Q: Will my revised and resubmitted paper be regarded as a new submission?
We submitted a research article in October 2017. The corresponding author told me that the manuscript was rejected; but actually, the Chief Editor and reviewers had asked for revision and resubmission. Usually in ScholarOne, there are two months for revision as per the journal website. However, I resubmitted the article on April 13, 2018. After resubmission, if I remember correctly, the status changes were – “Admin processing,” “Assigning AE” and “Selecting reviewers.” I wonder if the article was sent to the same two reviewers and if it was considered a new submission. This article is important to me as it is my PhD work. After “Selecting reviewers,” the status changed to “Awaiting AE recommendation.” After this, the status indicated “Awaiting EE decision.” All these changes are adding ambiguity and making me worried and tense, especially since I am not the corresponding author.
It is unclear from your question as to when the editor and reviewers had asked you to revise and resubmit the paper. If the author guidelines and the letter from the journal specifically say that you need to revise and resubmit within 2 months, then in most cases, they will expect you to adhere to this timeline unless you specifically write to the journal editor and request for an extension of the submission deadline.
In most cases, they will consider your manuscript as a new submission if you have not conformed to the deadline. In such cases, a new ID will be assigned to your manuscript. You can compare the manuscript ID of your previous submission and the revised submission to know this.
Also, when you revise and resubmit, the initial screening process and selecting reviewers is usually not done since your revised manuscript is sent to the same reviewers who reviewed your initial submission. Thus, the status changes you have mentioned seem to indicate that the paper is being considered as a new submission.
However, the best way to confirm this would be to write to the journal editor. You could ask the corresponding author to write an email to the editor with a copy to you and the other authors.
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