Aries Systems Corporation

The scholarly publishing experience can be a complex and dynamic process with multiple stakeholders in play throughout various stages of workflow. As such, it is critical for journals to store and surface communications across Authors, Reviewers, and editorial staff. Within Editorial Manager® (EM) and ProduXion Manager® (PM), the leading peer review and production workflow management solutions, correspondence related to a specific individual or submission (that is sent from the system) is automatically recorded for reference.

Editors with proper role permissions can view, edit, and resend letters from a submission’s correspondence history at any time. Accessible from the History action link, the submission correspondence record displays the date sent, recipient(s), subject, and text of the letter.  Users can access their own personal correspondence history from the Update My Information page. Editors that need to access the personal correspondence history of other users can do so through the Search People function, either directly from the action link in the search results grid or within the user’s profile.

Any communications conducted outside the system are not automatically stored in EM/PM. This includes external replies directed to an editorial office email address, phone calls, or other private email exchanges. However, external correspondence may be manually added to the history of a submission or schedule group in EM/PM by permissioned Editors, which may also include the option to attach files depending on journal configuration. The saved item is inserted into the correspondence history chronologically and noted as an external correspondence.

To automate the ingestion of external responses to system-generated emails, the journal can set up a drop-box email address that can deposit the record in the EM/PM correspondence history. The drop-box email address can be configured to be easily recognized or remembered by editorial staff, who can use it as a blind copy (bcc’) or forwarding address to deposit the message in the system. The messages generated by EM/PM include a unique identifier in the email’s subject line, which allows the system to associate the message to the related submission or schedule group. Import of external correspondence can be configured to include attachments and display the original subject line of the email as the description of the letter in the Correspondence History grid.

Submission- and user-based correspondence history is a simple yet valuable feature in EM/PM that promotes transparency and minimizes confusion. Leveraging the correspondence history drop-box email automates the deposit of external communications, saving Editors time and supporting a more accurate correspondence record in the system.