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The Changing Role of the Editor/Editorial Office with Emerging Technologies
Jason Roberts, PhD
Managing Editor, Headache
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Editorial Office Changes
Online environment has changed everything…
Most journals now use an Electronic Editorial Office (EEO) system
Online Publication, often ahead of print delivery
New methods to publish data online: movie files, large tabular matter, color images
Focus: making your journal more attractive to authors
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Electronic Editorial Offices - changes
Efficient receipt, processing and tracking of submissions
Improved performance indicators: Increasingly expeditious turnaround time to first
decision (less time with editors, managing editors) Diminishing time in review (manuscript with
reviewers) Speedier and easier delivery of materials to
publisher/production department
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Electronic Editorial Offices - changes
Increased Submission levels
Geographic diversity of submissions
EEO’s reduce the cost of operating an office
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Electronic Editorial Offices - changes
Automatic or easier handling of tasks:System generated emails reduce delays; allows time for redeployment to other editorial office activities
Reference checking; links in HTML version of submission to reference databases
Check figure quality and authenticity
Standardized submission procedures reduce time to prepare manuscripts for peer review
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Electronic Editorial Offices
Still a role for editorial office staff:
Staff can concentrate on “best practices” and outward-facing activities (building relationships, encouraging submission)
System reports and manuscript tracking lead to efficiency drives
Devote more time to manuscript preparation for publication
Staff can do more research and analysis on journal performance
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Electronic Editorial Offices - Authors
Successful journals continually attempt to:– receive the best papers– maintain/increase submission levels– assess the performance of competing titles
Recruit Authors Retain Authors
Compete to receive submissions
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EEO – Ensuring Author Satisfaction
Quick turn-around time: submission to decision
Communicate Effectively - Reassurance: submissions handled with care
Comprehensive and thoughtful reviews
Absence of publication delays
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EEO – Author Expectations
What expectations do authors have?– Benchmark lead-times amongst competition– Determine ideal (realistic) turn-around time – and
promote it– Diminishing turn-around times across the industry
further fuel author appetite for rapid decisions
ScholarOne (Manuscript Central): average time to first decision across every paper submitted to every journal - 52 days
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EEOs – Effective Communication with Authors
Receipt confirmation email should manage review time expectations
Encourage authors to use manuscript tracking capabilities in your EEO (inform them of this in your receipt confirmation email)
Anticipate delays – inform authors if a delay has arisen
Either through EEO or Publisher’s own website, authors can track manuscript progress in production
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EEO – Effective Communication
Communication faux pas:– Making promises you cannot deliver– Failing to follow-up
– Contradicting previous statements (problematic with special dispensations) – use the Notes function
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EEO – Effective Communication
EEOs typically have a submission template. Use these to control the flow of information. Few authors read Instructions for Authors.
Make sure you communicate clearly the responsibilities of the author
– Submission process should have a statement with check box confirming the article has not been submitted elsewhere
– Statement on authorship and access to data– Conflict of Interest (where applicable)
Submission templates speed up time to get manuscripts ready for peer review
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EEO – Effective Communication
Use your final decision emails to select feedback
Use a simple feedback site such as Survey Monkey – provide link in decision emails
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EEOs – improving your review process
Faster delivery and more comprehensive reviews enhance the likelihood of retaining authors
EEOs provide a basic operating framework for peer-review, but it is a powerful tool if used smartly
Remember reviewers are also authors!
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EEOs – Enhancing your peer review process
EEOs address the need for speed:
– Invite rather than assign reviewers– Use search terms rather than keywords to track
down reviewers in your system– Use reviewer data to make informed selections
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EEOs – strategies to deliver prompt decisions: search terms
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EEOs – strategies for delivering prompt decisions – search term selection
Use the search-term chosen by the author to display names of potential reviewers
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EEO - strategies for delivering prompt decisions – search term selection
Reviewer search
terms
Current workload
Quality/timeliness
of reviews score
Ineligible reviewer
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EEO – strategies for comprehensive reviews
Develop a detailed reviewer scoresheet as part of your EEO-based peer review process
In addition to free-text boxes, ask specific questions that force reviewers to consider certain issues
If Associate Editor/Editorial Board member makes a recommendation before EiC final decision, have a Priority Score function built in the EEO. Useful if acceptance levels are high
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EEO – strategies for comprehensive reviews
Provide reviewers with all comments
Most EEOs as routine will send automatic confirmation of receipt of review. Reconfigure your site to send an email to all reviewers of a manuscript with all comments on the paper.
Keep reviews anonymous to avoid embarrassment
Reviewers like to see other comments, but also helps those that provide a weak review: see the quality of other reviews.
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EEO – speeding up the review process
Reduce the required number of reviewers
Manuscript delayed by no response from third Invited reviewer
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EEO – speeding up the review process
Consider pre-screening reviews
Most journals reporting significant growth in submissions. Not matched by corresponding increase in the number of quality manuscripts received.
To combat over-working reviewers, obviously weak manuscripts are being screened and rejected
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EEOs – the future of editorial office operations
With rising submission levels:– Editorial offices must become more
efficient…performance data is more accessible. Staff need to ensure they understand the data.
– Outward facing (listening to author)
Editorial staff are increasingly full-time, free-lance professionals, often located remotely
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EEOs – the future of editorial office operations
EEOs are great equalizers
Small titles are using the same tools as large editorial offices
Competition for best papers is growing – poor service can undermine a good Impact Factor and sink a small title
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Using online publication to attract authors
EEOs can improve your peer review process, but you can offer more to authors at publication:
Delivery ahead of print Pre-Press Supplementary data/files
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Online Publication
Rather than batch manuscripts for production on issue basis – send regular batches for publication once the typesetting process is completed
Manuscripts receive Digital Object Identifier for citation purposes
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Online Publication
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Online Publication ahead of print
Online publication is attractive to authors:
Diminishes time from acceptance to publication (counts as official date of publication)
Useful for quarterly/bi-monthly journals Help reduce publication backlog
Probably need to educate authors on online publication ahead of print
Manuscripts linked in to reference databases for citation purposes
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Supplementary data files
Work with your publisher to provide and the promote your capability to offer additional online resources:– Tables– Color images– Movie files
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Supplementary data files - movies
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Resources
Encourage your editorial office staff to become more informed:
International Society of Managing and Technical Editors: www.ismte.org
Council of Science Editors: www.councilscienceeditors.org