Q: What should I do if the status of my manuscript hasn't changed but the editorial board says it's with the reviewers?

Detailed Question -

I submitted a paper to a journal one month ago via ScholarOne. The status hasn't changed since the submission. Thus, I sent a mail to the editorial board and they said that they have submitted the paper to the reviewers. I checked the system again and haven't found any changes in the status of the manuscript!

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

Straight off, it’s great that you are keeping such a close watch on your paper. You are no doubt eager to know its progress and outcome. It’s also great to see that you are quite in the know of the publishing process and/or workflow. So, props for everything there!

Coming to your query, it is a bit unusual that the status hasn’t changed since the submission, yet the paper has gone to the reviewers. Typically, depending on the journal, there should have been at least three or four updates by now!

So, this could be for a few reasons. One, every journal uses the ScholarOne system in its own way, with some also making customizations to it. Two, there are usually some glitches with the ScholarOne system in every release. This time’s release was last month, about the time you submitted your paper. So, that could be an issue. Finally, it could simply be that the editing team, including the associate editor (AE), are very busy with their publication tasks, although that shouldn’t really be an excuse. :-/

Anyway, the good thing is that you have been following up with them. The bad thing of course (if they don’t update the system) is that you’ll have to keep following up with them. As it’s been about 1.5 months since submission and the manuscript is presently in peer review, you could wait a fortnight or so before checking in with them again. Maybe the next time you write to them, you could also say how great it would be if the status would also be updated in the system. Of course, we’ll trust you to do this as diplomatically as possible. :-)

For more insights, you may refer to these similar or related queries by other researchers:

Hope that helps. And all the best for the next stages!

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