Configure Proposals

A publication may invite Authors to submit a manuscript on a particular topic or for a particular purpose (e.g., for a special issue). This feature provides a way to invite Authors to submit papers and link those submissions to each other and to the "parent" proposal for the purpose of organizing and tracking them as a collection.

The proposal PDF can be used to deliver the details of the proposal and any supplementary materials (such as scanned articles, outlines, etc.) to the invited Authors. The proposal is used to keep Author invitations organized and as a single point where all the submitted articles related to the proposal can be viewed and monitored.

Although a proposal is assigned an Article Type, it is not a regular submission. A proposal does not go through any peer review nor any editorial decision process. Article Types in the Proposal family do not appear in the regular submission interface; they only appear when the Editor creates a proposal and invites Authors.

The invited submissions generated from a proposal are regular submissions and do go through the publication's defined editorial workflow.

Basic workflow for initiating and managing proposals

An Editor (with appropriate permissions) starts the process of creating a proposal by clicking the link, Initiate Proposal, on the Editor Proposal Menu.
On the Initiate Proposal page, the Editor selects a Proposal Article Type. This selection pulls any settings configured for the Article Type that apply to Author invitations.
Then the Editor enters information about target publication date, volume, and issue, as well as due dates for the Author. (Default data may appear in some fields as configured for the "parent" Proposal Article Type.) The Editor may also pre-select an Article Type for the invited submission from a list of configured Invited Article Types. A pre-selected Article Type cannot be changed by the Author.
The Editor uses the Author Selection Summary page to identify Authors to invite. (Once Authors have been invited, this page displays a list of Authors who were invited or selected as alternates as well as the status of each invitation.)
- This page allows Editors to search the publication database for Authors.
- The page also allows Editors to upload an external Author List file (.csv, .tab, .txt). (For details, see the article, Upload Author List, in the Editor section of Help.)
- Editors (with appropriate permissions) may also proxy register potential Authors. The Author Selection Summary page includes a link for this purpose: Register and Invite New Author. The Search for Alternate Authors page includes a similar link: Register and Select as Alternate.
Once Author selections are made, the Editor can send invitation emails. Multiple Authors (or Alternate Authors) can be invited at the same time, and multiple invitations may be sent to each Author.
If an Author declines the invitation, alternate Authors can be promoted on the Author Selection Summary page. The Editor can also use this page to uninvite an Author at any point after the invitation has been sent and before the Author makes a submission. (System features include automatic uninviting and promoting of Authors.)
An Editor (with appropriate permissions) can also change the due date of a submission on the Details page of the "parent" proposal. A letter may be configured to be sent to the invited Authors alerting them of the changed due date.

For information on using proposals, see Initiate and Manage a Proposal.

To Configure:

Grant Editor permissions. Go to RoleManager > Editor Role. Select the appropriate Editor role and click Edit. On the Edit Role Definition page, go to the Proposal/Commentaries section, check the box next to the applicable permission(s), and click Submit.

Editors must have the following permissions in order to create and manage a proposal:

Initiate Proposals
Invite Authors/Solicit Commentaries. (Sub-permissions to this setting relate to managing Alternate Authors.)
Override Author Invited Submission Due Dates

Additional permissions that may be useful for Editors to have (not all permissions are necessary for all Editors):

Search All Proposals
Assign Authors (without Invitation) (if publication's workflow allows)
Lock/Unlock Predefined Article Type
View All Proposals and Submissions with Commentaries
Set Final Disposition on Proposals
Proxy Register New Users (in Proxy Activities section)
Send Author Reminders (in the Administrative and Reporting Functions section)
Receive Assignments in "New Assignments" Folder (in the Editor Assignment section). This permission enables the option, Assign Proposal to Myself, on the Initiate Proposal page.
Edit Submission Before Decision (in the Edit Submission section). Editors with this permission may edit proposals created by other Editors as well as edit fields on the Details page related to publication dates and the number of days for Authors to respond to invitations.

Create one or more Article Types in the Regular Family that are configured as "Invited." Create the "parent" Article Types in the Proposal Family and configure the Author Invitation Parameters. For details see, Configure Article Types for Invited Submissions.

Create letters for invited submissions. Several letters are needed for the commentary workflow and must be associated with the following ActionManager events:

Create proposal
Invite Authors for proposal
Author assigned (not invited) for proposal
Invited submission due date changed
Uninvite Author
Author unassigned after accepting invitation
Author unassigned after assignment
Promote alternate Authors
Author agrees to invitation
Author declines invitation
New child submission sent to publication

For details on configuration of letters, see Create Letters.

For details on associating letters to events, see Link Letters to ActionManager Events.

To make invitation notes available to Authors in letters and in the system interface, see Display Additional Information for Invited Authors.

Proposal Details page layouts

A Details page layout may be created specifically for Proposals. This layout can include much of the same information as a Details page in a standard editorial workflow, and it can also include data specific to the invited Author/Proposal workflow.

To Configure:

Go to PolicyManager > General Policies >Define Details Page Layouts. The Details Page Layouts main page includes several default layouts that can be copied to create user-defined layouts.

Click the Copy link next to the Default Proposals layout. This creates a new layout in the User-defined Layouts section: Copy of Default Proposals. Click the Edit link next to this layout to go to the Add/Edit Details Page Layout page. For specific instructions, see Configure Details Page.

Once the layout is created, set it to display for Editor Roles working with Proposals. Go to RoleManager > Editor Role. Select the appropriate Editor role and click Edit. On the Edit Role Definition page, go to the Proposal/Commentaries section. For the setting, Use Proposals Details Layout, select the applicable layout from the drop-down list. When finished, click Submit.

Deep links to accept or decline an invitation and submit an invited manuscript

The following merge fields can be included in emails associated with the Author Invitation set of ActionManager events. All of these deep link merge fields appear as links in the email body and should be preceded by text that explains their purpose.

%ACCEPT_INVITATION% appears as a link the Author may click to trigger the ActionManager event, Author Agrees to Invitation. After clicking the link the Author is fully logged into the system and can access the related proposal information in the folder, My Accepted Invitations, on the Author Main Menu.
%DECLINE_INVITATION% appears as a link the Author may click to trigger the ActionManager event, Author Declines Invitation. Clicking the link takes the Author to the Decline Author Invitation page (without logging in to the system). The Decline Author Invitation page includes text fields where the Author can enter a reason for declining the assignment and suggest other qualified Authors.
%SUBMIT_INVITED_MANUSCRIPT% appears as a link the Author may click to be logged into the system and brought directly to the Submit Manuscript interface.

Receiving invited submissions

All invited articles related to a proposal are received in the Editor folder, New Submissions Requiring Assignment (just like regular submissions). The submission must be assigned to an Editor to handle the Peer Review process (if necessary) and make a decision.

An ActionManager event, New Child Submission Sent to Publication, allows the publication to receive a letter when an Author submits an invited manuscript. This event can be used to distinguish invited submissions from unsolicited submissions.

Once the Editor is assigned, the submission can follow whatever workflow the publication configures. For example, the Editor can assign another Editor, Invite Reviewers, or Submit a Decision.

Viewing related submissions

All regular Action links are available for invited submissions, as well as an additional link, View Related Submissions. This link delivers the Editor to a page that displays the "parent" proposal and all other invited submissions related to that proposal.

Setting final disposition on a proposal

A proposal does not get published and is not transmitted to production, however, a final disposition must be set on a completed proposal. There are only two final dispositions available for proposals: Completed and Withdrawn.

Child submissions that have already been submitted to the publication are not affected by setting final disposition on the proposal. These submissions remain linked to the parent proposal.

Before setting either type of final disposition on the proposal, an Editor must uninvite any Authors with outstanding invitations or Authors who have accepted an invitation but not submitted an article. An Editor can set final disposition by clicking the Final Disposition link and then selecting Completed or Withdrawn from the drop-down list.

Once a final disposition has been set, the proposal moves to View All Completed Proposals folder.

To Configure:

Go to RoleManager > Editor Role. Select the appropriate Editor role(s) and click Edit. On the Edit Role Definition page, go to the Proposals/Commentaries section, check the box next to the permission, Set Final Disposition on Proposals, and click Submit.

Two ActionManager events are associated with setting Final Disposition on a Proposal: Final Disposition – Completed Proposal and Final Disposition – Withdrawn Proposal.

A status change is pre-configured for both events in the Document Status section of ActionManager. The status terms can be edited. For details, see Create Editorial Document Status Terms.

Configure a letter for each of these events to be sent to any role (e.g., Managing Editor, editorial staff) that should be informed when a proposal is completed or withdrawn. For details on letter configuration, see Create Letters.

For details on associating letters to events, see Link Letters to ActionManager Events.

Proposal Pipeline Report

A Proposal Pipeline Report (available on the Reports menu in the Author Reminder Reports section) allows Editors (with reporting permissions) to track the status of all Proposals in the system, their related Author invitations, and their related invited submissions.

The report can provide information about all Author invitations and invited submissions related to a proposal to answer such questions as:

Have all invited Authors responded?
Have all invited submissions been received?
What is the editorial status of those invited submissions?

The report can also be run on-demand at key reporting periods, if desired, to determine the response rate from Authors for invited submissions solicited via proposals.

To use: Criteria related to the proposal, the invitation, or the invited submission can be used to pull the results. If no criteria are selected, the report runs using the default criteria:

Proposal Handling Editor = All Editors
Proposal Status = All Statuses
Invited Article Editorial Status = All Statuses

Running the report in this way pulls information about all proposals in the publication, along with all their related invitations and invited submissions. The report data may be downloaded to a tab-delimited file (suitable for use with Excel) from the results page by clicking the link, Download the report results.