Aries Systems Corporation

Editorial Manager® (EM), the leading manuscript submission and peer review tracking system, is leveraged by thousands of Editors worldwide to manage their workflows. As submissions progress within the editorial lifecycle, Editors work diligently to ensure they make informed conclusions on which should proceed to publication. However, it may be necessary for an Editor to rescind their decision on a manuscript if a decision term was submitted by mistake or if there has been a change in opinion.

Editors with proper role permissions are granted the power to retract self-made decisions from the folders in the Submissions with Decisions section of the Editor Main Menu. Editorial office staff can rescind another Editor’s decisions as needed. When a decision is rescinded, the submission’s document status temporarily changes to “Decision Rescinded” before reverting to the previous status prior to Editor decision. An interim decision – one made by a lower-level Editor in the chain – can be rescinded if no further action has been taken on the submission since the decision was submitted. This includes assigning Editors, inviting Reviewers, and additional decisions by higher-level Editors.

Similarly, multiple decisions on a submission can be rescinded in succession if no further action has been taken. Editors must begin with retracting the most recent decision and continue through the chain. The ‘Rescind Decision’ action link will appear as long as there is another Editor’s submission decision remaining. For submissions with no reviews, rescinding all decisions returns the submission to a status as though no decisions were submitted. There are restrictions on revoking the final decision – which belongs to the highest Editor within the chain who can make a decision. Submissions with a final disposition of Accept, Accept on Submission, Transfer, or Withdrawn cannot have the decision rescinded. Once retracted, the final decision date is set to null in the system.

Decisions may be rescinded before or after the Author has been notified of the decision. If the Author has already been notified of the decision being rescinded, the Author notification letter remains in the submission’s History with the label “Decision Rescinded.” The letter is visible to Editors, but it is not available to the Author via Correspondence History. At the time the decision is rescinded, a notification letter (if configured) can be sent to the Author. However, if the Author has started submitting a revised manuscript, the Editor is not allowed to rescind the decision for that submission.

To learn more about the Editor Decision workflow in EM, check out the tutorial video below. For support, contact your Aries Account Coordinator (AC).