Aries Systems Corporation

Upon manuscript rejection, Authors often must duplicate the submission process on one or more subsequent journals. Additionally, Reviewers often face the issue of repeating reviews for the same content if re-selected again. Both contribute to a great loss of time and effort for researchers, deceasing user satisfaction and reducing the likelihood (and willingness) to resubmit their work. To solve this issue, Aries offers the seamless transfer of manuscript data files and review commentary between publications. Within Editorial Manager^® (EM), Editors are able to reject and transfer to another journal with Author and/or Reviewer consent.

Transfer of a manuscript is most commonly triggered at one of two points during the editorial process. If the manuscript does not meet the journal’s format standards or is not a good fit for that journal’s scope, rejection with option to transfer may occur after initial submission. Request for transfer is also likely following the results of peer review, after Editors weigh Reviewer comments. If the recipient journal is also a user of Editorial Manager, then all submission items and previous peer review comments (if permitted by the Reviewer) may be included in the transfer package. This saves a significant amount of time and effort for both Authors and Reviewers, and gives the recipient publication a good head start.

If the recipient journal is not using Editorial Manager, there are still transfer options available! Aries aims to support all Authors, Editors and Reviewers in the industry, and therefore has actively taken part in the Manuscript Exchange Common Approach (MECA). This cross-organizational industry initiative strives to facilitate and standardize multiple types of manuscript exchange to avoid loss of important data during transfer. New Editorial Manager functionality supports an import/export method that conforms to MECA standards, making the transfer process simpler and more efficient across different peer review platforms.

Regardless of the manuscript and peer review system, Aries strives to offer transfer solutions to streamline the process and reduce duplication of effort across the board. To learn more, join our Transfers: Preprint Servers, MECA & More session at our upcoming user group meeting. Plus, don’t miss Aries Sr. Business Systems Analyst Caroline Webber’s presentation at the upcoming CSE Annual Meeting, Update on the Manuscript Exchange Common Approach (MECA) Initiative, which will be moderated by Aries Director of Product Management Tony Alves.