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How can I manage Automated Author Reminders in Editorial Manager?
Last updated on April 11, 2022Automated Author Reminders in EM are based on creating specific Automated Author Reminder Reports. Each report defines certain criteria, and links to a specific letter template. Each day all the configured reports are processed in one batch between 04:00-08:00 UTC, and all eligible authors receive a reminder email. Under normal circumstances, each Automated Author Reminder Report will trigger no more than once per submission or invitation.
The nightly batch reminder process runs between 12:00 AM - 04:00AM US Eastern time.
In some journals, permission to create Automated Reports is restricted to central roles such as Journal Managers Editorial Office, or Managing Editors. This is to reduce the risk of editors creating overlapping reminders that send too many reminders to the same recipient.
How
To set up Automated Author Reminders:
- Check with your Journal Manager or Editorial Office what automated reminders may already be set up.
- Plan out what reminders you will need of what type.
- Each reminder will be set for so many days before or after a due date or other milestone.
- To send multiple reminders, for example 3 days past due and again at 10 days past due, then you must create separate reports for each reminder days value.
- Your Journal Manager can help you with planning out reminder schedules.
- If you will be personally creating the reminders, coordinate with your Journal Manager or Editorial Office to make sure all the letter templates you need are in place before beginning, and that you know the names of the templates to use.
- Under Administrative Functions in your main menu, click Send Reminder Letters. If this is not listed, you do not have permission to send any manual or automated reminders.
- Select one of the Automated Author Reminder Report links. Editor permission is set separately for each of the four report families, if none are listed then you are not able to create Automated Author Reminders.
- Automated Author Submission Reminder Report reminds authors with incomplete new submissions, or incomplete revisions.
- Automated Author Revision Reminder Report reminds authors with outstanding revisions, who have not yet begun to submit the revision.
- Automated Author Transfer Reminder Report reminds authors with outstanding Transfer Offers.
- Automated Author Invitation Reminder Report reminds authors who have been invited to submit, or have accepted an invitation but not yet begun the submission process. See How do I invite authors to submit in Editorial Manager?
- Scroll to the very bottom of the form, and check the list of Saved Automated Reminders. Anything already saved in this report family will be listed; for those you created personally there will be links to edit or remove the report. If the report was created by someone else, you can see the reminder type and number of days but the edit and remove links will not appear.
- To edit a report you previously created, click the pencil icon and the form will reload with the details of the saved report.
- To create a new report, scroll back to the top of the page and continue with the next step to complete the form.
- If someone else has saved a report of the same type you are planning, you may want to check with that person to ensure you are not conflicting.
- Select the specific type of report, and enter a number of days in that row. Select the relevant automated report family below to see the types available.
- Incomplete Submissions: author clicked 'Submit Manuscript' or 'Submit Revision' exactly X days ago, but has not yet clicked 'Build PDF for My Approval'.
- Submissions Waiting for Author's Approval: author clicked 'Build PDF for My Approval' exactly X days ago, but has not yet approved the submissions. Or, an editor has rebuilt the PDF and chosen to send the edited submission to the author for approval exactly X days ago.
- Submissions Sent Back to Author: an editor used Send Back to Author exactly X days ago, and the author has not yet clicked 'Edit Submission' to begin making changes.
- Outstanding Revisions: sends reminders to authors exactly X days after the revise decision was sent. Authors will be reminded whether or not any due date has been defined.
- Reminder Before Revision Due Date sends reminders to authors exactly X days before the due date, 0 is not allowed for X. Any revision with no defined due date will not receive this reminder.
- Reminder Past Revision Due Date sends reminders to authors exactly X days after the due date, 0 can be entered to send a reminder on the due date. Any revision with no defined due date will not receive this reminder.
- Outstanding Invitations: sends reminders to authors exactly X days after the invitation was sent. Authors will be reminded whether or not any due date has been defined.
- Reminder Before Invitation Response Due Date sends reminders to authors exactly X days before the response due date, 0 is not allowed for X. Any invitation with no defined due date will not receive this reminder.
- Reminder Past Invitation Response Due Date: sends reminders to authors exactly X days after the response due date, 0 can be entered to send a reminder on the due date. Any invitation with no defined due date will not receive this reminder.
- Outstanding Submissions: sends reminders to authors exactly X days after the author agreed to submit (or was assigned without invitation). Authors will be reminded whether or not any due date has been defined.
- Reminder Before Submission Due Date: sends reminders to authors exactly X days before the submission due date, 0 is not allowed for X. Any invited submission with no defined due date will not receive this reminder.
- Reminder Past Submission Due Date: sends reminders to authors exactly X days after the submission due date, 0 can be entered to send a reminder on the due date. Any invited submission with no defined due date will not receive this reminder.
- It is possible by changing either the parameters of the report, or the due date of an author task, for an author to be skipped or reminded twice on the same day or very close together. For example:
- If the definition of the report is edited from day to day, this can mean that a submission was eligible before the edit and so got one reminder, and then is eligible again after the edit and so gets another the next day.
- In the same way, editing a report could mean some authors get no reminder, because they were not eligible yet before the edit, and are past the point of eligibility after the edit.
- For reports based on Before or Past Due Date, if the due date is updated for a submission or invitation then it is possible that the author could get more reminders than planned, or fewer. Each saved automated report is evaluated every day and reminders are sent to whatever submissions are valid on that day, no matter what may have been true the day before.
- If some reports are set with 'Outstanding' criteria, and others with 'Before/Past' due date criteria, these could result in some authors getting multiple reminders close together. For example, if one report is set for Outstanding Revision 10 days, and another for Before Revision Due 10 days, those could potentially be the same day or very close together for a specific submission.
- If multiple editors create Automated Reminders, they may define reminders that trigger for the same submission at close to the same time. If they are not restricted to remind only their own assignments this could easily result in authors getting multiple reminder on the same day or consecutive days. Even if editors are restricted, if two editors have both been assigned to one submission and both have set up automated reminders, then the author could get too many reminders.
- 'Search People' to locate the user.
- Click the user name to open the record.
- In the left side bar at the bottom, find Exclude this user from receiving all batch and reminder emails…
- Pick an option of 'Always', or 'When Unavailable dates are active'. See How do I let a journal know I am temporarily Unavailable using Editorial Manager?
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Submit to save the change.
Incomplete Submission automated reminder report types
There are three options for Automated Author Incomplete Submission Reminder Reports. Each applies to any new or revised submission where the author has begun the process but not yet completed submission to the journal, and is triggered a set number of days after status change.
Revision automated reminder report types
There are three options for Automated Author Revisions Reminder Reports. Each applies from the time the Revise decision is sent to the author, until the author clicks 'Submit Revision'.
Reminders based on Before or Past due date apply only to submissions where a revision due date has been defined, see How do I view or edit an author revision due date?
After the author begins the revision, the submission would be eligible for an Incomplete Submission automated reminder.
Transfer automated reminder report types
In most cases Transfer Reminders are set centrally for every journal, to coordinate with the automated expiration policy. Editors will generally not have access to customize these reminders.
Transfer reminders can be defined as X days after the decision, or X days before the due date. Elsevier journals are configured with two reminders, one halfway through the transfer offer period and one shortly before the expiration date.
Author Invitation automated reminder report types
There are six options for Automated Author Invitation Reminders, three for pending invitations, and three for after the author has agreed. For more information about Author Invitation workflow see How do I invite authors to submit in Editorial Manager?
Once the author actually begins the submission the process, they become eligible for an Incomplete Submission reminder instead.
Could one author be skipped or reminded twice?
Can an author be excluded from automated reminders?
Users can be excluded from reminders by a setting the in user account; not all editors have permission to update this setting. The exclusion covers all reminders, manual and automated, for author, reviewer, and editor tasks.
Who can create and manage Automated Author Reminder Reports
In some journals, permission to create Automated Author Reminders is restricted to central roles such as Journal Manager, Editorial Office, or Managing editors, especially for Transfers and Incomplete Submissions. This is to reduce the risk of editors creating overlapping reminders that send too many reminders to the same recipient. Editors with permission to create Automated Author Reminder Reports can see the full list of what reports exist and who created them, but are only able to edit those reports they personally have created.
Permissions are set for each Editor role, based on the four families of Author Automated Reminders. For example an editor may be able to create Automated Revision Reminder Reports, but not Automated Author Transfer Reminder Reports.
An Editor's reminder permission may be restricted with the option 'Restrict Reminder Reports to Assigned Submissions', in this case reminders created by that editor will be sent only for submitting they are assigned to, either as the handling editor or as a higher editor in the chain. This setting applies to automated and manual reminders.
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