Editorial Process
- Becky Castellon
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 for this, however JAMS does support this process with iThenticate, which is the plagiarism software which is used by JAMS. To run the plagiarism check, the Handling Editor needs to click the ‘Upload File’ button which will send the latest version of the manuscript to be checked. Following the check, the percentage match and the iThenticate report will be available.
When the Precheck 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.
Peer Review
The next step is for the Handling Editor to add reviewers, this can be done by typing a name or email-address into the search box (see the screenshot below). If the reviewer is already in your database, their details will be retrieved and displayed by JAMS. If not, the Editor will be invited to add them.
offer tools to increase efficiency in the editorial process, including access to Scilit which is a comprehensive content database for scholarly publications. 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.
Clicking ‘Invite for Review’ will send an invitation to review the manuscript (templates are available in the system). A yellow dot will appear next to invited reviewers, which will turn into a green tick or a red cross if they accept or decline the invitation to review.
After having sent out an invitation to review, reminders can easily be sent or the request cancelled.
Note: There is a notification if reviewers have been invited to previous papers, or if there is a possible Conflict of Interest between the reviewer and the authors.
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.
Anyone invited to make a final decision on a manuscript (usually the Editor-in-Chief or an editorial board member) 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 the case of revisions, 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.