Assigning submissions to Editors – Editor Chains

When a new or revised manuscript is submitted to a journal, the journal staff or Editor (with access to the ‘New Submissions Requiring Assignment’ folder or ‘Revised Submissions Requiring Assignment’ folder) must assign the submission to an Editor who will ‘handle’ the submission.  The ‘Handling Editor’ for a submission is always the Editor with the current responsibility of moving the submission forward. 

The Handling Editor might be required to perform one of the following actions:

1)     Assign Editor (pass the submission along to another Editor who will then become the Handling Editor

2)     Invite Reviewers (select and invite Reviewers who will evaluate the submission)

3)     Submit Decision and Comments (make a ‘Reject’, ‘Revise’ or ‘Accept’ Decision)

By assigning Editors, a chain of responsibility for the submission is created.  In the most basic workflow the order of assignment dictates the order in which Editors will be asked to make Decisions on submissions (see the ‘Customizing the Decision-making Chain for creating variations’ in the Editor Chain section).

For example:

1)     The Managing Editor goes to the ‘New Submissions Requiring Assignment’ folder and assigns the Editor-in-Chief.

2)     The Editor-in-Chief goes to the ‘New Assignments’ folder and assigns the submission to the Associate Editor.

3)     The Associate Editor goes to the ‘New Assignments' folder and invites Reviewers.

4)     The reviews are submitted and the Associate Editor goes to the ‘Submissions with Required Reviews Complete’ folder, looks at and edits the reviews, and makes a Decision.

5)     The Editor-in-Chief goes to the ‘Submissions with Required Reviews Complete’ folder, looks at the reviews and the Associate Editor’s comments and makes a Decision.

6)     The Managing Editor goes to the ‘All Submissions with Editors Decision’ folder and sends the ‘Decision’ Letter to the Author

There are several terms that are used through EM to describe an Editor’s relationship with a submission, or where the Editor is in the Editor Chain.  Following are Editor Chain terminology definitions:

‘Attached Editor’ is the Editor who assigned the submission to the first Editor, generally a journal staff person.  An Attached Editor can also be an Assigned Editor if that Editor was also assigned to the submission through the Assign Editor function (see the Special Relationships between Journal Staff and Submissions section).

‘Handling Editor’ is the Editor with current responsibility for the submission.

‘First Editor’ is the Editor who was first assigned to the submission, and may or may not also be the Handling Editor.  This is often an Editor-in-Chief.

‘Assigned Editor’ is any Editor who is assigned to the submission and is in the list of Editors on the Details page.  The Assigned Editor can be the First Editor, the Handling Editor, or any other Editor in the Editor Chain.  The Attached Editor is NOT an Assigned Editor unless that Editor was also assigned to the submission through the Assign Editor function.

‘Lower-Level Editor’ is any Editor assigned after the Editor in the example.

‘Upper-Level Editor’ is any Editor assigned before the Editor in the example.

‘Corresponding Editor’ is the First Editor, unless the ‘Corresponding Editor’ setting is changed on a submissions ‘Details’ page.  If changed in the ‘Details’ page, then the ‘Corresponding Editor can be any of the Assigned Editors (see the Corresponding Editor Designation section).

For example:

1)     The Managing Editor goes to the ‘New Submissions Requiring Assignment’ folder and assigns the Editor-in-Chief (the Managing Editor becomes the Attached Editor, but is not considered an Assigned Editor; the Editor-in-Chief becomes the Handling Editor, the First Editor, the Corresponding Editor, and an Assigned Editor).

2)     The Editor-in-Chief goes to the ‘New Assignments’ folder and assigns the submission to the Associate Editor (the Associate Editor now becomes the Handling Editor, an Assigned Editor and a Lower Level Editor; the Editor-in-Chief is no longer the Handling Editor, but is still the Corresponding Editor and an Assigned Editor, and becomes an Upper Level Editor; the Managing Editor is still considered an Attached Editor only).

3)     The Associate Editor goes to the ‘New Assignments folder’ and invites Reviewers (the Associate Editor is still the Handling Editor, an Assigned Editor and a Lower Level Editor; the Associate Editor can become the Corresponding Editor if that designation is changed in Details; the Managing Editor is still considered an Attached Editor only).

4)     The reviews are submitted and the Associate Editor goes to the ‘Submissions with Required Reviews Complete’ folder, looks at and edits the reviews, and makes a Decision (the Associate Editor has passed Handling Editor responsibility back to the Editor-in-Chief, but is still considered an Assigned Editor and a Lower Level Editor by the system; the Managing Editor is still considered an Attached Editor only).

5)     The Editor-in-Chief goes to the ‘Submissions with Required Reviews Complete folder’, looks at the reviews and the Associate Editor’s comments and makes a Decision (the Editor-in-Chief has passed Handling Editor responsibility to the Managing Editor, but is still considered an Assigned Editor and the First Assigned Editor; the Managing Editor is still considered an Attached Editor; the Associate Editor is still considered an Assigned Editor).

6)     The Managing Editor goes to the ‘All Submissions with Editors Decision’ folder and sends the Decision Letter to the Author (the Managing Editor is still the Handling Editor; the Editor-in-Chief is still the First Assigned Editor, Corresponding Editor (if it was not changed in Details) and an Assigned Editor; Associate Editor is still an Assigned Editor).