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How do Editors reject an Editorial Manager submission and offer transfer to another journal (ATS)?
Last updated on November 12, 2024Elsevier’s Article Transfer Service (ATS) allows editors to suggest more suitable journals for rejected papers. If the author agrees, the submission files are transferred over to the Receiver Journal. Normally, reviewer comments and/or contact information will be transferred as well.
An Editorial Manager (EM) journal can be configured with a list of journals to serve as Transfer Target Publications, also referred to as Receiver Journals. The list is agreed with the Publisher.
To Reject and Offer Transfer requires that:
- the journal is configured for Article Transfer Service (ATS). Contact your Journal Manager for details.
- you are currently assigned to that submission.
- the current status allows you to make a decision, see How do I make a decision in Editorial Manager?
How?
To offer a transfer to another journal from EM, follow the steps below.
- Locate the submission in one of your Editor Main Menu folders, or via Search Submissions.
- Click the Submit Editor's Decision and Comments action link.
- For Editors and Journal offices that handle incoming new submissions, you may have the action for Submit Early Decision instead, see How do I submit an Early Decision in Editorial Manager?
- If missing, this means the current status and your permission do not allow you to make a decision now; see How do I make a decision in Editorial Manager?for specifics.
- Select a decision term that refers to transfer.
- The standard Terms are 'Transfer Pre-Review' and 'Transfer Post-Review' but journals can customize the decision term.
- The main difference is in the wording of the decision letter, 'Pre-Review' does not mention reviewer comments.
- Complete the decision form as described in How do I make a decision in Editorial Manager?
- Submit your decision.
If you do not have permission to draft decision letters, your task is complete and the next editor(s) in the decision chain will finalize the target journals and decision letter.
- If you do have permission to draft the letter and this journal requires editors to select one or more Transfer Target Publications, you will be asked to make that selection now. The receivers you selected will be available for the author as potential transfer targets.
- Select the appropriate options; there is a link to each target's submission site if you need to double check.
- There will be a minimum number of Target Publications and may also be a maximum you can select before proceeding.
- If you have any questions about the available Target Publications contact your Journal Manager or Publishing contact.
- Click 'Proceed' to continue.
Note that the list of potential targets may be configured differently for each decision term. The workflow can be configured to skip the editor selection step and allow the author to choose from the full list defined for that decision term.
- After selecting Target Publications, you will see the Notify Author form.
- Make any changes to the draft letter text and other options, and then submit or send your draft.
- See more details in How do I draft and send an Author Decision Letter in Editorial Manager?
After the decision letter is sent, the author can respond to the offer via links in the letter or from their Author Main Menu. Most journals are configured to send reminders before the offer expires.
Editors can track the transfer offer under 'Submissions with Decision' section of the main menu or via Search Submissions.
- Until the author responds or the offer expires, the status is Transfer Pending and it will be under the My Assignments with Decision folder or My Assignments Pending Transfer folder.
- Look in My Assignments Pending Transfer folder (if you made a decision) and/or in All Submissions Pending Transfer folder (if you have 'View all Submissions' permission).
- If the author agrees, the status becomes 'Submission Transferred' and it moves to the 'Transfer' folder.
- My Assignments with Final Disposition folder or All Submissions with Final Disposition folder – Transfer (if you have 'View all Submissions' permission).
- To find out which journal the author chose, open the Details and look under Transfer Information.
- If the author declines to transfer, or the offer expires, the status becomes 'Completed- Reject'.
- Look in My Assignments with Final Disposition folder or All Submissions with Final Disposition folder – Reject (if you have 'View all Submissions' permission).
- Declined/expired transfer offers can be seen by opening that folder and comparing the Editor decision to the Final Disposition as shown in the example screenshot.
If authors agree to transfer, then a new transferred submission is created in the Receiver Journal.
- All the files submitted in the most recent version are already uploaded, and the author only needs to update any different information required by the new journal.
- The submission will be Sent Back to Authors for an EM Receiver Journal to allow the author to make any adjustments and approve the submission PDF. Status in other submission systems will usually be Incomplete or the equivalent.
- The author should get an email notification from the receiver journal with instructions to complete the submission.
- The reviews and/or review contact details are included for the Receiver Journal depending on the permission given by each reviewer. The author does not see these.
Please see this FAQ on How do Editors identify if the submission has been transferred (ATS) from another publication?
There are two options to move forward once the Final Disposition is set to reject.
- To reopen the submission in this journal and allow the author to submit a revision, use Initiate Rebuttal. How does an Editor Initiate Rebuttal to reopen a submission?
- To give the author another opportunity to accept a Transfer Offer, use Rescind Decision and then make a new Transfer decision. How does an Editor change a Decision in Editorial Manager?
Note that either option requires special permissions in EM, you may need to contact your editorial office or journal manager to complete the process.
Authors, please see this FAQ for information on how ATS works for authors.
Reviewers, please see this FAQ for information on how ATS works for reviewers.
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