Q: Why is the status of my paper unchanged but the status date changed?

Detailed Question -

Hello to everyone. I submitted a manuscript to the journal on November 4th. after a day, the status changed to "Assignment editor pending". and the status date showed 5th November. For more than a month the status remained unchanged. Now (December 28th) the status is the same as before but the status date has changed to December 16th. what does it mean?

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

I understand that once you submit your paper, the processing time can be nailbiting. From what you've mentioned, the changing dates indicate that the journal is actively looking at the manuscript. In case of most journals, the date changes when someone from the journal accesses your paper at the backend. So it'd be a good idea to wait for some more time as the status would change too once the editor is assigned. If nothing changes after a couple of weeks, you can send out a polite inquiry to the journal. 

Related reading:

Why does the status date of a submission change periodically though the status remains unchanged?