or a GE, not both (unless this is for a special issue). The GE, as the name suggests, is an external editor and is assigned when the journal cannot find an internal editor to handle the manuscript. For a special issue though, there may be a GE assigned.

So, when you have talked about the status change, it seems to be your understanding of what has happened. However, here’s our understanding. It has been a month since you submitted your paper. You haven’t mentioned the statuses before ‘Awaiting reviewer response.’ However, as it has been a month since submission and the recent two statuses have been ‘Awaiting reviewer response’ and ‘Awaiting reviewer scores,’ it suggests that your manuscript went for a peer review (indicated by the first status) and is now awaiting the scores (comments/opinions) of the peer reviewers (indicated by the second status).

To answer each of your questions specifically…

• Is it possible to be reviewed without assigning the GE? Yes, as mentioned above, if a GE is not needed, the ED (internal) performs the initial review of the paper – for factors such as scope match, quality of the paper, and adherence to guidelines. If these are fine, they send the paper for a peer review, which seems to have happened in your case.
• What is the stage of my paper? As mentioned above too, it seems to have gone for a peer review and is now awaiting the opinions of the peer reviewers.
• Does it mean my paper has been under review? As mentioned above, yes, it does indeed seem to have gone for a peer review.
• Or that the ED could reject my paper? The ED can make an initial decision on your paper, both when it’s first submitted and after the peer review. As your paper seems to have gone for a peer review, the ED will take in the comments of all the peer reviewers and then make an initial decision on your paper, which could be to revise and resubmit or to reject. However, note that the ED makes the initial decision and communicates this to the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) – also known as Executive Editor (EE) for some journals – who makes the final decision on the paper.

So, you could wait for some time for the next update or communication. If you don’t hear from them in say two or three weeks, you could send them a mail requesting an update.

Hope that helps.

For more information on the review and decision-making process at Emerald Journals, you may refer to this page: The journal peer review process

For more information on the decision-making process at journals in general, you may refer to this resource: Editorial decision-making – What are the possible outcomes for a manuscript?

For more information on the roles and statuses discussed above, you may refer to these queries by other researchers:

• Can you help me understand the status of my manuscripts on ScholarOne?
• What does the status "ED: Not Assigned, EE: Under Review" mean on ScholarOne?
• What does a change from "Awaiting ED recommendations" to "Awaiting reviewer invitation" mean?

All the best for the next steps!