Page 8 - Straive eBook: Redefining Your Peer Review Experience

8 Straive | Redefining Your Peer Review Experience

Suggestions

• Consider the threshold for returning articles for amendment should they fail a
technical check, for an optimal balance between author service and editorial
ease, and ensure the JEO has the appropriate documentation to manage
the process.
• Automate technical checks to reduce turnaround times between submission and
editor screening.
• Consider making automated technical checks available to authors before they
complete the submission process.

Editorial screening

Articles which pass a technical check – or those sent to journals that do not require such a
check – are allocated to an editor. How this happens varies by journal and depends on the
editorial structure (Figure 4). In a journal with a single editor, or a flat editorial structure,
articles are allocated directly to a handling editor, in two- or three-tier structures an article will
often be sent to a senior editor for an initial screen before being allocated to a handling editor,
and in some three-tier structures the editor-in-chief may make the initial screening decision.

Assessing Suitability

Handling Editor Senior Editor Editor-in-Chief

Handling Editor Senior Editor

Figure 4. Handling Editor
Editorial structures

Whatever the editorial structure, this step of the workflow includes an editorial screening task
that requires the editor to read the article and make a decision, which may be any of the
following:

• The article appears methodologically flawed: reject prior to review (‘desk reject’), with
or without the option to resubmit.
• The article is out of scope for the journal: offer a transfer to another journal within the
publisher’s portfolio.
• The article appears sound and is in scope: proceed to peer review.