Q: Why did the status on my paper change so quickly between 'With Editor' and 'Submitted to Journal?'
After the ‘With Editor’ status, my submission went back to being ‘Submitted to Journal’ and then back to ‘With Editor.’ Why would the editor send a paper back to the administrative staff? Also, when s/he got it back from them after six days, s/he immediately (in less than 20 minutes) sent it out for review.
From what you have mentioned, these rapid changes seem to indicate that there was some internal issue rather than an issue with the paper. Perhaps the admin staff had missed out some check or some part of the process and needed to redo this during the second ‘Submitted to Journal’ status. As it took them six days to resolve this, perhaps there was some issue with a staff member (maybe they were on leave) or even some glitch with the system. The associate editor (AE) may have found the paper worthy of review after an initial look itself, but perhaps needed this matter to be resolved. Once it was, they immediately sent it for peer review.
You haven’t mentioned the status change after the second ‘With Editor’ update. If the paper has indeed been sent for peer review, the status would have changed to something like ‘Under Review,’ ‘Reviewer Assigned,’ or ‘Technical Editor Assigned.’ Anyway, great that your paper has moved to peer review. Now, you need to wait for the review comments and possible decision on the paper. Good luck for that!
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This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage