The Three Scholars behind ScholarOne: EJIL’s Associate Editors

Writing an article is such a private endeavour: a wrestle with questions, construction and particular person sentences. And when that wrestle appears to be over and the article seems prepared for sharing, it may be submitted to ScholarOne, a ‘journals workflow administration software program’ that EJIL and plenty of different journals use. That vastly private product is thus fed to a seemingly impersonal beast.

However ScholarOne is just the interface: behind that interface are, at EJIL, three terrific students who, by means of their mental and sensible contributions, make sure that an article is shepherded by means of the editorial course of. These students are EJIL’s Affiliate Editors, at the moment Dr Wanshu Cong, Dr Ana Luisa Bernardino and Dr Francisco Quintana, who joined the staff in July 2021, March 2022 and August 2023, respectively.

The selection of phrase ‘shepherding articles by means of the editorial course of’ is in no way informal. The Affiliate Editors information manuscripts alongside every step of the method, from the preliminary submission, by means of the varied phases of overview, to the ultimate choice. When an article is submitted, the Affiliate Editors learn it and put together an preliminary report on the article for our month-to-month editorial assembly. In that assembly, every article is mentioned by the accountable Affiliate Editor and a minimum of one of many two Editors-in-Chief, who additionally learn the articles and the experiences earlier than the assembly. After the assembly, the Affiliate Editors talk the outcomes of the assembly to the authors. These outcomes vary from desk rejects to exterior peer overview, with a number of choices in between. Typically the editorial staff writes to the writer that there’s a promising thought within the article, however that the article would must be reframed for that concept to return out, inviting the writer to submit a brand new article. In different instances, the editorial staff sends the writer options to strengthen the article earlier than it goes to look overview. The Affiliate Editors additionally invite peer reviewers, ship peer reviewers pleasant reminders, and reply to questions from authors about the place their article is within the course of. When peer overview experiences are available, the Affiliate Editors set up the information for dialogue on the subsequent editorial assembly. After the assembly, the Affiliate Editors ship the peer overview experiences to the authors, typically with options from the editorial staff when the critiques are contradictory or seemingly not possible to implement. Frequently, authors are requested for a ‘roadmap’ of deliberate revisions, to keep away from authors spending months and months on revisions that don’t tackle the important thing issues. The roadmap is then mentioned within the editorial assembly, after which the Affiliate Editors talk the inexperienced gentle or options for extra or totally different modifications in order that the article may have a larger likelihood of getting by means of peer overview within the subsequent spherical. The Affiliate Editors learn the revised articles, ship them to look overview, and once more put together the information for the following editorial assembly. All revised articles are mentioned completely, on this spherical, by each Editors-in-Chief and the accountable Affiliate Editor.

In sum, behind the sterile and presumably intimidating interface of ScholarOne are three Students who fastidiously learn all of the submissions, assume with the authors, talk with peer reviewers and authors, and make it possible for each submission is learn and commented on by the Editors-in-Chief and shepherded by means of the entire editorial course of.

Our former Affiliate Editors are: Orfeas Chasapis Tassinis (2021-2023), Michal Saliternik (2019-2021), Justus Vasel (2018-2020), Man Fiti Sinclair (2013-2017), Karine Caunes (2011-2012), Emily Kidd White (2009-2010), Eugene Rusyn (2009) and Anne Becker (2008-2009).

All Affiliate Editors have made each mental and, equally importantly, vastly sensible contributions to EJIL.