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How do I handle new Direct to Editor assignments in Editorial Manager?
Last updated on February 03, 2025
Editorial Manager (EM) allows for Direct to Editor Assignment (also referred to as D2E), meaning new submissions are directed to a Receiving Editor via some automated rule, or revisions are directed to the First Editor of the previous version. Submissions appear in this folder as soon as the Author approves the submission, without any manual checks or screening.
As the directly assigned Receiving Editor, you must now decide whether the submission is ready to begin the editorial process or whether some other action is needed.
The Direct to Editor settings for new and revised submissions are independently configured; journals can have one or the other, both, or neither.
How
- From your main menu, click 'Direct-to-Editor New Submissions' or 'Direct-to-Editor Revised Submissions'.
- The action menu will include any configured checks and screening resources, possibly including:
- After viewing the submission and any checks, select the next action. Note that the available actions will depend on your permissions and other configurations.
- Assign to Myself: Assign to yourself as first editor (watch this short videoopens in new tab/window for more details). See next step.
- Send Back to Author:opens in new tab/window returns the submission to the author. When the author resubmits, it will return to this folder. See How do I send a submission back to the author in Editorial Manager?opens in new tab/window.
- Edit Submission: to make changes to the submission files and/or metadataopens in new tab/window
- Redirect to Other Editor: to select an alternate Receiving Editor; submission will move to that person's Direct to Editor folder. Note only those editor roles configured as Direct to Editor participants will appear.
- Submit Early Decision: (new submissions only) to submit an immediate decisionopens in new tab/window. This combines the step of assigning to yourself and making the decision and is only available for certain decision terms as configured for the journal.
- Set Final Disposition: to Withdraw the submissionopens in new tab/window. Withdrawn submissions can be searched and the status can be undone via Rebuttal.
- Remove Submission: (new submissions only) to remove the submission from EM entirely and permanently. Removed submissions cannot be recovered, and will not be searchable from the front end of EM.
- If you chose Assign to Myself:
- The status changes to 'With Editor'.
- The submission moves to your 'New Assignments' folder.
- For those journals that delay assignment of manuscript numbers, the editor assignment action will trigger the manuscript number to be assigned. Note that most journals do assign number automatically as soon as the author approves the manuscript for submission.
- Continue to your New Assignments folder to take the next action on your new assignment, for example:
- Assignopens in new tab/window a second editor.
NOTE: The Direct-to-Editor (Autonomous Editor) feature allows journals to assign submissions to an individual Editor, bypassing the New Submissions Requiring Assignment folder and going to the Direct-to-Editor New Submissions folder. This feature is useful both for smaller journals that do not have a central Editorial Office and for larger journals that have a large pool of Editors.
This feature provides journals the option to assign direct-to-editor submissions automatically to the specified Editor, instead of requiring Editors to assign themselves when they first access a submission. (The workflow proceeds as though the Editor accessed the submission in the Direct-to-Editor New Submissions folder and clicked the Assign to Myself action link.) The submission moves to the New Assignments folder.
There are three possible rules for automated assignment to a receiving editor. The rule applies to the entire journal.
Some of the journal's editors are configured as participants. Each time a new submission arrives, the system checks the "last assignment date" of participating editors. The submission is directed to the editor with the oldest date.
- In some cases, this "list" can be just one editor, meaning all submissions go to that person. In such a journal Redirect would not work, because no one else is eligible.
- To temporarily leave an editor out of rotation, the configuration would update to remove that editor, and then updated again to re-add them when needed.
During submission, authors are asked to select an editor from a drop-down list. Submissions are directed according to this selection.
- The list of editors is defined by editor role, the journal can configure which roles are included.
- The list can be configured to display any combination of Name, Role and Description.
- Submissions with no selected editor will not be directed to any editor, and instead will appear as New Submission Requiring Assignment to await manual assignment.
- This can happen when the step of Request Editor is either hidden or optional for an article type.
During submission, authors are asked to select a Section/Category from a drop-down list defined by the journal. Each Section/Category is linked to one editor, and submissions are directed according to this selection.
- The list of editors is defined within the Section/Category configuration.
- Each Section/Category can be linked to only one editor and could be left unlinked to opt that Section/Category out of Direct Editor Assignment.
- Each editor could potentially be linked to any number of sections.
- Submissions in this workflow could be opted out of Direct to Editor, and instead go to New Submission Requiring Assignment to await manual assignment. This can happen in two cases:
- The author did not select a Section/Category because the step is either hidden or optional for an article type.
- The author did select a Section/Category, but the one selected has not been linked to any editor.
When this option is enabled for a journal, every revisions is directed to the first assigned editor of the previous version.
In the case where the previous first editor no longer has an editor role, their revisions will remain in the "Revised Submissions Requiring Assignement Folder.
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