Journal management is complicated and sometimes it might feel like running a journal is thankless work. While many companies use journal management systems to help them deal with the massive workloads, not all do. Here, we’ll be going over what journal management systems are and how they influence the day-to-day operations of an academic journal.
The submission pipeline can be refined and updated to make your life easier. Starting from article submission and peer review, through to revisions and publication, there are many different stages in the publishing process. Let’s take a look at some of the major steps in the process. As we do this, we can address how these can be streamlined, making your employees’ jobs easier.
Journal submission pipeline
Every journal is different, and they may all have slightly different pipelines. While getting from the submission stage to publication isn’t a standardized process, there are probably significant similarities between most journals. For example, many journals have a peer review process (though the specifics of that process might vary). But it can be a tough job, made all the more complicated because of the number of spinning plates to keep track of.
But running a journal doesn’t need to be hard.
In fact, with the right publishing tools and planning, it can be easy.
A journal needs a peer review pipeline
Once an article has been received, it needs to be verified and then the paper (if acceptable) needs to be sent out for peer review.
Everyone contacted for the peer review process need to be tracked, a pipeline needs to be established. Acceptance or rejection needs to be tracked. Revisions need to be tracked. Everything needs to be tracked. And all of this takes time.
Using spreadsheets or other simple tools can achieve these goals in the short term, they can be very time-consuming and difficult to navigate if you need to find important information. Searching through reports may border on impossible if you’re not careful.
Once peer review has been completed, manuscripts generally need to be edited by authors and changes need to be made. Once revisions are made to these academic articles, the process may need to start all over again. Manuscripts might need to be peer reviewed again. This usually depends on the extent of changes needed, the peer reviewer in question, and editorial decisions.
There is such thing as a “one size fits all” answer that takes all papers into account. Planning is crucial here.
Using journal management tools can help with making updates to articles faster. Once all the changes are made to the paper and both the peer reviewers and the editorial office are satisfied, the paper moves on to the next stage of the publishing process.
Production processes for running a journal
Having a submission system that allows you to take your accepted manuscripts through proofreading, typesetting, and XML conversion, while ensuring that quality is not sacrificed along the way, is of immense value. It saves time and it saves money. In fact, depending on the journal, there may be any number of additional stages that are undertaken which can be automated.
Layout formatting and English editing, for example, can be simplified using the right tools and people. Organizing these processes can be complicated, and coordinating various departments is very difficult if you’re only relying on email and notebooks to keep track of so many different processes. Again, the right tools make all the difference.
Each stage of the process has a lot of nuance. For example, what is needed by a layout team isn’t the same as what is needed for English editing.
Invoicing is crucial for running a journal
Being able to keep track of balances owed and whether payments have been made is critical to your business.
Invoicing is very important to the survival of a business.
Any good journal management system can help with this invoicing process. So to make sure that you’re running your journal’s finances effectively, make sure you have reliable tools and qualified people. The lights stay on and people get paid when the cashflow works properly.
How can you run multiple journals?
Many companies have lofty aspirations and want to produce multiple journals. Doing this, however, can just compound the amount of work that you need to do. Making sure that you’re using the best management strategy you can for your journal is critical.
Automating multiple steps of the process can be vastly useful. Especially if you want to run several journals with a limited number of employees. As such, a journal management system like JAMS can help to limit the amount of hours that are needed to run several different journals.
Journal management systems allow companies to produce greater results than they might normally be able to achieve given the number of employees. They allow a greater ability to get more done because the systems are so efficient.
Running a journal takes careful planning
Having said all this, each part element we’ve covered is a complicated subject on its own. Follow us as we learn more about these individual parts of the publishing process, the pipeline from submission to publication, and even what comes after. If you want more advice and ideas, or if you want to learn more about JAMS and how it can help you achieve your publishing goals, let us know.
Planning for future growth
Make sure that your staff has the guidelines and directives that they will need. A successful journal is built by reliable people with clear guidance. Trust your staff to do what you have hired them to do. When employees have clear guidelines, they can meet targets. As such, it’s much harder an employee to do their job effectively if management is constantly checking in. Micromanagement has a very real impact on the bottom line.
Making sure your staff is ready
While it might seem clear to most people, sometimes proper training can be overlooked. Generally, there are two different ways to deal with training. First, ensure that you have different kinds of training processes that address important elements of the publishing process.
The second is to have an easy-to-use tool that allows staff to work on. By giving them access to an intuitive and easy to understand system, you empower your staff. It allows them to move through the publication process effectively without unnecessary delays.
While training is important, sometimes giving your staff powerful tools to help can make your business run more effectively.
Time saved on training that your staff doesn’t need can really add up. This time can be better spent on important things, like the peer review process or how to organize editing on manuscripts.
Making sure that your staff is ready for any eventuality. This means to make sure that you have processes and tools in place.