Editorial Process

JOURNAL EDITOR HANDLING EDITOR

This section looks at the tasks of Editors, i.e., the Journal Editor and the Handling Editor.

Handling New Submissions

When a paper is submitted, it goes to the Journal Editor’s page and needs to be assigned to a Handling Editor. It will then be visible to both the Handling Editor and the Journal Editor in their personal “Journal Editor” or “Handling Editor” tab, where they can view all submissions. By clicking on the manuscript ID, the user will be taken to the manuscript page.

Assigning a Handling Editor

To change or assign the Handling Editor (only the Journal Editor or Publisher may do this), the editor’s name should to be added in the ‘Handling Editor’ column, or at the top of the manuscript page. The Journal Editor will be able to see how many manuscripts the Handling Editor is currently processing.

Note: Please ensure that the Handling Editor has been confirmed as the article processing cannot be completed if there is no assigned editor.

Precheck

The pre-screening stage commonly consists of two main steps: a technical pre-check performed by the Handling Editor; and an editorial pre-check performed by an academic editor (optional). The journal should follow its own guidelines.

When the technical pre-checl has been completed, the ‘Submission’ step needs to be closed by confirming that the requirements have been satisfied. An email will then be sent to the authors to confirm the receipt of the manuscript.

Sending the manuscript to Academic Editor for pre-check decision can as well be done through this section and is optional.

Peer Review

The next step is for the Handling Editor to add reviewers, JAMS offers three way of searching/browsing through reviewers.

First option, titled Search and Add Reviewers searches reviewer that are already in the database.

• First row allows editors to search reviewers by the titles or keywords of their articles previously published via JAMS.

• Second row browses reviewers through the keywords they have entered in the database.

• Last row allows reviewer search via their name or email address.

Second option, titled Search Reviewers in JAMS and Scilit allows browsing through the Scilit and JAMS database simultaneously.

Scilit is integrated into the JAMS platform to work in parallel with the journal’s own reviewer database. Put in a few keywords and the Scilit search engine will retrieve a list of potential reviewers, along with their contact details and titles of papers they have published.

Third options allows directly entering reviewers email address. If the reviewer is already in your database, their details will be retrieved and displayed by JAMS. If not, the Editor will be prompted to add them.

Once added to the manuscript, reviewer can be invited by clicking Invite for review option which will allow editor to select and customize the email template before sending out an invitation. Green bolt icon allows quick invite, which send standard reviewer invitation in the background, without the invitation email being customized.

Once reviewer is invited, editor will have three options in the system for said reviewer. First option is to cancel the invite by selecting a template, and other two options are reminders. Clicking Remind to Send Review allows editor to customize reminder email prior to sending it out, whereas the yellow icon marks the quick remind options which sends standard reminder in the background.

Once reviewer accepts the invitation to review, additional option open review report will be available as well as standard ones (cancellation and reminder). In case reviewer declined review invitation, they will be removed from the mansucript page and an email notification will be triggered to the handling editor.

Assigning Academic Editors to Take Editorial Decisions

Once enough review reports have been collected, the Journal Editor or Handling Editor must close the peer-review stage by clicking Close Review and Proceed.

Note: this button only appears once the minimum number of review reports have been collected (usually one). You may now invite an Editorial Board member (Academic Editor) or choose another editor to make the decision.

If an application feature titled Parallel Author Revision and Editorial Decision has been enabled, two sections will appear on manuscript processing page - Authors Revision and Decision. In case the feature is disabled, only Decision section will be available. We suggest to configure this feature according to your editorial policies. If you require for academic editor to check reviewer report before they are sent to the authors, you can leave this feature disabled, and author revision section will only become available after the academic editor has made a decision to proceed to revision.

If the editor chooses to ask academic editor for decision, they will be able to send a decision email by clicking Invite or first Choose Different Editor From Board and then proceed to sending out a decision request.

Editor invited to make decision on a manuscript will receive a notification by email.

By following the link in the email, the Academic Editor can view the review reports and make a decision on the manuscript. They can also download the latest version of the paper and see basic article details, such as the title, abstract, and authors.

The editor will see a preview of the decision and a ‘Submit’ button. Clicking this button will send the decision to the authors via email. Note that you can customize the email before sending it.

Revisions

In case editors chooses to send paper for authors revision, one of the revision options should be selected. By clicking Submit, editor will be able to send an email to the authors advising them that a revision is needed. Said email notification holds a link through which authors will be directed to a page including reviewer comments and options for resubmitting their manuscript. Upload options will only appear once all reviewer comments have been replied to.