Q: What should I do if the status “under review” shows twice for my revised manuscript?
I submitted a manuscript in an Elsevier journal around 3.5 months ago. Within 1.5 months of submission of the original manuscript, I got the reviewers' comments. After making corrections I have submitted the revised manuscript around 1.5 months ago. The status was "with Editor" until 2 weeks and then it went to "under review." Around 3 weeks later, they updated the status "under review" again. Usually, peer review for a revised paper takes shorter time compared to the original manuscript. Could anyone please suggest the necessary steps that should I take in this situation? Thanks in advance.
From your description, it seems that the status has remained "under review" for over three weeks but the status date has changed once. This indicates that someone has accessed the database for your paper. It could be either the editor or one of the reviewers. It is possible that one reviewer has submitted his/her comments which is why the status date changed. But the status did not change as the other reviewers' comments are still pending. The status will change only when all the reviews have come in.
Another possibility is that the editor accessed the database to check whether the reviews have come in. I don't think you need to do anything now. As you have pointed out, the review time for a revised manuscript should ideally be shorter than that of the original manuscript as the reviewers are already familiar with the paper. However, this may not always happen. Moreover, three weeks is not too long for a review, so it might be best to just wait it out for now. If you don't see a status change in the next couple of weeks, you can send a polite inquiry to the editor.
Related reading:
What is the time taken for the re-review process once we submit a revised manuscript?
Answer: It is likely that the status was updated by the journal in the system and this change has been logged again. Therefore you see 2 entries 'under review'. The delay in response is most likely because the reviewer is taking longer to come back with comments/decision. Since the time taken is quite long, and if you are concerned, you can send a status inquiry to the journal editor.
Answer: The journal may update the status as “under review” under several circumstances. It may be that the one or more reviewers are still reviewing the manuscript, or the journal may require an opinion from an additional expert to comment of the revisions. Considering the journal has taken a significant amount of time to provide a decision, you can send an inquiry to the journal editor to ask the status of your manuscript.
