Create Decision Terms and Associate Decision Letters

Publications define the list of terms that Editors choose from when making a determination about a submission (e.g., Accept, Reject, Major Revision, or Minor Revision). There is no limit to the number of decision terms a publication may define. Each individual decision term is linked to a specific Document Status in ActionManager.

Whatever wording a publication may use for these decisions, the EM system only needs to recognize four different types of decisions: Accept, Revise, Reject, and Reject and Transfer. These are also called Decision Families.

Each unique decision term defined by the publication must be associated with one of the Decision Families, so that the EM system can identify what options need to be provided in the workflow following the Author notification of the Editor's decision regarding a submission.

Descriptions of the Decision Families:

Accept: A submission with an Accept decision does not go back to the Author. It will receive a Final Disposition of Accept and be sent to production for publishing.

Reject: A submission with a Reject decision does not go back to the Author. It will receive a Final Disposition of Reject.

Revise: A submission with a Revise decision goes back to the Author for revision; later the Author resubmits the manuscript to the publication, and the Editor makes a decision on the revised manuscript.

Reject and Transfer: A submission with a Reject and Transfer decision goes back to the Author, who decides whether to allow the submission to be transferred to another publication. If the Author allows the transfer, the submission receives a Final Disposition of Transfer and is sent to another publication. If the Author does not allow the transfer, the submission receives a Final Disposition of Reject.

Note: A Reject and Transfer decision type should be created only if there is at least one target publication configured in AdminManager > Configure Cross-Publication Submission Transfer. Even if a Reject and Transfer decision has been configured, the term will not be available for Editors to select on the Submit Editor's Decision and Comments page if there are no confirmed transfer target publications. For more information, see Transfer Submissions Between Publications.

Editor decision term must also be associated with one or more Decision letters. (A publication may opt to create several letters, e.g., in multiple languages to accommodate multilingual Authors or letters for specific Editors' use.) Each decision term is associated with a default letter.

When an Editor selects a decision term from the drop-down list on the Submit Editors Decision and Comments page, the selection also identifies for the system which Decision letter should be sent to the Author (if only the default is configured) or which selection of configured letters should be shown in a drop-down list for the Editor to choose from. The selection of the decision term also dictates what the status of the submission will be once the Decision letter is sent.

To Configure:

Verify that document status terms have been configured before the decision terms are created. See Customize Editorial Document Status Terms.

Decision letters should also be configured before the decision terms are created, so that each term may be associated with one or more letters. Letters should be configured in the Decision family. For details on letter configuration, see Create Letters.

To configure the decision terms, go to PolicyManager > Editor Decision Policies > Edit Editor Decision Terms.
Click the Add New Term button to open the Add/Edit Editor Decision Term page.
Editor Decision Term: Enter the word/phrase for the term.
Author Notification Letter Options: All the letters that have been created and associated with the Decision family appear in this list. Choose a Default letter option by selecting the appropriate radio button. Select optional letters (which the Editor may choose from) by checking the box next to them in the Optional column.
Reviewer Notification Letter: Select a letter to notify Reviewers of the decision. (This is not required.)
Document Status: This is the document status the submission moves to once the Editor's decision is submitted. Select the appropriate term from the drop-down list. (This is the list configured in PolicyManager > Edit Document Statuses, and that appears in the New Document Status column in ActionManager.)
Decision Family: Select the appropriate Decision Family from the drop-down list. For additional information, see Associate Decision Term in Reject and Transfer Family with Transfer Target.
When finished, click the Add New Term button.

Once the terms have been defined, they appear in a list on the main Editor Decision Terms page. The order the terms appear here is the same order in which they are displayed in the drop-down list on the Submit Editors Decision and Comments page. The order may be changed by entered the preferred numbered order in the boxes and clicking the Update Order button. Decision terms may be edited (click the Edit link). Terms may be removed (click the Remove link) if they have not been used; terms that have been used may be hidden (check the Hide box on the Add/Edit Editor Decision Terms page).

Configurations for different types of revisions

A publication may define different decision terms for different levels of revision, e.g., Major Revision and Minor Revision. Publications may also want to allot a different number of days for these decisions, because an Author requires more time to complete a major revision than a minor revision.

After defining decision terms for revisions, the timing allowed for each may be configured by Article Type. If configured this way, an Author's due date for a revision is calculated based on the revision type requested.

This information appears on the Editor's Decision and Comments page. If an Editor changes the decision to a new revision decision term, the indicated number of days to revise updates to show the number for the new decision term. Editors with the permission, Override Author Revision Due Date, see the number as an editable text box and can change it.

The same decision terms appear in the Modify Decision drop-down menu on the Notify Author page. If the Editor changes to a new revision decision term at this point, the calculated due date of the new term (based on the configuration) displays on a button. The Editor can click the button to select that due date or use the calendar tool to choose a different date.

TO CONFIGURE:

First define the Revision decision terms as described above.

Then go to PolicyManager > Submission Policies > Edit Article Types. Click the Edit link next to the applicable Article Type. On the Add/Edit Article Type page, go to the Author Parameters section. Radio buttons allow the publication to choose the definition of revision times:

Same for all Revision Decisions: Use the text boxes to enter the number of days for First Revision and Subsequent Revisions.
By Revision Decision Term: A list of all publication-defined revision decision terms appears. Use the text boxes to enter the number of days for each.

When finished, click Submit.

For details on Article Type configuration, see Configure Article Types.

Note: Changes to configuration of an existing Article Type are not applied retroactively. New configurations will not affect submissions in process. They will apply only to submissions initiated after the configuration change.

To allow Editors to change due dates, go to RoleManager > Editor Role. Grant permissions to the applicable Editor roles:

Override Author Revision Due Date

For related information, see:

Configure Editor Decision-making