Journal setting: Setting target number of reviewers for a manuscript

Imagine that you had a world-class, personal assistant who would sort through all of the submissions you're managing on your behalf and notify you of the ones that need your attention. At Scholastica, we offer a configuration option that offers a similar experience to help you easily identify manuscripts that may need your attention (e.g. to invite more reviewers or make a decision). 

Often journals set a target number of reviews they aim to receive before making a publication decision on a given manuscript. For example, a journal may set a target of 3 reviews, meaning they plan to receive at least 3 reviews before making a decision. Setting a target helps ensure all articles receive sufficient feedback before making a final publication decision.

Activating configuration option

To easily identify which manuscripts that have fewer than your "target" number of reviewers and manuscripts that are ready for a decision because they have the correct number of submitted reviews, you'll follow these steps:

1. Log into Scholastica and navigate to My Journals > Settings > Journal Settings > Configuration Options
2. Scroll down to the 'Journal Workflow Options' header
3. Toggle on the configuration option shown below and titled "I want to receive at least __ reviews before making a decision"

Weekly email notification

Once you've turned on this configuration option, the assigned editor for that manuscript will receive an email once a week that looks similar to this:

The email includes sections (when applicable) for manuscripts that have fewer than the target number of active review invitations, manuscripts that have met the target number of reviews submitted and are still waiting on a decision, and manuscripts that have had no reviewers invited yet at all. 

Additional manuscript filtering, sorting, and alerts

With this configuration option turned on, you'll also be able to more easily pull up the manuscripts that are ready for next steps.

You can pull up the manuscripts that have fewer than the target number of active reviewers or the manuscripts that have the target number of reviews submitted and are still waiting on a final decision (i.e. they are still listed as 'Under Review' in Scholastica) by filtering and also by sorting.

To filter, just open the Review Status dropdown on the filter sidebar and select "Target # of reviews submitted" and/or "Fewer than target # of active reviewers".

To sort, just click "edit this view" or "create new view" to first add those columns to your manuscript table's view. Once the columns show, you can click the column header to sort by that column and bring those papers to the top.

We've also removed a few 'clicks' from the process of checking a manuscript's review status with additional reviewer invitation data that you can access right on the manuscript table by clicking "Manage views" and either editing the current view or creating a new view that displays those additional columns.

Review sub-statuses

Under Review: Successfully submitted — This manuscript is awaiting a decision and has not yet had any reviewers invited.

Under Review: Reviewers invited — This manuscript is awaiting a decision, has reviewers invited, but does not yet have any completed, submitted reviews.

Under Review. Need to invite reviewers?: Yes — This manuscript is awaiting a decision and does not currently have enough active reviewer invitations to meet the target number of reviews.

Under Review. Target # of reviews received?: Yes — This manuscript is awaiting a decision and has met the target number of reviews that you require before making a decision. 

Help your journal run more efficiently and reduce the risk of manuscripts slipping through the cracks! If you have any questions, please email us at support@scholasticahq.com .