Q: Why is the status of my paper showing "Editor Assigned" for more than a month?

Detailed Question -

I have submitted a manuscript in a Springer journal Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing on October 10, 2017. After 10 days, the status changed to "Editor Assigned". But now it's been more than a month and this status is not changing. What does it mean? My manuscript has still not been sent for peer review. Why is it taking such a long time with the editor? I have never experienced this much time for this stage during my previous submissions.

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

One possible reason for the delay in sending your paper for peer review could be that the editor is having difficulty finding a reviewer for your paper. This can happen if the paper is on a niche topic. Additionally, since the festive season is approaching, some reviewers might not be willing to take up extra work at this stage. This is not an unusual scenario, and I have come across cases where this status has taken two months or even more. However, it might be a good idea to write to the editor politely inquiring why the status is taking so long. You can ask if the delay is due to difficulty in finding reviewers and volunteer to suggest reviewers if you haven't done so already.

Delays can and do occur at different stages of the journal evaluation process, and you need not worry too much. However, it is important to write to the journal from time to time in case of delays as this can sometimes help process things faster.

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