1. 6 Steps to Speed Up Your Journals Peer Review Process
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2. Glean insights from the editors who contributed to Academic
Journal Management Best Practices: Tales from the Trenches Get your
free guide at: http://bit.ly/1GFnWMu
3. With so much to keep track of during peer review, editors
can feel like theyre running in all dierent directions
4. All of that running takes a lot of time which editorial
boards cant aord to lose!
5. What can your team do to speed up peer review at your
journal?
6. Rene Your Process! Ensure that your team is moving in the
same direction and on the most ecient path.
7. Here are 6 steps from experienced editors to speed up peer
review at your journal
8. Step 1: Make sure youre giving authors clear submissions
guidelines. It will save your editors time down the road!
9. The absolute best thing that you can do is have a clear
descriptive information for authors link available on your online
submissions webpage. Authors shouldnt have to search for a journals
conict of interest, copyright, gure permissions, or other necessary
forms. Christine Dymek, Senior Managing Editor Kaufman Wills
Fusting & Co. Editorial Services
10. Your Journal should have a chronological list of submission
guidelines on a master submissions webpage, including: The aims and
scope of the journal Instructions for manuscript blindness
Copyright requirements A comprehensive overview of manuscript
formatting Ethical guidelines Metadata and le formatting
requirements Open access policy
11. DO Give authors access to specic details about your
publishing process that theyll likely want to know about, such as
FAQs surrounding your OA policy. DONT clutter your master
submission guidelines webpage with extraneous information about
your publishing process. Too much text can be overwhelming for
authors. When compiling your master submission webpage
12. To avoid overwhelming authors with too much info, embed
links in your master submission guidelines to o-ramp webpages with
additional publication details, such as: OA policy & copyright
information Comprehensive ethical guidelines sample references
authors can use to format theirs
13. To ensure authors follow all of your journals submissions
guidelines, create a checklist that breaks down your submissions
instructions into one-sentence steps authors can check o as they
go. Create a static or interactive submission checklist webpage or
PDF and link it to your journals master submissions guidelines
webpage.
14. You can make completing your journals submission checklist
optional for authors or a required submission step.
15. Step 2: Run an initial lap of peer review in house
16. Running an initial round of review in house will ensure
that youre only sending referees viable manuscripts. Journals are
doing this in a few ways
17. Example 1: Recruit grad students in your eld to do initial
submission screenings
18. By the time a manuscript is going out for review at
Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law and Society theres already been
a grad student, an editor, and then two other co-editors doing a
cursory read. Henry (Hank) Fradella, Editor-In-Chief, Criminology,
Criminal Justice, Law and Society
19. Your journal can recruit grad students to do a cursory read
of each submission and compile notes for lead editors altering them
to exceptional submissions and those in need of work. Recruiting
grad students will save your editors time upfront and give the
students an opportunity to learn peer review skills.
20. Example 2: Make your editors your primary peer
reviewers
21. [At Sociological Science] to be a consulting editor you
have to pre-commit to doing a certain number of reviews a year, so
we can get our decisions done in 30 days. What we ask the external
reviewers to do is read the paper and tell us according to journal
criteria is this something with any obvious aws in it? - without
the need [for them] to write multiple pages on what they reviewed.
Jesper Srensen, Editor-In-Chief, Sociological Science
22. A major workow blocker for traditional journals is trying
to nd scholars willing to review submissions. Appointing a large
group of consulting editors to serve as your primary peer reviewers
will ensure your journal always has willing candidates. With your
editors doing the bulk of the peer review work you should be able
to easily build a pool of external referees.
23. Example 3: Appoint topic experts to assess unclear
manuscripts before they go out for review
24. Ive seen some journals bring on topic experts to actually
stand in-between the editor-in-chief and the reviewers, to give an
additional submission screening and recommendation. Christine
Dymek, Senior Managing Editor Kaufman Wills Fusting & Co.
Editorial Services
25. At journals covering a wide scope of information, editors
may not always have the expertise to feel condent making desk
rejections. In these situations, editors can appoint topic experts
to step in when they are unsure of a papers potential. Having topic
experts can help your journal be sure youre only sending peer
reviewers viable submissions.
26. DO reevaluate your technical check process over time.
Technical checks are a great way to weed out manuscripts with
obvious errors, but they can slow down peer review if your editors
get caught up asking authors to make too many formatting revisions
before theyve made it past the rst round of review. DONT be afraid
to make desk rejections. No journal wants to burn out their go-to
referees by sending them review assignments unnecessarily. When
running the rst lap of review in house
27. Step 3: Track metrics on how your editorial board works and
build a process to t your needs
28. I keep stats on all of the basic things. I look at the
number of manuscripts submitted by year, how many go through the
peer review process, how many are desk rejected, and how many get
rejected at the rst or second phase of review. Susan Altman,
Managing Editor, Global Environmental Politics
29. Track journal metrics to assess your process and improve
it, including: Average time to decision for the journal as a whole
Submission rate Submission rate by country Submission rate by topic
Overall acceptance and rejection rate Average number of desk
rejections Acceptance and rejection rate by editor Time to decision
by editor
30. You can also track reviewer metrics including, how long it
takes each of your referees to complete a review and how often your
editors contact each of your referees. If a referee begins taking
longer to complete assignments and you notice youve been contacting
them often, it may be time to give them a break.
31. DO discuss your internal performance metrics at team
meetings. DONT forget to set achievable benchmarks to improve your
team metrics. When tracking performance metrics at your
journal
32. Step 6: Make editor training a part of your process.
33. Compile training resources for new editors to help them get
on track fast Create a training guide outlining your editorial
workow to be oered to all new members. Walk your editors through
your online submission system. Provide editors with resources on
publishing ethics best practices. The Committee On Publication
Ethics (COPE) has excellent free resources. Designate times for
regular editorial board meetings at least once a month to track
your progress and continue learning as a team. Coordinate a
journal-wide meeting for your editors and organizational aliates
once a year for publication planning.
34. We have one formal journal meeting per year where all of
the editors and the founding editors get together. Thats when we
hash out plans and make projections. Anita Harris, Managing Editor,
SubStance: A review of theory and literary criticism
35. DO treat your editorial board training tools as living
documents. Remind editors about resources they can continually
return to, such as ethics best practices. DONT forget to ask your
editors to contribute information they wish theyd known as a new
editor to your training tools. Ask editors how you can rene your
training process during monthly and annual meetings. When designing
editor training resources and meetings
36. Want more tips to speed up peer review at your
journal?
37. Download the free guide! Academic Journal Management Best
Practices: Tales from the Trenches DOWNLOAD:
http://bit.ly/1GFnWMu