So you've started a new journal on eScholarship, or have recently been given the responsibility for managing an existing journal, and you're thinking to yourself: Where do I even begin? This guide is here to help!
1. Find your journal on eScholarship
While it might sound obvious, the very first thing you need to do is locate your journal's eScholarship landing page (homepage). You can do so by browsing the journals list at escholarship.org/journals. Once you've found your journal on this list, click on its name and immediately bookmark your journal's landing page. This page will be the starting point for most of the tasks that follow, so it's important that you have an easy way to get back to it.
2. Make sure you can log in
From your journal's eScholarship landing page, select the 'Manage Submissions' button in the upper-right corner of the screen, and make sure you can log in. If you cannot log in, check the following:
- Try using the 'Forgot/reset password' link on the login page. An account may have already been created for you, in which case this step will help you to establish a password.
- Try signing in or resetting the password for the journal's shared email address. Many journals make use of shared email addresses (e.g. journalname@gmail.com). If you have access to this shared email address's inbox, resetting the password for the associated eScholarship account will be your fastest route in.
- If you are unable to log in, contact a previous journal manager or editor and ask them to create an account for you. You can provide them with the following link which contains instructions for how to do so: https://help.escholarship.org/support/solutions/articles/9000129830-manage-user-permissions
- If all of the above fail, contact eScholarship Support for assistance. You will need to provide evidence that you are authorized to manage the journal.
3. Update the list of others who can log in
Once you've logged in, it's a good idea to review the lists of other users with permission to manage the journal. Once logged in, go to 'Configure Journal', and select Journal Managers under the Users heading. Review the names present here and make any changes necessary using the 'Edit' link. Go back to the Configure Journal page and do the same for both the Editors and Section Editors lists. More information about what each of these roles is allowed to do and how to add, remove and modify users is available in the Help Center. As a primary journal manager / editor, you should ensure that your own account has both the Journal Manager and Editor permissions.
Tip: It might be a good idea at this point to ensure that your journal has a shared email address (see above) and that the shared email address is enrolled in the journal with Journal Manager permissions.
4. Check for new submissions
There may be new submissions from authors awaiting confirmation. To view these, go to Manage All Submissions > Unassigned. If there are any entries here, you'll want to process them by either communicating with the author, or by clearing them out. Detailed guidance on how to process new submissions is available in the Help Center under Manage eScholarship Journals > Managing Peer Review > Start Here: Processing New Submissions.
Note: Some journals accept submissions via their email inbox instead of or in addition to using this system. If your journal has a shared email address, be sure to also check its inbox for new submissions.
5. Update your submission management system settings
You'll want to make sure all journal settings are up-to-date. Start by going to Configure Journal > 5-Step Journal Setup. Review all entries in each of the five steps to ensure all information is accurate. Most importantly, in Step 1, make sure the journal's 'Primary Contact' information is up-to-date. This contact information will be used to notify you of new incoming submissions from authors. More information about other journal settings is available in the Help Center under Manage eScholarship Journals > Configuring Journal Settings.
Note: Information updated here has no effect on your journal's public-facing site; even in cases where the same information appears in the submission management system and on the journal's public-facing site (e.g. Submission Guidelines text, contact information, etc), you will need to make updates in both places.
6. Update your journal's public-facing site
Return to your journal's eScholarship landing page, and review all of the information contained there, including information on pages linked from the journal's navigation menu. Is the contact information correct? Is the journal's logo up-to-date? Does the Editorial Board information need updating? If any updates or changes need to be made, scroll to the bottom of the page and select 'Admin Login' from the dark footer at the bottom of the page. You'll use the same email address and password to log in as you did in the steps above, but instead of managing submissions, you will now have access to the Site Configuration Tool, which will appear as a grey banner with an Edit Page button at the top of the page. More information about how to use this tool is available in the Help Center under Technical Documentation > eScholarship Site & Journal Administrators > Using the Site Configuration Tool.
7. Process submissions and publish an issue
- If you have all of your articles ready to publish, you can make use of our QuickSubmit tool to quickly upload your articles and publish an issue.
- If your journal makes use of the submission management system to coordinate peer review, you will need to familiarize yourself with how to manage submissions. A comprehensive guide is available in the Help Center under Manage eScholarship Journals.
What next?
As you familiarize yourself with managing your eScholarship journal, take careful notes and record all important information in a secure space that you can easily share with future journal managers that may take your place. Collaboration spaces such as Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. are a great place to store guides, master files for logos, page layouts, etc., and other materials that the next folks doing your job might need ready access to when they take the helm.