Inviting Academic Editors
Inviting Academic Editors
Editor Center >Managing assignments > Academic Editor Invitations
Master strategies for finding and securing expert Academic Editors to ensure rigorous, unbiased manuscript handling, and timely editorial decisions.
Inviting suitable Academic Editors is essential to the peer review process. As a Section Editor, you facilitate the editorial process and work to ensure that each manuscript is handled by an appropriate Academic Editor. This ensures that manuscripts receive expert oversight and are evaluated fairly and efficiently.
This guidance applies to PLOS Aging and Health, PLOS Complex Systems, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Ecosystems, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS Pathogens, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation only.
To ensure a timely editorial process, please aim to identify 3-8 Academic Editors to invite in a ranked queue.
If you are unable to secure an Academic Editor after two weeks, please contact your journal office for guidance on next steps.
We do not recommend that you handle the manuscript yourself. Academic Editors typically have subject matter expertise more closely aligned with the manuscript, which enables them to identify appropriate reviewers and provide detailed feedback in decision letters. However, if more than four weeks have passed without an Academic Editor accepting the invitation, you may proceed with handling the manuscript.
You have an essential role in ensuring that a manuscript is handled by an Academic Editor with the correct subject expertise. Please follow our guidance on avoiding competing interests and ways to verify expertise to help identify suitable Academic Editors.
Avoiding competing interests and maintaining unbiased perspectives
When you are searching for Academic Editors, you must verify that they:
- Do not work at the same institution as any of the authors.
- Are not listed in the manuscript’s opposed or suggested reviewers provided by the authors.
Search strategy
Use the tips below to prepare your search and prioritize suitable Academic Editors.
- Build and prioritize your invitation queue in a separate document before entering it into Editorial Manager (EM).
- Prioritize Academic Editors who are members of the editorial board. Use Guest Editors only when necessary as they participate on an as-needed and ideally infrequent basis.
- Do not invite other Section Editors.
- It is acceptable to invite Academic Editors from outside your section if they are a good fit for the manuscript.
- To further understand an Academic Editor’s expertise, visit their ORCID page or find their institutional page and publications online.
Search steps
Follow these steps to find Academic Editors and build your list:
Begin your search on your journal’s Editorial Board page.
You can browse Academic Editors by section and by PLOS taxonomy classifications.
Continue your search on the Assign Editors page in EM.
Use single or combined Personal Classifications and Keywords—free-text terms that Academic Editors have added to their profiles—to refine your search.
Once your prioritized list of Academic Editors is ready, follow the steps below to invite your Academic Editors through EM.
Search for each Academic Editor by last name on the Assign Editors page in EM.
Pay attention to the following:
- Current assignments
- Open invitations
-
Past assignments within the last 90 days
- Maximum number of assignments (preferred maximum)
- Availability during the next seven days
Consider your colleagues' workloads
Do not invite Academic Editors who have listed Unavailable Dates, and be considerate of your colleagues’ workloads. They are generally expected to handle 1-2 new manuscripts per month.
Verify suitability
After verifying suitability, capacity, and availability, select the Academic Editor’s name and click “Add to Queue.”
Invitations
Enter the appropriate invitation order numbers to match your list and click “Update Invitation Order.”
Submit
Submit the queue with or without customizing the invitation letters.
- Customization is optional. You may include a personal message if you wish to highlight why the Academic Editor’s expertise is a good match for the manuscript.
- The first few invitations will be sent simultaneously. Remaining invitations will be sent in sequence based on responses or elapsed time.
Your responsibility is mostly complete once an Academic Editor agrees to handle the manuscript. However, you may need to support them by responding to manuscript Discussions or taking action if they are unable to handle the manuscript through to a final decision.
Responding to Discussions
Invitations to participate in Discussions will come via email. Be prepared to provide advice on, but not limited to:
- Deciding whether to send for peer review or reject.
- Finding and securing reviewers.
- Split or unhelpful reviews.
Handling returned manuscripts before a final decision
Occasionally an Academic Editor is unable to see a manuscript through to a final decision. In these situations, the manuscript will be returned to you. Depending on the stage of the manuscript, follow the steps above to secure a new Academic Editor or issue a decision yourself.
