Q: What is the meaning of the status "Returned for corrections"?

You have not mentioned the previous statuses that your paper has encountered; therefore, I can give only a very generic answer. There are two situations in which the status ‘Returned for corrections’ can be displayed.

1. If this status is showing up soon after submission of your manuscript, it probably means that there is some formatting error due to which your paper is being returned to you. In that case, you should go through the author submission guidelines carefully, In particular, make a note of the length, number of references, number of tables, figures, formatting guidelines, etc. as these are possible areas of error. You should ideally be informed of the error that needs to be corrected, either as a comment within the manuscript or over email. If you cannot identify the error, you can write to the journal asking them where you went wrong.

2. If the status ‘Returned for corrections’ is displayed after the paper is accepted, it means the journal will be sending you an initial print of your paper for checking before it goes into the final print. This is also known as “proofing the paper”. You will need to check that there are no typos or other mistakes in your paper – factually, grammatically, stylistically. However, you shouldn’t make any major revisions, unless there is a glaring error, as this can affect the timelines. When you submit your checked version, you could send them a list of comments. The journal might take some time to send you initial print after the status has changed. However, in case you don’t hear from them in a week’s time, you could consider writing to the editor. Also, here are a couple of relevant pieces about proofing checks and timelines that you will find helpful.

• What is the minimum number of comments to be included while proofing my paper?
• How long does it take to receive the online proof of an accepted article?