A manuscript from my lab is under consideration at a PLOS journal that is one of the top journals in my field. The paper came back from the first round of review with a decision of major revisions, and we sent it back after addressing most of the reviewer concerns. The online status said "Under Review" for roughly two weeks and then changed to "Decision in Process." I first noticed this yesterday morning so I thought I would surely receive the decision by the end of the day. Well, it's now the end of day two with this status and still no email from the journal. So I did a little internet searching about what this actually means. According to the PLOS website, this means that the handling editor has already entered a decision, but that it is not yet finalized. It's unclear what the holdup is, but perhaps the decision also needs to be approved by the Section Editor. So why do they change the status???!!! No other journals do this, and it is like torture for me and my students to know that a decision has been made, but for some unknown reason it is has been withheld from us for 2+ days.
Update: The decision came after 4 days. Two reviewers were completely satisfied by the revision and had no further concerns. The third reviewer asked us to do additional experiments to address peripheral issues and also to change our title. I am assuming that the handling editor and section editor spent time evaluating the requests of reviewer 3, so I guess I now understand the apparent delay. They ultimately chose to accept the paper. Wooohooooo!!!!
