Manuscript status is the label used to indicate the current position of a scholarly submission within a journal’s editorial process. It gives authors, editors, and journal staff a quick way to understand what is happening with a manuscript and whether any action is currently required.
For journals using Alkademy Press, manuscript status forms part of the digital record associated with each submission. Because manuscripts can remain active for extended periods and may involve several rounds of review or revision, having a clear indication of their current state helps users understand where attention is needed.
A manuscript status should communicate useful information without exposing confidential editorial activity. Authors may need a general indication of progress, while editors and administrators may require more detailed operational information to manage their responsibilities.
What Does Manuscript Status Mean?
A manuscript status describes the current stage or condition of a submission within a journal’s handling process.
For example, a journal might use statuses such as:
- Submitted
- Awaiting Editorial Assessment
- Assigned to Editor
- Under Peer Review
- Revision Requested
- Revised Manuscript Received
- Accepted
- Rejected
- Withdrawn
The terminology can vary between publications. One journal may use “In Review,” while another may use “Under Peer Review.” What matters is that the labels are understandable and accurately represent the journal’s process.
A status is essentially a snapshot of the manuscript at a particular point in time. It does not necessarily explain everything that has happened or every task associated with the submission.
That is why manuscript status often works alongside tracking, workflow management, activity history, and notifications.
Key Types of Manuscript Status
Different statuses communicate different points in the life of a submission.
Submitted
This status indicates that the author has formally completed the submission process and the journal has received the manuscript.
At this point, the manuscript may still be waiting for an editorial staff member or editor to begin the next stage.
Awaiting Editorial Assessment
A manuscript may be placed in this state while the journal conducts its initial checks.
The editorial team may be reviewing completeness, journal fit, submission requirements, or other criteria before determining what should happen next.
Assigned to Editor
This status indicates that responsibility for the manuscript has been given to a particular editor.
The assigned editor may then review the submission and determine whether it should proceed to peer review or another editorial outcome.
Under Peer Review
A manuscript generally receives this status when it has entered the external review stage.
The precise meaning can vary. Some journals may use the same status while reviewer invitations are being sent, whereas others may distinguish between reviewer selection, invitations, and active review.
Revision Requested
This indicates that the journal has asked the author to make changes to the manuscript.
The request may follow peer-review feedback, editorial comments, or both.
Revised Manuscript Received
Once an author submits a requested revision, the journal can record that the updated version has been received.
The revised submission may then require another editorial assessment or another round of peer review.
Accepted
An accepted status indicates that the journal has reached a positive editorial decision regarding publication.
Depending on the journal’s system, the manuscript may subsequently enter production or publication preparation.
Rejected
A rejected status indicates that the journal has decided not to publish the manuscript.
The decision may occur during an early editorial assessment or after peer review, depending on the circumstances.
Withdrawn
A withdrawn status indicates that the manuscript has been removed from active consideration.
Withdrawal may be initiated by the author or handled according to the journal’s policies.
How Does Manuscript Status Change?
A manuscript status changes when an important event occurs within the editorial process.
For example, the editorial team may update the status after assigning an editor, receiving reviewer reports, requesting a revision, receiving an updated manuscript, or recording a final decision.
In a digital system, these changes can be recorded automatically or initiated by authorized users depending on the action involved.
Status changes should accurately reflect the manuscript’s actual position. If a submission remains marked as “Under Review” even after the reviewers have completed their reports, the information becomes misleading and less useful.
For this reason, journals should establish clear rules about when each status is applied and who has permission to change it.
Who Uses Manuscript Status?
Manuscript status serves several groups within a journal.
Authors use status information to understand the general progress of their submissions and determine whether they need to take action.
Editors use it to identify manuscripts currently under their responsibility and understand which submissions require attention.
Managing editors can use status information to oversee the broader submission pipeline and identify unusual delays.
Editorial assistants may use statuses when handling administrative follow-up or responding to author enquiries.
Journal administrators can use aggregated status information to understand submission activity across one or more publications.
Each group may require a different level of detail. An author-facing status might be intentionally broad, while an internal editorial view can contain more operational information.
Manuscript Status vs. Manuscript Tracking
These terms are closely related but should not be treated as synonyms.
Manuscript status identifies the current state of a submission.
Manuscript tracking is the broader practice of monitoring that state and the manuscript’s activity over time.
For example, “Revision Requested” may be the current status. Tracking can provide additional context about when the request was issued, whether the author has responded, and what happened before the revision stage.
Status provides the immediate answer. Tracking provides the surrounding history.
Manuscript Status vs. Submission Status
The terms manuscript status and submission status are often used interchangeably in journal software.
There can, however, be a slight difference in emphasis.
Manuscript status generally describes the position of the scholarly work within the editorial process.
Submission status may refer more broadly to the state of the submission record itself, including administrative conditions associated with the submission.
In many journal platforms, the two concepts overlap significantly. The terminology used by a particular journal is therefore more important than trying to enforce a universal distinction.
Why Is Manuscript Status Important?
Clear manuscript statuses make a journal’s submission pipeline easier to understand.
When editors are handling many submissions simultaneously, they need to distinguish manuscripts that are newly received from those awaiting reviews, revisions, or decisions.
For authors, understandable statuses can reduce uncertainty. Instead of sending repeated emails asking whether a manuscript has been received or whether it is still being processed, contributors can consult the information available through the journal’s submission portal.
Effective status management can help journals:
- Improve submission visibility
- Reduce avoidable enquiries
- Identify pending work
- Support editorial workload management
- Keep records consistent
- Highlight delayed submissions
- Improve communication with authors
- Organize large volumes of manuscripts
- Support reporting on editorial activity
The value of status information depends heavily on its accuracy. A simple and reliable status system can be more useful than a complicated set of labels that users do not understand.
Common Manuscript Status Problems
One common problem is using too many statuses.
If every minor action receives a separate label, authors may struggle to understand what the status actually means. Editorial staff can also find it difficult to maintain consistent usage.
Another problem is vague terminology. Labels such as “Processing” or “In Progress” may provide little practical information.
Stale statuses are another concern. If a manuscript remains in the same state long after the associated activity has changed, users may draw incorrect conclusions about its progress.
There is also the issue of confidentiality. Journals need to decide carefully what information should be visible to authors. Reviewer identities, internal comments, and confidential editorial discussions should not automatically become part of the author-facing status experience.
A strong status framework therefore balances clarity, accuracy, simplicity, and appropriate access.
How Should Journals Design Manuscript Statuses?
A journal should define its statuses according to how its editorial process actually operates.
Start by identifying the major points at which the manuscript’s condition changes. The journal can then assign clear names to those points and document what each status means.
For every status, it is useful to establish:
- What the status means
- When it should be applied
- Who can assign or change it
- What information users can see
- What action is expected next
- Whether the status is temporary or final
Status labels should also be consistent across the journal. If the same phrase means different things for different article types, confusion can quickly develop.
Where journals operate multiple publications, standardizing the underlying approach while allowing appropriate journal-specific terminology can make administration easier.
Manuscript Status and Author Communication
Status information can play an important role in the relationship between a journal and its contributors.
Authors generally do not expect access to every internal editorial action, but they do benefit from knowing whether their manuscript has been received and whether it remains under consideration.
A well-designed author portal can provide this information in a straightforward way.
When a manuscript requires author action, the status should be accompanied by clear instructions where appropriate. This is especially useful for revisions, missing information, or other submission-related requests.
The objective is not to provide constant updates for their own sake. It is to give authors enough information to understand the state of their submission and respond when necessary.
Alkademy Press and Manuscript Status
Alkademy Press incorporates manuscript information into its broader journal management environment, allowing submission records to remain connected to the editorial activities surrounding them.
The platform’s editorial dashboard gives journal teams a workspace for handling submissions according to their editorial responsibilities. This is useful when a journal has several editors managing different groups of manuscripts because the relevant submission information can be accessed within the same publishing environment.
Alkademy Press also supports submission status visibility through its author-facing experience, helping contributors interact with their submissions without requiring the editorial office to provide every update manually.
Another relevant capability is the platform’s handling of submission history and editorial records. Status information becomes more useful when it can be considered alongside the activity associated with a manuscript rather than appearing as an isolated label.
For journals, this creates a more practical way to understand active submissions while maintaining the distinction between information intended for authors and information reserved for internal editorial users.
What Should You Look for in Manuscript Status Software?
When evaluating software that provides manuscript status management, consider whether the system makes status information both accurate and useful.
Important capabilities include:
- Clear status labels
- Configurable status options
- Author-facing status visibility
- Internal editorial status information
- Status history
- Role-based permissions
- Automatic status updates where appropriate
- Manual status controls for authorized users
- Search and filtering by status
- Revision status handling
- Review-stage visibility
- Notifications
- Submission history
- Multi-journal support
- Reporting and analytics
- Integration with editorial workflows
The system should also make it difficult for users to create contradictory or outdated information. Good status management is not simply about displaying labels. It is about ensuring that those labels accurately represent what is happening with each manuscript.