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Where is my manuscript

The status banner, what the review stage means, and what we do not tell you.
By Mahmoud Nassar
• 3 articles

Reading your status banner

The coloured band at the top of your submission page tells you where that one manuscript is, and whether anything is needed from you. It says nothing about any other paper, and nothing about how the decision is likely to go. A shorter version of the same thing appears on each row of your submissions list. The colours | Colour | What it means | States you may see | |---|---|---| | Amber | Something is needed from you | Not yet submitted · Revisions requested | | Blue | The manuscript is moving through peer review | In review · Reviews with the editor · Revisions with the editor | | Green | Accepted, or on its way to publication | Accepted · Copy-editing · Production · Scheduled · Published | | Red | Not accepted | Not accepted | | Slate | With us, and no action from you | Awaiting editor assignment · With the editorial office | Amber is the only colour that asks something of you. If the banner is not amber, nothing is waiting on you. The four-step tracker Underneath the headline is a tracker with four stages: Submission → Review → Copy-editing → Production It shows which of the four your manuscript has reached. A manuscript does not always pass through them at an even pace, and the tracker does not predict how long the next stage takes. The line under the headline This is what happens next, in one sentence. Where the next thing is ours to do, it says so. Where it is yours, it says what. Depending on the journal, the banner may also show the round of review, the date you submitted, and how many reviews have come in so far. It never shows who the reviewers are. See What we do not tell you about peer review. "With the editorial office" If you see this, it means your manuscript is with us and the exact state is not something the banner will describe. We would rather show you that than guess at a more specific label and be wrong. It is not a warning sign, and it does not mean anything has gone wrong. If the banner is missing, or looks stuck If there is no banner at all on a submission you completed, tell us and we will check the record. If the banner has not changed for a while and you want to know more than it says, write to contact@asidejournals.com with the journal and the submission number. We will look at your record and tell you what it shows. We will not guess at a date.

Last updated on Aug 17, 2026

What "Reviewers are being invited" means

It means an editor has taken your manuscript into peer review and is arranging the reviewers for this round. Nothing is needed from you while it says this. That is the whole of what it means. It is a description of where the manuscript sits, not a measure of progress and not a hint about the outcome. What it does not tell you How many people have been asked. The banner does not carry that number, and we do not give it out. See What we do not tell you about peer review. Whether anyone has said yes yet. The banner moves on when the round is under way. Until then it stays as it is. How long the stage will take. This varies by journal, by field and by the paper, and we will not invent an average for you. Where a journal publishes an expected timeline, it appears on the banner itself. Anything about the decision. No stage of the tracker is a signal, in either direction. Editors decide, after the reports are in. If it has not changed for some time That on its own does not tell you anything is wrong. Inviting reviewers on a specialised paper can take a while, and there is no way to read the length of this stage as good news or bad. If you would like to know where yours actually stands, ask. Write to contact@asidejournals.com with the journal and the submission number. We will read your record and tell you what it says, including the parts the banner does not show. What we can tell you is bounded by the rule in the next article, and it is the same for every author. What changes next When the round is running, the banner moves to In review. When the reports are back with the editor, it moves to Reviews with the editor. When a decision is made you will receive a letter, and the banner changes to match it. You do not have to watch the page. When a decision is made, or when something is needed from you, we write to you by email.

Last updated on Aug 17, 2026

What we do not tell you about peer review

There are three things we will not tell you about your paper's review, whoever asks and however the question is put. Who your reviewers are. Not names, not initials, not their institution, not anything that would let you work it out. Who was approached and what they said. Whether anyone was invited and said no, whether anyone was replaced, and the dates any of that happened. How the decision is likely to go. Including a general impression of how it is going. We will not say the reports look encouraging, or discouraging. This is not discretion applied case by case. There is no setting that turns any of it on, for anyone. Why Our journals use double-anonymous review. The reviewers do not know who you are, and you do not know who they are. That is what allows a reviewer to write honestly about a paper from a senior figure, or from a competing group, and it only works if it holds in both directions and in every case. It also protects you. The same rule is why nobody is told that you are the author of the paper they are assessing. What you can be told - Where your manuscript is, and what happens next: this is what the status banner is for. - Whether anything is needed from you. - The round of review your manuscript is in. - Depending on the journal, how many reviews have arrived so far. If you ask us for more than that, we will tell you plainly that we cannot answer, rather than answering vaguely. An answer we have not verified is worse for you than no answer. What you receive at the decision When the editor decides, you receive a letter with the reviewers' comments on your manuscript. The comments are passed on as written, with the reviewers' identities removed. The comments are the reviewers' assessment of the paper. The decision is the editor's, and the letter is where it is stated. If you think a reviewer has a conflict of interest Write to contact@asidejournals.com and say so, with the journal and the submission number. You do not need to name anyone, and you should not try to. Describe the concern and the editor handling your paper will consider it.

Last updated on Aug 17, 2026