Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Editing Process Steps

1. New submission arrives at UCP and is listed under New Submissions.
2. UCP processes submission and shows up as listed under New Submissions requiring Assignments.
3. Assign an Editor:
   • Select New Submissions Requiring Assignment
   • Assign an Editor from the list.
   • If I am the Editor assigned select Send default letter.
   • If Dan or Toby is assigned as editor, go to Details page and click on Edit flags to insert red flag.
   • Send Dan or Toby an email asking if he is willing to take the paper. If he says yes, go back to this page and assign him as Editor.
4. Acknowledge receipt of manuscript if I am assigned Editor:
   • If I am assigned Editor, paper will appear under New Assignments.
   • Go to Send E-mail and send/edit the letter called Acknowledge New Manuscript.
   • Click the link and hit View Submission to look at the paper and decide on a reviewer.
   • Look at the Details page to see if there are any comments from the author (some people may request not to send to one or more particular people due to conflict of interest or just conflicts with those people).
5. Special Cases:
   • For a contribution that does not require review (i.e. Obituary):
     • Go to Submit Editor's Decision and Comments and use the scroll to enter Accept.
     • Go to Set Final Disposition and click on Accept.
     • Accept will take you to the Transmittal Page (and go through the usual transmittal process).
   • For an Editorial (submitted by me):
     • This is a special class of article type, called "Editor Use Only", which allows me to submit an article myself and then immediately transmit it to UCP as an accepted article. This allows me to skip over the technicality of making a decision and sending a decision letter.
6. Find a Reviewer:
   • Click on the Invite Reviewers link to search for a reviewer in the database.
   • If it comes up with the name you want, click Proceed and then Customize letter to edit and send the letter with any comments from you.
     • It is a good idea to let reviewers "rest" for a few months, so check to see if they have reviewed anything recently (shows up in their reviewer search listing).
   • Edit the time for review if you don't want 2-3 weeks listed.
   • If the reviewer's name is not in the database, click on Register and Select New Reviewer link at the bottom of the selection page and it will allow you to register a new person (only first, last name and email and country are needed to be filled in).
     • Always use register but don't send letter to get back to the selection page where you can then Proceed in a normal fashion.
   • Once you have selected the check box for a reviewer, select Proceed.
   • If you want to identify alternate reviewers, select the alternate check box next to their name.
   • In the Select Reviewers - Confirm Selection and Customize Letters page choose the Customize link in the Reviewer column to customize the reviewer invitation letter.
     • After customizing the letter and selecting Proceed you will be told that an email has been sent to the selected reviewer, and that your alternates have been identified but no email is sent to the alternates , which is exactly what you want.
   • If you are selecting a second reviewer for a paper or you need to un-assign a reviewer who fails to submit their review:
     • Go to Submissions with Required Reviews Complete
     • Since EM insists on sending all reviewer emails to all reviewers assigned to a paper (even those that have completed reviews) you either have to:
       • Send an invitation email to the second reviewer outside of EM, or
       • Go to Invite Reviewers and select the Un-Assign or Un-Invite button next to the (first or delinquent) reviewer's name.
     • Select Send Email from Actions menu, select Reviewer Instructions and Due Date from the pull-down list of letters to send, edit the letter and sent it to the second reviewer.
     • If there is any doubt about how many reviewers EM thinks there are (to send letters to), check the Details page to see who is listed.
7. If after 3 days you have no response from the candidate reviewer go to Invite Reviewers again and ask another one (keep the previous one until you get an accept from one of them - keep going on this until you get a response from someone).
   • If one candidate reviewer responds while others are still in the list:
     • Go to Details for the MS
     • Select the "un-invite" link, then "Custom Letter" to customize the un-invitation email to the Reviewer candidate that did not respond.
     • Do this for all non-responsive reviewers until only one Reviewer is associated with the MS.
8. When the requested reviewer responds:
   • If your requested reviewer agrees to take the paper:
     • You will get an email and the paper will be listed under Submission Under Review.
     • Before 2013-05-30: Click on this link and go to Send email and send/edit the letter that says Reviewer Instructions and Due Date.
     • On or After 2013-05-30: When a reviewer agrees to review a paper, the "general" version of the Reviewer Instructions and Due Date email is automatically sent to the reviewer.
   • If a reviewer turns you down:
     • Before selecting a second reviewer:
       • Go to Send E-mail for that paper and select Generic Message to Reviewer.
       • Enter the reviewer's email address and name by-hand.
       • Edit letter to thank them for considering and send.
     • If reviewer 1 suggested alternate reviewers, see if they are in the database.
     • Go to Invite Reviewers and find an alternate. Send request as in step 5 above. If you use one of the reviewers suggested by reviewer 1, it is a good idea to mention that "XX recommended you as a possible reviewer" (Paula found that this helps them accept the job).
9. Wait for the review to come back:
   • If your deadline is 14 days and no review has appeared:
     • Go to Submissions with One or More Late Reviews.
     • Go to *Reviewer Reminder Report"
     • Filter for the MS's that you want to possibly send review reminders for and select Submit.
     • Select "Send Reminder" for that papers that you want to send reviewer reminders for. This will send a reminder email to the Reviewer notifying them that their review is due (actually, it is past-due).
10. When review is done:
    • You will get an email and the paper will appear in the Submissions with Required Reviews Complete link.
    • Click on this link and then on View Reviews and Comments.
    • Look over the review to see what your decision will be.
    • Click on Send E-mail to edit/send Reviewer Acknowledgment letter.
      • Remember to edit the salutation, specifically the title. The title field is extracted from the referee's profile, which is not required to be set. Furthermore, if you know the person you might want to enter their first name.
    • Then click on Submit Editor's Decision and Comments and use the scroll to enter Accept, Reject or Revise (the latter is most common).
    • If this is a Revise or Reject:
      • You need to cut-and-paste the referee's comments for later inclusion in the letter to the author.
      • Hit Proceed until you get to the letter to the author and you can add your comments to it.
      • Hit Send Now to send dispensation to author.
      • If it is only a borderline rejection you can make it softer by selecting Revise and then in the letter to the author recommend that they withdraw the paper and send to XX journal. This is sometimes a good path for Asian authors, although they do not always respond back and so you are then left in limbo.
      • If a reviewer recommends reject and you don't necessarily agree, you can select Revise, send the author the review and ask the author if they want a second opinion.
    • If the manuscript requires a second reviewer, go back to the Find a Reviewer step.
11. If the Review Status is listed as "Partial Review Saved" for more than a day or so, then the reviewer might have forgotten to press the "submit" button on their review. Send them an email to see if they are done, and if so proxy-in as them and submit the review.
12. Wait for the revision to come back:
    • If months go by with no answer, use Send Mail to edit/send a Generic Letter to author to ask them if they intend to submit a revision.
13. When revision is sent to UCP:
    • It will appear under Revised Submissions.
    • After it is processed, it will go to Revised Submissions Requiring Assignments.
    • Click this link and do Assign Editor (almost always the previous editor that handled the original version).
14. If I am the Editor of the revised manuscript:
    • The revised manuscript will appear under my New Assignments.
    • Go to View Reviews and Comments link to see the author response to the reviewer comments.
    • If the reviewer requested to see the revised version, then go to Invite Reviewers and pick the previous reviewer link.
    • Proceed to the page about the letter and:
      • Select the check-box which appends the previous reviewer comments to the author response email .
      • You also need to select Reviewer Invitation on Revision in the drop-down list of possible letter templates. This is important as it attaches the author response to the letter automatically.
      • Customize the letter and send.
    • If the reviewer accepts, you will get an email.
    • Go to Send Email and send the Reviewer Instructions and Due Date to setup the review of the revised MS.
    • If the reviewer did not ask or need to see the revised, go to Step 14.
15. Reiterate on steps 8-13 until the Reviewer (or you) answers to accept the paper or you decide to reject it or the author asks to withdraw it.
16. Editor's decision:
    • Go to Submit Editor's Decision and Comments and scroll to accept (or reject, withdraw) on the thumbnail.
    • You can edit the letter that appears (for rejections, you will need to copy in any comments from the Reviewer).
17. Final disposition (after Editor's decision sent):
    • If this was a Reject, wait a few days in case author responds asking you to reconsider.
    • Go to Set Final Disposition and click on Accept (or Reject, Withdraw - if its reject or withdraw you are done with the paper).
    • Accept will take you to the Transmittal Page.
    • Fill in the date of acceptance on the calendar (this is the 1st of the month in which the paper will appear, not the current date), the volume and issue number and the approximate journal page length (about 2.5 latex pages make 1 journal page; use the actual manuscript to make this estimate rather than the estimated pages in the transmittal form).
    • Continue on the pages that come up until you get the page about the letters.
    • Edit the letter to the author to put in the Publication month that you have just entered the volume and issue for.
    • Just send the default letter to the publisher (Dan Martin).
    • Keep going on the pages that come up until you get the message that the transmission has gone through.
    • If you need to Rescind a decision (for example, if an author insists on a second review):
      • Go to All Submissions with Editor's Decision and select Rescind Decision from the action links.
      • When presented with the screen about email sending options, select Rescind but don't send a letter.
      • Then use Send Email to send a generic letter to the author to communicate (or regular email if you want).
      • Select a second reviewer using the same process as you would for any reviewer selection.
      • When you invite the second reviewer:
        • Do not include the review of the first reviewer unless they ask for it later. This provides an independent review by the second reviewer without being prejudiced by the first one's comments.
        • In the invitation tell the second reviewer that the author was requesting a second opinion. Most second reviewers do not ask to see the first review.
18. Once the issue is full (100-120 pages), put the ordered list together with category, author, title, estimated pages and page charges and email to Dan Martin (preferably 2 months prior to the pub date i.e. we are filling Jan issue in Nov). Several things to take into account when assembling an issue:
    • Use the All Submissions with Final Disposition (Accept) link on EM to select papers to include in an issue. Order by "Status Date" to make it easier to pick-out those papers that should be included.
    • Use the category assigned by the author, unless it is just way off.
    • Order papers within a given category by the acceptance date.
    • If a paper has a long electronic table, compensate the number of pages estimated accordingly.
    • If a table looks like its several pages, you should always contact the author to make sure they want it all in there and not in just electronic. No charges for electronic and they have to input a stub table for the print.