Peer Review Analytics on Scholastica

Overview

Scholastica provides peer review analytics for journal editors so they can easily review their journal's performance. Journals that use Scholastica OA Publishing also have access to Publishing Analytics. Editors can access journal peer review data by clicking My Journals and then clicking the Peer Review Analytics tab.

The "Journal Analytics" section shows information about the journal as a whole, while the "Editor Analytics" section shows information about individual editors.

Each of these pages is broken up into four sections containing graphics that describe journal and editorial performance. Each section is summarized at the top of the page.

**Please note that the "total submissions" summary refers to every manuscript that has been submitted including revised versions (v2+) of the same manuscript.

Journal Analytics

The "Journal Analytics" page describes:

  • Average days to decision overall, for specific types of decisions, and over time
  • Acceptance rate (further broken down by decision type)
  • Total submissions by date
  • Manuscripts in progress, with breakdown by each phase of review

The "Editor Analytics" page describes:

  • Average manuscipts per editor and how many are assigned to each editor
  • Average days to decision for each editor and how many days each step in the review process tends to take
  • Average days to reject for each editor and how many days rejections spend on average with the editor or the reviewers
  • Average days to accept for each editor and how many days acceptances spend on average with the editor or the reviewers

Definitions

Decision: the final decision a journal makes about whether to publish a manuscript

  • Desk reject: a decision of "reject" was made and no reviews were ever submitted
  • Reject: a decision of "reject" was made and at least one review was submitted
  • Accept: a decision of "accept" was made

Submission: a manuscript that an author submitted to a journal in order to receive a decision as to whether the journal will publish the manuscript or not.

Manuscripts in progress: a manuscript is "in progress" from the time it is submitted until the time the journal makes a decision (see the "Under Review" manuscript status section of this article). Manuscripts with a decision and manuscripts that are withdrawn from consideration are not "in progress".

  • Successfully submitted: an article has been submitted, but no reviewers have been invited
  • Reviewers invited: at least one reviewer has been invited to review the manuscript
  • Reviewers confirmed: at least one reviewer has accepted an offer to review the manuscript
  • Reviews submitted: at least one review has been submitted for this manuscript 

Publication offers (optional configuration option)

  • Accepted: the author accepted the publication offer 
  • Declined: the author declined the publication offer
  • Pending: the author has not yet accepted or declined the publication offer

How are different measures calculated in the "Journal" report?

  • Average days to decision: for all manuscripts that have received a decision, this is the average time it took from when the manuscript was submitted to when a decision was made
  • Days to decision by decision type: this distribution chart calculates the days to decision for each manuscript that has received a decision, broken up by decision type (accept, reject, and desk reject). You can quickly see how many manuscripts with a given decision type took a certain number of days.
  • Acceptance rate: the average days to decision for all your manuscripts that have received a decision. Note that this does NOT include manuscripts that received a decision of "revise and resubmit".
  • Decision breakdown: this chart shows the number of manuscripts with a given decision type (accept, reject, desk reject) as a percentage of all manuscripts that received a decision
  • Publication offer breakdown: this chart shows the number of manuscripts with a publication offer in a given state (accepted, declined, pending) as a percentage of all manuscripts that have a publication offer
  • Manuscript submissions by date: this distribution chart shows how manuscripts were submitted on a given date
  • Manuscripts in progress: this chart shows the number of manuscripts without decisions in a given state (under review, reviewers invited, reviewers confirmed, reviews submitted) as a percentage of all manuscripts without decisions

How are different measures calculated in the "Editors" report?

  • Average manuscripts per editor: takes the total number of manuscripts that are under review and assigned to an editor, and divides this by the total of number of editors (e.g. a journal that has 16 total manuscripts that are under review and assigned to an editor, and 6 total editors, would have 2.7 manuscripts per editor)
  • Average days spent on manuscript: breaks down the time a manuscript spends with different roles (editor, reviewers, author)
  • Average days spent on manuscript by editor: takes all the manuscripts assigned to a given editor, and breaks down the average time a manuscript spends with different roles (editor, reviewers, author)
  • Days to each type of decision, by editor: this takes all of an editor's manuscripts, finds the average time to decision for a given decision (e.g. accepted, desk reject, reject), and compares this to other editors as well as to the journal-wide average 
  • Days spent with editor: this is calculated by adding two different periods of time: 1) the time from when a manuscript is submitted to the journal until when an editor has confirmed a reviewer, and 2) the time from when the final review is submitted until when the final decision is made
  • Days spent with reviewer: this is the time from when the first reviewer confirms that they will write a review until the time when the last review is submitted
  • Days spent with author: the time between an author receiving a "Revise and Resubmit" decision and when the author submits a new version of the manuscript
  • Days spent on rejected manuscripts, by editor: these charts look at only REJECTED manuscripts assigned to a given editor, and displays a distribution chart of 1) the time spent with the editor, 2) the time spent with reviewers, and 3) the total time spent with editors and reviewers (note: this total does NOT include time spent with the author)
  • Days spent on accepted manuscripts, by editor: these charts look at only ACCEPTED manuscripts assigned to a given editor, and displays a distribution chart of 1) the time spent with the editor, 2) the time spent with reviewers, and 3) the total time spent with editors and reviewers (note: this total does NOT include time spent with the author)

To learn more about being an editor, check out our Editor Guide.