Editorial assignments

Manual assignments

Configuring a manual assignment is done at the profile level. For a given profile:

• ensure it can manage editor assignment,
• and check which profiles he can see.

For example, an Editor-in-Chief will usually have the right to assign:

• himself or another EIC
• an associate editor
• a guest editor

Configuration of manual assignments e-mails

• A default template is provided in Nestor.  This is an editor template linked to the event 'Assigned article'.
• Go to the template configuration
• Those templates must be linked to the relevant profile (cf screenshot above)

This allows e.g. the Editorial Office to access more specific assignment letters (compared to an EiC).

Automatic assignment strategies

Automatic assignments are defined on this dedicated page:

When an article lands in the status "Awaiting assignment", Nestor will check the strategies defined here and apply them if the criteria are met. The goal is to quickly dispatch articles to relevant editors based on the article metadata. The dispatch criteria can be any standard or custom field.

Stragegies are sorted by priority, with upper strategies having higher priority. As soon as a criteria is met, the strategy is applied, and lower strategies are ignored. A strategy with inactive editors will always be ignored (see ⚠ in the screenshot)

For example in the screenshot above, a paper with:

• no topical issue
• in section "3. Cosmology"
• and which is a regular paper

will match the second strategy and be dispatched to Pascale and Thierry.

Configuration of automatic assignments e-mails

• A default template is provided in Nestor. This is an editor template linked to the event 'Automatic assignment'.
• This template will be used by Nestor to send automatic assignment letter! You can edit it.

Strategies and filiation links

It is recommended to have a decision-making editor close to the rightmost editor, so that any proposal is passed on and a decision can be reached quickly. For a given strategy, multiple editors can be assigned on the fly:

When there are multiple editors in a strategy, Nestor will assign them sequentially from left to right and apply responsability rules.

As such, the rightmost editor in the strategy will always be the current editor and receive the assignment notification. His parent editors are merely put in cc of the notification. This is extremely useful to assign several affiliated editors to handle e.g. a special issue:

Editor-in-Chief > Associate Editor > Guest Editor (= current)

• All editors in the strategy have access to the article and can perform actions

• The strategy assumes the EIC assigns the Associate Editor, who assigns the guest editor

In that example, the Guest-Editor will be responsible for handling the peer review, and his decision proposal can be subject to validation by his parent (in the screenshot above: the Associate Editor).