Good morning/afternoon/evening (wherever you are)
Many of you have to deal with decisions regarding your articles that get sent to your journals everyday Right?
There is nothing like having the power of being an editor and accepting an article for publication, but I wonder how you feel about rejecting them, do you feel pleasure, guilt or just don’t care?
The rejection of an article can be very disappointing to an author especially if it has not been peer reviewed. So why the immediate reject? Is it because it is just plain rubbish? Well sometimes it is, but more often a journal has to think about the priority of articles it accepts especially the large journals. Other aspects could be; insufficient originality, serious scientific flaws, or the absence of a message that is important to your audience.
I imagine there are many ways of reading a research article and many editors have their own little tricks and checklists they follow. I wonder how much of the paper is read, is it every word of the paper (I think not), is it just the abstract and a skim of the text, just the abstract, just the tables, etc.
If an article is rejected within 48 hours then surely that is a bonus to he author for not wasting their time or I wonder do they feel a bit disgruntled with a feeling of not having their article read properly.
Can you get the gist of an article just from an abstract, I know my answer I wonder if it is the same as yours?
Rejecting after review is another tricky one especially if it has positive reviews but it just does not quite make the grade, a difficult reject letter to write, but remember all structured criticism is a good thing and is to improve articles after revision with the reviewers comments taken into account.
At the end of the day just remember be very nice you your authors because without them you can’t pay your mortgage.
TTFN
Friday, 22 May 2009
Friday, 15 May 2009
Sweep up, mop up and clean up
I know what you are thinking, 'is he on about the housework?' (no sexist jokes please about a ladies work is never done) ;o)
Well, actually i'm not talking about housework so keep reading gents.
I received an email this week asking about advice on cleaning up the database for their manuscript tracking system. This has to be the most boring job ever recorded to have to be done within an editorial office (apart from the hoovering of course).
Over the years your journal will grow its database of users so you can have a large set of authors and reviewers, but over time people move and change jobs or even die, so the emails do not work. Also people will register on the system twice or three times with different addresses. All very annoying.
I gave my answer as follows:
We run the Duplicate record report every month to keep on top of it. We go down the list quickly, if you keep on top of it then it will take you an hour a month.
Also if we are working on a paper and see that a reviewer has been put on twice we will then merge it there and then.
We also clean our database once a year where we email everyone to update there record, this will then cause a major bounce back of wrong email addresses which you will then need to go and deactivate the records. You could discuss this with your developer on how best you can cope with this boring chore.
I wonder how others do this if they do it at all. Again I urge you to have a discussion on the ISMTE forum.
Anyway i'm off to iron my socks and pants.
Tally ho
Well, actually i'm not talking about housework so keep reading gents.
I received an email this week asking about advice on cleaning up the database for their manuscript tracking system. This has to be the most boring job ever recorded to have to be done within an editorial office (apart from the hoovering of course).
Over the years your journal will grow its database of users so you can have a large set of authors and reviewers, but over time people move and change jobs or even die, so the emails do not work. Also people will register on the system twice or three times with different addresses. All very annoying.
I gave my answer as follows:
We run the Duplicate record report every month to keep on top of it. We go down the list quickly, if you keep on top of it then it will take you an hour a month.
Also if we are working on a paper and see that a reviewer has been put on twice we will then merge it there and then.
We also clean our database once a year where we email everyone to update there record, this will then cause a major bounce back of wrong email addresses which you will then need to go and deactivate the records. You could discuss this with your developer on how best you can cope with this boring chore.
I wonder how others do this if they do it at all. Again I urge you to have a discussion on the ISMTE forum.
Anyway i'm off to iron my socks and pants.
Tally ho
Friday, 8 May 2009
Manuscript tracking systems
Hello earthilings, how are we all on this bright and sunny friday afternoon?
This week I would like to have a little discussion on online manuscript tracking systems. We use Bench>Press here at BMJGroup and it is a magnificent tool, we also use ScholarOne Manuscripts which is also a magnificent tool, I also here the same about Editorial Manager. There are a few more out there: Allen Track and EJ Press and some others. What one is the best? Do you have one but wish you had another? Did you used to have one but ended up with another?
Imagine the days when they did not exist and we had a typewriter each (yes I am so old, no jokes about candle light, thank you).
At the end of the day all of the systems are probably very good and meet most of the needs of a journal. Some have things that other do not, some copy other systems to try to make them as good and so on.
So at the end of the day why do editors struggle to use them. Even after 8 years of having one they still moan about it being clunky. But they forget that they used to have to send their post tied to a pigeons leg. Most of the admin is now done for them automatically. Oh! how they forget. Would love to see a discussion on systems on the ISMTE Forum http://www.ismte.org/
I have a great interest in this subject and I am sure many more of you do too, so come on bring it on who is the best :o)
Toodle pip.
This week I would like to have a little discussion on online manuscript tracking systems. We use Bench>Press here at BMJGroup and it is a magnificent tool, we also use ScholarOne Manuscripts which is also a magnificent tool, I also here the same about Editorial Manager. There are a few more out there: Allen Track and EJ Press and some others. What one is the best? Do you have one but wish you had another? Did you used to have one but ended up with another?
Imagine the days when they did not exist and we had a typewriter each (yes I am so old, no jokes about candle light, thank you).
At the end of the day all of the systems are probably very good and meet most of the needs of a journal. Some have things that other do not, some copy other systems to try to make them as good and so on.
So at the end of the day why do editors struggle to use them. Even after 8 years of having one they still moan about it being clunky. But they forget that they used to have to send their post tied to a pigeons leg. Most of the admin is now done for them automatically. Oh! how they forget. Would love to see a discussion on systems on the ISMTE Forum http://www.ismte.org/
I have a great interest in this subject and I am sure many more of you do too, so come on bring it on who is the best :o)
Toodle pip.
Friday, 1 May 2009
Feeling a bit left out?
Do you feel that when you work in an editorial department or work editorially that you feel you get left out? I most certainly used to and found it quite bizaare as the manuscript tracking system is the centre of the universe. Ethical debates and policy were swept under the carpet. On agendas at editorial board meetings it would be all about content or society stuff, acceptance rate is up or down, what shall we commission next, etc. Nothing about the workflow that the editors work within, nor the interaction between the editorial office and the editors, nothing on the system itself. So maybe if it aint broke then don’t fix. But then why did I always get the feedback of ‘Oh this bloody system is poo’ what is wrong with it?
So even though it was not on the agenda I used to bring it up and mutter the odd word about system or policy and then all of a sudden there would be an hours conversation on it, wow we really are on this planet, we do exist. Editorial matters are now quite high on the agenda and editors can’t wait to hear about the innovation and hear the wish list of what we have in store and the ethics has become popular among some, where others see it as meddlesome. There is a difference between asking editors to do something different and getting them to do it. Interesting to hear from editors on this view. I think it is just a mind frame of change and change is difficult for most.
Editorial matters and policy matters are heavily discussed at conferences such as the user conference in Virginia last week for ScholarOne, no page is left unturned, also the conference with Editorial Manager in June.
ISMTE are also holding 2 conferences in August and are very important to the editorial office and production office. The first one on the 4th is in Baltimore and will be focusing on best practice in editorial offices and how to manage editorial boards. This will be your chance to focus on the important things that you day job involves. Also there will be speakers on Ethics which is a very high profile topic this year and years to come. Also the ISMTE will be holding a Conference in Oxford, UK, on the 25th and a guest speaker the former chair of COPE will be speaking about ethics and policy, also talk and workshops on authors and reviewers, again very important to your everyday needs.
So even though it was not on the agenda I used to bring it up and mutter the odd word about system or policy and then all of a sudden there would be an hours conversation on it, wow we really are on this planet, we do exist. Editorial matters are now quite high on the agenda and editors can’t wait to hear about the innovation and hear the wish list of what we have in store and the ethics has become popular among some, where others see it as meddlesome. There is a difference between asking editors to do something different and getting them to do it. Interesting to hear from editors on this view. I think it is just a mind frame of change and change is difficult for most.
Editorial matters and policy matters are heavily discussed at conferences such as the user conference in Virginia last week for ScholarOne, no page is left unturned, also the conference with Editorial Manager in June.
ISMTE are also holding 2 conferences in August and are very important to the editorial office and production office. The first one on the 4th is in Baltimore and will be focusing on best practice in editorial offices and how to manage editorial boards. This will be your chance to focus on the important things that you day job involves. Also there will be speakers on Ethics which is a very high profile topic this year and years to come. Also the ISMTE will be holding a Conference in Oxford, UK, on the 25th and a guest speaker the former chair of COPE will be speaking about ethics and policy, also talk and workshops on authors and reviewers, again very important to your everyday needs.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
