Undo an Editor Assignment

The journal office and Editors assign other Editors (Subordinate Editors) to submissions, and sometimes assign the wrong Editor. This occurs when a submission is assigned to an Editor, but that Editor does not feel he is an expert in the subject the article covers. Another example is if an Editor is assigned to a submission, but he plans to be on vacation, or the assigning Editor simply clicks the wrong button on the ‘Assign Editor’ screen.

To correct this error, an ‘Undo Editor Assignment’ function can be found in the ‘View All Assigned Submissions’ folder, ‘Group by Editors with Current Responsibility’ folder, and in the ‘New Assignments’ folder. This enables an Editor (with appropriate RoleManager permission) to ‘undo’, or assign back, a submission to the assigning Editor.

- ‘Undo Other Editors’ Assignments’ permission allows an Editor to undo assignments for Editors they assigned, but not their own assignments

- ‘Undo My Assignments’ permission allows the Editor to undo his own assignments

Note: A journal staff person who did NOT assign the submission to the Editor can still undo the Editor’s assignment from the View All Assigned Submissions folder, as long as that person has the Undo Other Editors Assignments permission enabled in RoleManager

Note: An Editor assignment CANNOT be undone if the assigned Editor has invited Reviewers or made a Decision. Also it cannot be undone if the assigned Editor has assigned another Editor, without first undoing the other Editor's assignment

Note: When the Editor or journal office undoes an Editor's assignment, they always undo the assignment of the currently assigned Editor. For example, if the Managing Editor assigns the Editor-in-Chief and the Editor-in-Chief assigns an Associate Editor. If the Editor-in-Chief wants to be unassigned, then the Associate Editor would first have to be unassigned. The Managing Editor would undo the Associate Editor's assignment, then the Editor-in-Chief's assignment, and then reassign the Associate Editor

There are many reasons why a journal might not allow some Editor Roles to undo their own assignments, yet be able to undo the assignments of Editors they assigned. Some journals are concerned that Editors might 'abuse' the privilege and Editors would regularly refuse assignments they simply do not want to take. Therefore, this feature is something that an Editor (or journal office) in charge of the process would do for them. In this case, the journal office would only give permission to the Editor Role(s) who can be trusted not to take advantage of this feature.

If an Editor is not allowed to undo Editor Assignments, OR is allowed to undo the assignments of Editors they assigned, but not his own, then that Editor must contact the journal office or the Editor that assigned him outside of the EM system. The assigning Editor, or a journal office staff person, then goes to either the ‘View All Assigned Submissions’ folder or the ‘Group by Editors with Current Responsibility’ folder, to 'undo' the assignment. When the Editor clicks the ‘Undo Editor Assignment’ link in the Action column of the submission record, the submission is moved to the ‘New Assignments’ folder of the Editor who had made the mistaken assignment. If the mistaken assignment had been made from the ‘New Submissions Requiring Assignment’ folder or the ‘New Revisions Requiring Assignment folder’, then the submission will return to either of these folders.

For example, the Managing Editor assigns the Editor-in-Chief, and the Editor-in-Chief assigns an Associate Editor. If the Associate Editor has a conflict of interest (or some other reason for not taking the assignment), then the Editor-in-Chief (if he has the permission turned on in RoleManager) can click the ‘Undo Editor Assignment’ link in the Action column of either the ‘View All Assigned Submissions’ folder or the ‘Group by Editors with Current Responsibility’ folder, to take the submission back. The Editor-in-Chief would then assign a different Editor.

Many journals will be comfortable giving their Editors ‘Undo My Assignment’ permission. This permission could be particularly important when the journal office practice little oversight over Editors, or when no journal office exists.

Note: If ‘Direct-to-Editor’ functionality is being used, then this permission should be enabled for all Editors who have Direct-to-Editor folders

Note: Some journals use the ‘Invite Editor’ functionality (‘Editor Receives Invitations for Assignments’ in Editor RoleManager). This feature would not be used in these cases

Note: If a submission is assigned back to the assigning Editor, EM does not capture any statistics of the initial Editor Assignment or the fact that it was assigned back. This is because the ‘Undo Editor Assignment’ functionality is usually utilized when a mistake is made, and the journal would not want to display this information or present misleading performance statistics for an Editor (e.g. the Subordinate Editor would be 'penalized' for having the manuscript in his possession and/or for refusing an assignment)

Note: Some journals would like to be able to 'pass sideways' (e.g. pass the submission to another Editor at the same level) for the purpose of consultation only. This feature can be used for this purpose, though certain precautions would have to be observed such as: 1) The Editor receiving the assignment for consultation cannot invite Reviewers, make a Decision or try to assign another Editor (unless the next Editor plans on passing it back without doing these things); 2) The Editor who assigned another Editor for consultation only cannot invite Reviewers, assign another Editor or make a Decision while it is assigned to the 'consulting' Editor

To Configure RoleManager: To give an Editor Role the permission to undo an Editor assignment, go to RoleManager, click on the appropriate Editor Role, find the items ‘Undo Other Editors’ Assignment’, and ‘Undo My Assignments’, and click the checkboxes next to the permissions you want to turn on for that Editor Role.

To Configure ActionManager: Two events in ActionManager, called ‘Undo Editor Assignment’ and ‘Undo Editor Assignment Notification’, are associated with this feature.

No configuration is required in the ‘Document Status’ section of ActionManager.

For the event ‘Undo Editor Assignment’, a letter (e-mail notification) should be set up to go to all Editor Roles whose assignments might need to be undone (any Editor who Receives Assignments might also need to have an assignment undone). Find the ‘Undo Editor Assignment’ event and select the appropriate letter from the drop-down box.

You should create a new letter for the ‘Undo Editor Assignment’ event. To create a new letter, go to System Administration, to PolicyManager, and then click on the ‘Edit Letters’, and then click on the ‘Add New Letter button’.

For the event ‘Undo Editor Assignment Notification’, a letter (e-mail notification) should be set up to go to all Editor roles that might need to know that a subordinate Editor's assignment has been undone (any Editor who assigns submissions to other Editors might want notification when lower level Editors are unassigned). Find the ‘Undo Editor Assignment Notification’ event and select the appropriate letter from the drop-down box.

You should create a new letter for the ‘Undo Editor Assignment Notification’ event. To create a new letter, go to System Administration, to PolicyManager, then click on the ‘Edit Letters’, and then click on the ‘Add New Letter’ button.