what is awaiting reviewer assignment

Awaiting Reviewer Assignment means the journal editor has started reaching out to potential reviewers for your manuscript. Awaiting Reviewer Selection, which is the next stage, means that the editor has received responses from multiple peer reviewers and is presently in the process of making a selection among them.

I submitted an article 5 months ago to a journal. Since then, the article has been jumping between "Waiting for Reviewer Assignment" and "Contacting Potential Reviewers" (10 changes of status now). The article is quite technical and multidisciplinary, so I understand that finding reviewers is hard.

"Awaiting Reviewer Scores" means that the paper has been assigned the minimum amount of reviewers that the Associate Editor has set for the manuscript. The minimum would be either two or three depending on the publication but the associate editor might have sent a few more invitations around.

Awaiting Reviewer Selection. This is the first stage of the peer-review process and your manuscript will be here until the assigned Editor has selected some suitable experts to invite to review. Once enough reviewers have been selected, the manuscript will move on to the next stage.

Answer: The number of times your manuscript status has changed to ‘Awaiting Reviewer Assignment’ and then back to ‘Awaiting Reviewer Selection’ reflects the challenge the editor is having in getting the requisite number of reviewers (usually two or three) for the peer review.

Awaiting Editor Assignment: Your article has passed initial quality checks by the Editorial Production Assistant and is in the process of being assigned to an appropriate Editor who will evaluate your article for scope, quality, and fit for the journal.

If the editorial management system (EMS) is distinguishing between the two, odds are "Awaiting Reviewer Selection" means the reviewers have not been invited yet, and "Awaiting Reviewer Confirmation" means the reviewers have not agreed to review the manuscript yet.

Awaiting allocation: The paper has been assigned to the Editor but has not yet been sent to reviewers (however, the Editor may have assigned the manuscript to an Associate Editor – there is no separate system status to indicate this). The Action Editor may decide to make a decision without allocating reviewers.

Answer: The status "Awaiting reviewer assignment" means that your paper has cleared teh initial editorial screening and will be sent for peer review. During this time, the editor looks for suitable reviewers for your paper and sends out review invitations.

This status typically means your manuscript is awaiting assignment to an editor after the initial review of the submission. Depending on the journal's workflow, this status could also indicate when the editorial office determines if your submission is eligible for peer review.