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I submitted a journal paper in scientific reports and I found something very weird. Two different status if I check via nature webpage with Editor's decision and through Research Square under review no updates from one month.

I have sent an email and the assistant has told me that they have received all reviews they need but I do not get any final answer and the research square does not change from under review to editor and it is not updated for one month. But the status changed from reviewer 3 received to reviewer 2 received but without changing dates. Only under the title of my paper not in the tracking itself.

I am afraid that the tracking is not correct so the editor does not know about the paper. As it is not consistent one tracking with the other.

I have sent one email about this issue to the assistant but she checked the nature systen only so I don't know what it is happening and why there is no further updates for one month and why they are different from research square.

Someone else had the same issue?

Sursula
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zandarina
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    I am not sure I understand your question. Research Square is where your pre-print is. Nature scientific reports is where your manuscript is. The Research Square page says "Journals can participate in In Review with varying levels of transparency into the peer review process" You seem to think Nature and Research Square should sync to each other. Is there any reason you think so? – Nobody Sep 29 '22 at 08:53
  • Research square should track the status of the paper for some journals but as I saw it cannot be trusted. – zandarina Sep 29 '22 at 22:13

1 Answers1

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SHORT ANSWER

Research Square and Nature are two distinct publication venues. Nature might offer the option to send a submission to Research Square so that it is made public (and time stamped) while still in the review process, but the only system which matters for their reviewing process is that of Nature. The status of a submission on Research Square is probably updated only after some key points, for purely informational purpose.

LONGER ANSWER

The "In Review" service of Research Square ("a free journal-integrated preprint service offered to authors at participating journals. Authors can opt to have their manuscript automatically posted online in the form of a preprint with a DOI") might seem to you as an integrated part of the submission system of Nature, but it is actually a separate entity, with a distinct purpose:

  • Nature's purpose is to publish peer-reviewed articles (with the seal of approval that such long peer-reviewing process provides), while
  • Research Square's purpose is to 1) diffuse preprints without peer-review, and to 2) help writers to improve their draft before submission to venues with peer-reviewing processes.

My advice would be to trust Nature's editorial process (they have a long experience with it) and to use Research Square as an easy to use way to share a time stamped version of your article with colleagues while waiting for the official results of Nature's peer reviewed process.

Hope it helps!

J..y B..y
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  • Thank you, you were right the research square was making errors only nature must be trusted. I got the response today when the research square was under review. – zandarina Sep 29 '22 at 22:11