At the end of the day, every journal’s peer review workflow culminates with one critical step — issuing a publication decision!
Your editors must reach a consensus on each paper they receive and then clearly communicate their decisions to authors, along with all the nuances that come with individual manuscript determinations. It’s a delicate dance!
We know how important it is for manuscript decisions to incorporate the input of all necessary stakeholders and that time is always of the essence, so we’ve added two new features to the Scholastica Peer Review System to help streamline decision-making processes:
- Internal decision recommendations: Admins can enable editors to share internal decision recommendations for pending submissions, so all necessary stakeholders can quickly provide input on papers.
- Draft-based decision workflows: Editors with proper permissions can compose a decision draft for a manuscript and notify other team members about the draft, supporting workflows where journals want some editors to have the ability to draft but not send decisions. Those with permission to draft decisions can edit the single, shared decision draft.
Read on to learn more!
Internal decision recommendations
We’ve added the option to enable editors to share internal decision recommendations for manuscripts within the Scholastica Peer Review System, without needing to invite them to be reviewers or start a Discussion thread. Internal decision recommendations are stored in the Decision section of the Manuscript Work Area, so they’re all in one place!
Admin editors of journals using the Scholastica Peer Review System can enable the internal decision recommendation feature from their settings page by following the steps in this help document. During setup, they’ll be able to specify which editorial team members can submit decision recommendations and/or read those submitted by other editors, with the option to adjust those configurations at any time. Admins can also set up default email notifications to have decision recommendations sent to designated editors — so those who need to review recommendations know when they’re ready! Decision recommendations are only visible to your journal editors, not authors or external reviewers, and they do not change the status of a paper.
Once this feature is enabled, editors with permission to submit decision recommendations and/or read recommendations will be able to do so from the Manuscript Work Area, as explained here. When an editor submits an internal decision recommendation, they’ll be prompted to choose a decision type and provide comments to the assigned editor, with the option to attach related files. They’ll also be able to notify other editors with appropriate permissions when they’ve submitted their recommendation.
How and when your team decides to use internal decision recommendations is up to you! For example, you might choose to have editors with privileges submit recommendations on all pending submissions, you might have editors who work on particular sections of your journal always share decision recommendations with each other, or you might have editors assigned to manuscripts create tasks for specific team members to share decision recommendations with them as needed using our To-dos feature.
Draft-based decision workflows
Once your editors have reached a consensus on the best next steps for a manuscript, it’s time to start working on the decision letter. If you would like some of your editors to be able to draft manuscript decisions but not send them, or if you want to save a decision draft you can ask another editor to read over (or that you can simply return to later), our new draft-based decision workflow feature is for you!
Your journal admin will set permissions for which of your editors can draft decisions and send them to authors, only draft decisions, or neither draft nor send decisions whenever they add new editors to your journal account (i.e., during an editorial transition). Admins can also adjust editors’ decision permissions from the Peer Review Settings page at any time.
Editors with proper permissions can initiate and update the decision draft for a submission or see the read-only view within the Decision section of the Manuscript Work Area. To prevent duplicative work and ensure everyone with permission to view a submission’s decision draft sees the latest version, there can only be one decision draft per manuscript. Scholastica will automatically save the progress of the single decision draft whenever an editor updates it, so no work is lost.
Editors who update the decision draft for a manuscript will also be able to optionally set a status for the draft — “in progress,” “needs review,” or “ready to send” — with the option to notify other editors with proper permissions of the status change and add related comments (e.g., “Before you issue the decision, please edit the decision draft to add the next steps you’d like the author to take.”). Editors can also configure their Manuscript Table to include a “Decision draft” column, which will display the time of the last update to the manuscript’s decision draft (or N/A if there is none), along with the draft status if one was set (e.g., “needs review”), so your team can proactively keep track of decision drafts. Whenever a decision draft is deemed complete, anyone with proper permissions can send the final decision.
As with the internal decision recommendation feature, how your team manages the decision-drafting process for manuscripts is up to you! For example, you might have a policy that the lead editor assigned to a manuscript always initiates its decision draft and then sends status updates or review requests to other editors as needed. Alternatively, you might have a policy that an associate editor assigned to a manuscript always initiates the decision draft and then notifies a lead editor when it’s ready for review, who will then make any final changes to the draft. Your process might then be for the lead editor to send the decision or for them to notify the associate editor to send it. It all depends on the workflow needs of your journal!
With that said, editorial teams should consider their decision draft needs and establish a process to ensure all stakeholders who should review drafts do so, that the correct person makes the call on when a draft is complete, and that the right person sends it!
Seamless UX for complex decision-making processes
We know decision-making is a complex process, but that doesn’t mean it should feel like a slog. With the new internal decision recommendation and decision drafting functionality, editors using Scholastica’s Peer Review System can easily seek input from team members on the best course of action for a submission and share a decision draft with other editors to review and make updates as needed.
Admins can easily manage permissions for the internal decision recommendation feature (should they choose to enable it), as well as permissions for drafting and sending decisions from the Peer Review Settings page of their account. We continue to build out Scholastica’s self-serve configurations whenever possible to help users help themselves!
If you’re interested in learning more about any of our products and services, we encourage you to schedule a demo with a member of our team.
