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How can Editorial Manager help prevent Duplicate Submissions?
Last updated on October 13, 2026
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Duplicate submissions can be problematic for any journal. Editorial Manager(EM) provides a Duplicate Submission Check Report that helps Editors identify potential Duplicate Submissions based on the title, Abstract, and Author list compared to previous submissions in the same journal. Additionally EM flags authors who submit multiple times in a short period, and helps authors to avoid accidental duplicates by warning an author of any pending revisions or incomplete submissions when they begin a new submission.
EM offers an automated duplicate check report, which compares the title, author list and abstract with all previous submissions and calculates a duplicate score. The highest duplicate score is displayed in the action menu, while the full report lists the potential duplicates.
To read a Duplicate Check report:
- A 'Duplicate Submission Check Results' Action link displays for the Submission in most Editor Folders. The link may also be shown in the Details screen if so configured.
- Next to this link, the highest "EM Duplicate Score" of all possible matches displays in parentheses.
- Clicking the 'Duplicate Submission Check Results' link opens the 'Duplicate Submission Check Results' page.
- This page displays up to 20 Potential Duplicate Submissions, based on the comparisons between Article Title, Author List, and Abstract.
- These are listed in order from the highest “EM Duplicate Score” to the lowest (though only the highest EM Duplicate Score is displayed above the grid).
- For each Submission in the results set, each of the three scores is displayed, with a visual bar graph representing the score.
- If the individual result score is over the configured Duplicate Score threshold, the bar displays as red, otherwise it displays as green.
- For each potential duplicate, links are available to view the submission PDF and manuscript details.
- If one of the listed potentials appears to truly be a duplicate, see below for the most common reasons for duplicate (or apparent duplicate) submissions:
- If the potential duplicate was rejected or withdrawn, this new submission may be meant as a resubmission. If this appears to be the case the suggested action is:
- Check any Cover Letter or notes submitted with the new manuscript to see if this is mentioned.
- Add a note the to the new manuscript like "resubmission of mss number"
- Assign the same editor(s) as the previous version.
- If your journal has a 'resubmission' flag, apply this to the submission.
- If the apparent duplicate is under revision, or was sent back to author, the author may have accidentally created a new submission instead of continuing the existing submission.
- An author team may submit related papers with similar titles and abstracts. Usually in this case the newer paper will reference the older one.
- If two apparent duplicates have the same author list but corresponding authors:
- Two co-authors may miscommunicate and both submit the paper,
- The corresponding author might have been changed during or after the submission process. After a change of corresponding author, the original submitting author may notice they cannot find the submission on their menu anymore and may believe they need to submit again.
The Duplicate Submission Check feature will allow you to identify submissions that were rejected earlier and resubmitted to the journal. When you suspect a new submission with a high duplicate score is in fact a resubmission of a rejected paper, you can best view the Cover Letter accompanying the manuscript to see whether this is indicated by the authors. If confirmed, the manuscript may be best reassigned to the original handling editor of the manuscript.
How is the duplicate check report created?
When enabled for an article type, the Duplicate Submission Check query is triggered by any of these qualifying events:
- New Submission Sent to Publication
- Revised Submission Sent to Publication
- Author Returns Submission to Publication (e.g. after it was Send Back to Author)
- Editor Approves Edited Submission
The Duplicate Submission Checking feature is only run when the above events are triggered going forward; when enabled, Duplicate Submission Check results will not display for already existing Submissions.
Incomplete submissions, i.e. those that were not yet fully submitted and approved by the author, are NOT included in the duplicate check. Only fully submitted manuscripts are considered when preparing the list of potential duplicates
- A list of potential duplicate or related submissions is generated by comparing the triggering submission against all previous submissions on three criteria:
- Article Title
- Abstract
- The full Author list of first and last names.
- A submission is considered 'similar' if any one of the criteria is over a certain percentage match as configured for the journal.
- For each similar submission, an overall score is calculated by combining the three:
- Article Title Similarity – 40% of the total score
- Author List Similarity – 30% of the total score
- Abstract Similarity – 30% of the total score
Although the value is calculated and stored for each Submission in the results set, only the highest score is displayed as the EM Duplicate Score next to the ‘Duplicate Submission Check Results’ link and on the ‘Duplicate Submission Check Results’ page. For example, if one match has a score of 27% and another 48%, then the 48% is displayed as the overall EM Duplicate Score.
In the case where you as an editor have been restricted from viewing a certain submission (due to conflict of interest, etc.), it will not be displayed in your view of the Potential Duplicates list. If it was the highest duplicate score, then you may see that the high score above the list is higher than the first potential duplicate submission you are able to view.
Why is the duplicate check score and/or report not available?
If either the numerical score or the linked report is not available, please note that:
- The score is blank while the check is still being calculated, this can take several minutes after the triggering event.
- If the link is missing altogether, the feature was not enabled for this article type at the time of the last qualifying event. If configuration is updated, the check cannot be triggered manually, but will be done automatically at the next qualifying event.
What can be configured for the Automated Duplicate Submission Check?
Journals can configure the following options:
- The Duplicate Score Threshold, that is above what number will the score turn red. This is one setting for the whole journal, it cannot be different per article type.
- Which article types will generate Duplicate Submission Check reports. For example, if there is s type such as 'Editorial' where the title and author will be similar for many submissions, it might be preferred to turn off the check for that article type.
- Which editor roles can see the Duplicate Submission Check results.
For any questions about journal configuration, contact your Journal Manager or other support contact.
Before a submission is assigned to any editor, a visual prompt next to the Author's name (
), can warn that the Corresponding Author has submitted a manuscript in the past X number of days commonly set to 30 or 60. The “D” indicates a potential duplicate. This prompt appears to all Editors with access to the following folders:
- 'New Submissions Requiring Assignment'
- 'Direct-to-Editor New Submissions'
- 'New Assignments'
The prompt displays next to the Author 's name in the table of submissions. The Editor may click the Author’s name to see other 'Authored Submissions' and decide if any appear to be a duplicate.
More details:
- The check occurs only when a NEW Submission is received. It does not occur when revisions are received, and any revisions received are not counted as potential duplicate Submissions.
- The 'D' flag is never shown after editor assignment, only for new submissions prior to assignment..
- A configuration option allows the journal to define how far back the system should check. If the Number of Days is set to zero, no check is performed.
- The Duplicate Submission prompt only shows if the past Submission was actually submitted (e.g., it would ignore Submissions that were initiated by the Author and then abandoned without being submitted to the journal).
The Author’s name in each Editor folder (and on the Details screen) is a link to the Author’s ‘People Information’ page, which includes all history for that user. Thus, the Editor is able to check all prior Submissions made by that Author and manually identify if the Submission is a duplicate for the same Corresponding Author. See this screenshot.
When an author begins a new submission, Editorial Manager checks if the same author has any pending author invitations, incomplete submissions, outstanding revisions, or submissions sent back to author. If so, the author is asked to confirm this is truly a new submission and may be redirected to continue the pending submission. See example for an author with a pending incomplete submission or watch a video of the pending submission warning in action.
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