Section Editor

Permissions of this role

This role can be granted for one journal or for the whole platform.

• See the submissions in scope (editor queue)
• Screen submissions, request missing documents, send to review
• Invite and manage reviewers
• Record a decision recommendation
• Message authors about their submission
• See production jobs
• Start a submission for an author's account (the author submits it)

Topics for this role

How-to guides

• Screening a Submission

  Checking the form of a new submission, asking the author for missing documents and sending the submission to peer review.

• Desk-Rejecting a Submission

  Rejecting an out-of-scope or unsuitable submission without sending it to reviewers, or saving a rejection recommendation for it.

• Inviting Reviewers

  Inviting a reviewer to a submission under review, from the reviewer pool or by e-mail address.

• Tracking Invitations and Reviews

  Following the status and deadlines of invitations on the Reviewers tab, reading reviews, changing deadlines, cancelling an invitation or inviting a reviewer again.

• Making a Decision

  Reading the reviews of a review round and making the final decision, or saving a decision recommendation as a section editor.

• Starting a New Round After a Revision

  Making a decision directly after the author submits a revision, or sending the submission to a new review round.

• Messaging the Author

  Sending messages to the author from the Messages tab of a submission, writing internal notes between editors and following the correspondence.

• Submitting on Behalf of an Author

  Opening a submission draft for a registered author account, filling in the metadata, authors and files, and leaving the draft to the author.

Screens and settings

• Panel Search

  Searching submissions, publications, people, users, pages and help topics at once with the search box in the panel's top bar.

• Editor Queue

  The quick filters, filters, columns and sorting of the screen where editors follow submissions.

• Editor Submission Screen

  The header, Next step card, tabs, cards and rules of the screen where an editor opens a submission.

• On-Behalf Submission Screen

  The New draft card of the screen where editors open a draft for a registered author, and the list of the drafts they started.

• On-Behalf Draft Screen

  The header, the Metadata, Authors, Files and Status tabs and the rules of the screen where you fill in a draft opened for an author.

• Production Board

  The cards, filters and Open job button of the board that lists production jobs in columns by status.

• Production Job Page

  The checklist, tasks, files, front matter, comments, job details and release settings cards on the page of a production job.

Concepts

• Peer Review Types

  What authors and reviewers see of each other in double-anonymous, single-anonymous and open review, and when the type is set.

• Reviewer Deadlines and Reminders

  The response and review periods of reviewer invitations, when reminders go out and how unanswered invitations close.

• Separation of Duties

  An editor who reviewed a submission cannot decide on it, authors take no role on their own submissions, and only the editor-in-chief makes final decisions.

• Job Statuses

  The Open, In progress, Ready to release, Released and Cancelled statuses of a production job, and how the status follows the checklist.

Troubleshooting

• The decision button is missing

  Causes and fixes when the Decision tab of a submission has no Issue decision button or only lets you save a recommendation.

• The reviewer did not receive the invitation e-mail

  Helping a reviewer who says the invitation e-mail never arrived to find the invitation in the panel.

• The reviewer's deadline has passed

  Giving more time, cancelling the invitation or inviting another reviewer when a reviewer did not respond in time or is late with the review.

• Book submissions do not appear in the queue

  Why submissions not tied to a journal, such as books, chapters and theses, do not appear in the editor queue, and how to fix it.

• The Open job button is missing on the board

  Causes when the Open job button does not appear on the production board, or the dialog lists no accepted submission.

• The Release button is disabled or missing

  Causes and fixes when you cannot press the Release button of a production job, or the button does not appear at all.

Features

• Editorial Work and Decisions

  Following submissions in the queue, screening them, inviting reviewers, issuing decisions and corresponding with authors.

• Production

  Running the copy-editing, typesetting and proof work for an accepted work and releasing it to the catalogue.