Assigning and Inviting the Editor

1) Assignment - Editors in EM can be assigned to papers, without being given the opportunity to 'Decline' the assignment. Incorrect Editor Assignments can be corrected (see ‘Undo an Editors Assignment’)

2) Invitation - Editors are sent an e-mail invitation asking them to take on an assignment. The Editor must 'Agree' or 'Decline' to take the assignment

The opportunity to 'Invite' an Editor versus 'Assign' an Editor is configurable per Editor Role. For example, the policy at a journal might be that the Editor-in-Chief always gets assigned by the Journal Office, but the Associate Editors always get invited, meaning that they have the opportunity to not take on an assignment. The Editor-in-Chief role would have the ‘Receive Assignments Automatically’ permission enabled, and the Associate Editors would have the ‘Receive Invitations for Assignments’ permission enabled.

When the Journal Office or Editor is assigning or inviting an Editor: the Assign Editor screen looks the same regardless of whether or not the Editor is ‘Invited’ or ‘Assigned’. In other words, the user who chooses to assign an Editor does not necessarily know whether he is inviting or automatically assigning that Editor to the paper.

When an Editor receives an assignment: If an Editor is ‘Assigned’, then the new assignment will appear in his ‘New Assignments’ folder.

When an Editor receives an invitation: If an Editor gets ‘Invited’, then the new assignment will appear in his ‘New Invitations’ folder. The ‘New Invitations’ link is suppressed if there are no new invitations, or if the Editor Role is assigned submissions automatically.

When the Editor agrees to the assignment a confirmation message will appear on the screen. The manuscript is sent to the ‘New Assignments’ folder, and follows the usual path.

If the Editor declines the assignment, he is asked to provide a reason and is asked to suggest a qualified colleague within the journal organization.

To Configure: This feature is configured in RoleManager. Go to Role Manager, click Editor Role, and then select the desired Role. The permissions for Editors include a checkbox indicating whether or not Editors are allowed to ‘Receive Assignments’. If this option is checked, there is a further distinction (via radio buttons):

- ‘Receive Assignments Automatically’ - Papers are automatically assigned to the Editor (this is the default functionality of EM)

- ‘Receive Invitations for Assignments’ - Editors are invited to be assigned a paper. If they ‘Accept’, they become an Assigned Editor and follow the same path as Assigned Editors in the default EM system.

To Configure Letters: The Action Manager screen is modified to accommodate the following additional events:

The System Administrator would need to create additional letters to support the ‘Invited Editor’ feature. To do this, go to PolicyManager and click ‘Edit Letters’. You can then create new letters to be used to Invite the Editor, and for when the Editor either agrees or declines the assignment.

To Configure Document Status: The Action Manager screen is modified to accommodate the following additional events:

1) The ‘Editor Invited for Assignment’ event should have a unique status (e.g. ‘Editor Invited’)

2) The ‘Editor Agree to Assignment’ event should have the same status as ‘Editor Assigned Automatically’

3) The ‘Editor Decline Assignment of New Submission’ and ‘Editor Decline Assignment from an Edito’r are not configurable.

4) Your current Status Term configured for your Editors in the ‘Editor Assigned’ event should already be configured in the new ‘Editor Assigned Automatically’ event.

The System Administrator would need to create additional Document Status terms to support the 'Invited Editor' feature. To do this, go to PolicyManager and click ‘Edit Document Status Terms’. You can then create new Status Terms to be used to ‘Invite the Editor’.

Note: An Editor role is either always ‘Assigned’ or always ‘Invited’

Note: The ‘Receive Assignments Automatically’ does not mean that the submission goes directly from the Author to the Editor. The submission must still pass through the person with access to the ‘New Submissions’ folder, who will then assign the submission to the appropriate Editor. For example, if the ‘Author Requests Editor’ feature is enabled, and the Author requests a particular Editor, the Journal Office must still assign the submission to the requested Editor. This feature simply means that the Editor is not given the opportunity to refuse an assignment

Note: Although you cannot configure the Document Status for the ‘Editor Decline Assignment of New Submission’ and ‘Editor Decline Assignment from an Editor’ events, you can edit the terminology of the status term. Go to PolicyManager, then to 'Edit Document Status', find the ‘Editor Declines Assignment’ term, click ‘Edit’ and change the terminology