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How can a reviewer be assigned without invitation in Editorial Manager?
Last updated on February 23, 2023Editorial Manager (EM) offers Editors the option to skip the invitation and agree/decline steps, and assign a reviewer directly. This is most commonly used on revisions, to re-assign reviewers who completed a review on the previous version. See Additional Information below for more potential uses of this feature.
Not all journals have this feature enabled, and not all editor roles have permission to Assign Reviewers without invitation. Contact your Journal Manager or other Editorial Office Contact if you have questions about your journal configuration.
How?
To search for and assign a reviewer without invitation:
Note that if you do not see an Asn tickbox alongside the Inv and other options, then you do not have permission to invite without assignment.
- Locate the submission and select the action Invite Reviewers.
- Perform a Reviewer Search, for example 'Select from Previous Reviewers' if this is a revised submission.
- From the Search Results, tick the Asn option for one or more reviewers, then select Proceed.
- In the Confirm Selections and Customize Letters screen:
- There should be a specially worded default letter for Assign actions, one that gives instructions to complete the review and does not mention accepting or declining the invitation
- If you select a different letter or Customize, verify that the letter is appropriate for Assigning rather than Inviting. See an example of customizing an assignment letter :
- If the Days to Review is editable, make any adjustment you need.
- Select Confirm Selections and Proceed when done.
A currently Invited reviewer cannot be Assigned in this way, they would need to agree to the open invitation. Alternate and Proposed reviewers can be Assigned without Invitation by doing a new search for that person and then selecting Asn as described above.
After this is done:
- Any reviewer selected as 'Asn' will be assigned to the submission as if they had already been invited and agreed at the same moment.
- The reviewer shows as 'Agreed' in the Reviewer Selection Summary and Details.
- Note that it is possible, though unusual, to have an automatic notice sent to the assigned editor(s) whenever a reviewer is assigned without invitation.
Additional Information
It is not always immediately obvious to see that the reviewer was assigned without invitation; the status will show Agreed in either case.
If the Date Invited and Date Agreed shown in Manuscript Details have identical timestamps, then the reviewer was almost certainly assigned without invitation. Note that if the journal displays only the date, then you cannot be sure with this method.
- If checking on a specific reviewer, select the reviewer's name to open their details and history, and then locate the review you are interested in.
- checking on a particular submission, select the Details link and then locate the reviewer you are interested in.
You can also check History on the submission to see what letters were sent. If the letter name does not clearly show why the letter was sent, then the letter content should give the answer.
- Journals usually send different letters for reviewer invitations than those sent for assign without invitation. See examples here .
- In most journals, invited reviewers get one email upon invitation, and a second email when they agree. Reviewers assigned without invitation can only get one email. See examples here .
Assign without Invitation can save time when there is a strong reason to believe the reviewer would immediately agree to the invitation. If the reviewer is already expecting to do this review, this option saves them several steps of agreeing, then switching menu folders to find the assignment and begin the review.
- For revised submissions, to assign reviewers who completed reviews on the previous version.
- When a reviewer has committed to do some certain type of review whenever it is needed, such as submissions in a certain language.
- When the submission is a commentary on another submission, reviewers from the first submission might be assigned to the commentary.
- When a panel of reviewers has agreed to review all submissions for a special issue.
- When inviting another editor as a reviewer, to save that editor the steps of agreeing.
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