EJIL’s Affiliate Editors – EJIL: Discuss! – Melissas Meals Freedom

Writing an article is such a private endeavour: a wrestle with questions, construction and particular person sentences. And when that wrestle appears to be over and the article seems prepared for sharing, it may be submitted to ScholarOne, a ‘journals workflow administration software program’ that EJIL and plenty of different journals use. That vastly private product is thus fed to a seemingly impersonal beast.

However ScholarOne is barely the interface: behind that interface are, at EJIL, three terrific students who, via their mental and sensible contributions, be sure that an article is shepherded via the editorial course of. These students are EJIL’s Affiliate Editors, presently Dr Wanshu Cong, Dr Ana Luisa Bernardino and Dr Francisco Quintana, who joined the group in July 2021, March 2022 and August 2023, respectively.

The selection of phrase ‘shepherding articles via the editorial course of’ is in no way informal. The Affiliate Editors information manuscripts alongside every step of the method, from the preliminary submission, via the varied levels of overview, to the ultimate resolution. When an article is submitted, the Affiliate Editors learn it and put together an preliminary report on the article for our month-to-month editorial assembly. In that assembly, every article is mentioned by the accountable Affiliate Editor and a minimum of one of many two Editors-in-Chief, who additionally learn the articles and the stories earlier than the assembly. After the assembly, the Affiliate Editors talk the outcomes of the assembly to the authors. These outcomes vary from desk rejects to exterior peer overview, with a number of choices in between. Generally the editorial group writes to the writer that there’s a promising concept within the article, however that the article would must be reframed for that concept to come back out, inviting the writer to submit a brand new article. In different instances, the editorial group sends the writer ideas to strengthen the article earlier than it goes to look overview. The Affiliate Editors additionally invite peer reviewers, ship peer reviewers pleasant reminders, and reply to questions from authors about the place their article is within the course of. When peer overview stories are available, the Affiliate Editors arrange the information for dialogue on the subsequent editorial assembly. After the assembly, the Affiliate Editors ship the peer overview stories to the authors, typically with ideas from the editorial group when the critiques are contradictory or seemingly not possible to implement. Usually, authors are requested for a ‘roadmap’ of deliberate revisions, to keep away from authors spending months and months on revisions that don’t handle the important thing issues. The roadmap is then mentioned within the editorial assembly, after which the Affiliate Editors talk the inexperienced mild or ideas for added or completely different adjustments in order that the article may have a larger likelihood of getting via peer overview within the subsequent spherical. The Affiliate Editors learn the revised articles, ship them to look overview, and once more put together the information for the following editorial assembly. All revised articles are mentioned completely, on this spherical, by each Editors-in-Chief and the accountable Affiliate Editor.

In sum, behind the sterile and presumably intimidating interface of ScholarOne are three Students who fastidiously learn all of the submissions, assume with the authors, talk with peer reviewers and authors, and be sure that every submission is learn and commented on by the Editors-in-Chief and shepherded via the entire editorial course of.

Our former Affiliate Editors are: Orfeas Chasapis Tassinis (2021-2023), Michal Saliternik (2019-2021), Justus Vasel (2018-2020), Man Fiti Sinclair (2013-2017), Karine Caunes (2011-2012), Emily Kidd White (2009-2010), Eugene Rusyn (2009) and Anne Becker (2008-2009).

All Affiliate Editors have made each mental and, equally importantly, vastly sensible contributions to EJIL.