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In an Elsevier journal, after some long time, I looked at the status of my paper on the tracking system and I realized that one of the two reviewers did not even accept the review invitation. One of the reviewer submitted the report.

Now, I see that the paper is in "Decision in process". Is that a bad sign? Can we say that the editor has seen the one negative report and decided to reject it?

Edit: I got a very harsh (and unjustified) referee report. This is why the editor decided with only one referee report.In this sense, the question was a logical one.

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    Why do you need to know?
    – user2705196
    Feb 27 at 19:59
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    "Can we say that the editor has seen the one negative report" What is "the one negative report"? How do you know that the report that was submitted is negative?
    – Jochen Glueck
    Feb 27 at 20:02
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    @VitaminE: This is certainly depends much more an the field than on the publisher. E.g. in pure maths it is very common to have only one reviewer.
    – Jochen Glueck
    Feb 27 at 20:42
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    @JochenGlueck Well, my assumption is that Elsevier uses the same web application for all its journals.
    – VitaminE
    Feb 27 at 20:59
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    @VitaminE These systems are highly customizable, even though they have the same user interface. How many reviews are required depends on the journal.
    – Wolfgang Bangerth
    Feb 27 at 21:07

2 Answers 2

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The editor has to make a decision and the decision has consequences for them as well as you. They don't have a lot of information on which to base a decision unless they happen to be knowledgeable in the field, which is certainly possible.

But with little information, they are likely to be a bit conservative in their decision making. If the one review is "meh" then it is a bad sign. If it is "marvelous", and they trust the reviewer, possibly having history with them, then it is a good sign.

Wait for a report back and respond appropriately when it does.

Even a paper with a "meh" review might be salvageable if the single reviewer suggests changes that would bring it up to something like "marvelous". Patience, grasshopper.

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It is not uncommon to receive a decision based on a single reviewer report. I experienced this with several respectable publishers (e.g. Cambridge UP, SAGE). In your case all you need is patience.

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