diff --git a/scipost/templates/scipost/EdCol_by-laws.html b/scipost/templates/scipost/EdCol_by-laws.html
index bb1526af60b4acb1a7029c85f7f17575546a011d..843fe4d42071807949376d635e2be87a9adee7f7 100644
--- a/scipost/templates/scipost/EdCol_by-laws.html
+++ b/scipost/templates/scipost/EdCol_by-laws.html
@@ -44,19 +44,22 @@
<li><strong>The Colleges</strong>
<p>
An Editorial College is formed for each field of the sciences in which SciPost
- carries out publishing activities. The Editorial College of a certain field takes
+ carries out publishing activities. The Editorial College of a certain field, composed of a collection of Fellows, takes end
responsibility for editorial matters for all Journals operating in that field.
- For interdisciplinary submissions, Fellows from distinct Colleges can be called
+ For interdisciplinary submissions, the services of Fellows from distinct Colleges can be called
upon during the evaluation process.
</p>
</li>
<li><strong>Eligibility</strong>
<p>
Fellows of an Editorial College must be professionally active academics
- with a position of at least associate professor level or equivalent
+ with a permanent position of at least associate professor level or equivalent
at a recognized university or research institute. They must possess an extensive
publication record demonstrating world-leading research capabilities in at least one
- stated subject area covered by SciPost Journals. There is no age limitation.
+ stated subject area covered by SciPost Journals falling under the Editorial College concerned. There is no age limitation.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <em>Guest Fellows</em>, whose services can be called upon for Commons- of Proceedings-class journals, should be professionally active academics with a position equivalent to junior faculty at a recognized university or research institute. The must possess a solid publication record demonstrating international-level research capabilities in at least one stated subject area covered by SciPost Journals falling under the Editorial College concerned. There is no age limitation. Guest Fellows are only given editorial tasks for specific submissions, and are not officially part of the Editorial College.
</p>
</li>
<li><strong>Number of Fellows</strong>
@@ -68,24 +71,29 @@
limited to approximately one half-day per month on average.
</p>
</li>
- <li><strong>Appointment by the Foundation</strong>
- <p>
- If the number of Fellows in a stated specialty is below the required minimum number,
- or if the number of currently available Fellows in a stated specialty
- has diminished to a level where processing of Submissions becomes delayed,
- the Foundation has the right to directly nominate and immediately appoint
- individuals deemed to fulfil the eligibility criteria.
- </p>
- </li>
- <li><strong>Appointment by election</strong>
- <p>
- Foundation board members, members of the Advisory Board as well as current and past
- Fellows of an Editorial College can nominate candidates for an Editorial Fellowship.
- In addition, guest Fellows which have proved to be reliable Editors-in-charge
- for <em>Commons</em>- or <em>Proceedings</em>-class Submissions can also be
- nominated by Editorial Administration on behalf of the Foundation.
- Candidates must fulfil the eligiblity criteria.
- </p>
+ <li><strong>Appointment</strong>
+ <p>SciPost's Editorial Colleges should be representative of their respective academic communities. They are meant to be self-sustaining in scale and composition.</p>
+ <ol>
+ <li>Direct appointment by the Foundation
+ <p>
+ If the number of Fellows in a stated specialty is below the required minimum number,
+ or if the number of currently available Fellows in a stated specialty
+ has diminished to a level where processing of Submissions becomes delayed,
+ the Foundation has the right to directly nominate and immediately appoint
+ individuals deemed to fulfil the eligibility criteria.
+ </p>
+ </li>
+ <li>Appointment by election
+ <p>
+ Foundation board members, members of the Advisory Board as well as current and past
+ Fellows of an Editorial College can nominate candidates for an Editorial Fellowship.
+ In addition, guest Fellows which have proved to be reliable Editors-in-charge
+ for <em>Commons</em>- or <em>Proceedings</em>-class Submissions can also be
+ nominated by Editorial Administration on behalf of the Foundation.
+ Candidates must fulfil the eligiblity criteria.
+ </p>
+ </li>
+ </ol>
<p>
These nominations shall be forwarded to the relevant Editorial College
for voting, at the latest at the next Virtual General Meeting.
@@ -100,7 +108,7 @@
</li>
<li><strong>Duration</strong>
<p>
- An appointment as Fellow of an Editorial College is for a duration of 2 years.
+ An appointment as Fellow of an Editorial College is in principle for a period of two years.
</p>
</li>
<li><strong>Visibility</strong>
@@ -224,7 +232,7 @@
<li>for <em>Commons</em>-class Journals, Editors-in-charge can
be preselected not only from current Fellows, but from well-respected members of the
community at large (in which case they become guest Fellows).</li>
- <li>for <em>Proceedings</em>-class Journals, Editoris-in-charge are normally
+ <li>for <em>Proceedings</em>-class Journals, Editors-in-charge are normally
preselected from the guest Fellows selected by the proceedings convenors
(in normal circumstances the conference/workshop organizers).</li>
</ul>
@@ -243,7 +251,7 @@
or <em>not interested</em>.
If the preselected list of Fellows empties and the submission has still not been
taken charge of, the preselection list is extended and new assignment requests
- are sent to different Fellow.
+ are sent to different Fellows.
If 5 assignments are declined citing <em>lack of interest</em>, the Submission is returned
to the authors and not considered for further processing towards publication.
</p>
@@ -257,45 +265,66 @@
</p>
</li>
<li><strong>Appointment of Editor-in-charge</strong>
- <p>The first Fellow of the Editorial College
- (or, for <em>Commons</em>- or <em>Proceedings</em>-class Journals, guest Fellow)
- who accepts an assignment,
- or who volunteers while perusing the pool, becomes Editor-in-charge of the Submission,
- under the conditions that:
- <ol>
- <li>the Submission's main specialty matches one of the Fellow's stated specialties</li>
- <li>there is no conflict of interest of any form between the Fellow and any of the Submission's authors</li>
- <li>there is no personal or hierarchical relationship between the Fellow and any of the Submission's authors</li>
- <li>the Fellow has not co-authored a paper with any of the Submission's authors in the last 5 years.</li>
- </ol>
- It is the responsibility of the Fellow to ensure that these conditions are met.</p>
- <p>Upon appointment of the Editor-in-charge, the online Submission Page is automatically
- created and opened for contributed Reports and Comments, and the Editor-in-charge is required to
- immediately open a refereeing round.
- </p>
+ <ol>
+ <li>First appointment
+ <p>The first Fellow of the Editorial College
+ (or, for <em>Commons</em>- or <em>Proceedings</em>-class Journals, guest Fellow)
+ who accepts an assignment,
+ or who volunteers while perusing the pool, becomes Editor-in-charge of the Submission,
+ under the conditions that:
+ <ul>
+ <li>the Submission's main specialty matches one of the Fellow's stated specialties</li>
+ <li>there is no conflict of interest of any form between the Fellow and any of the Submission's authors</li>
+ <li>there is no personal or hierarchical relationship between the Fellow and any of the Submission's authors</li>
+ <li>the Fellow has not co-authored a paper with any of the Submission's authors in the last 5 years.</li>
+ </ul>
+ <br/>
+ It is the responsibility of the Fellow to ensure that these conditions are met.</p>
+ </li>
+ <li>Reappointment
+ <p>In the case of a Resubmission, the original Submission's Editor-in-charge is
+ automatically appointed as Editor-in-charge for the Resubmission.</p>
+ <li>Replacement of the Editor-in-charge
+ <p>Upon explicit request by the Editor-in-charge, or in circumstances in which the editorial processing of a given
+ Submission is suffering from unreasonable delays, the Editorial Administration
+ reserves the right to seek a replacement for Editor-in-charge of that Submission.</p>
+ </li>
+ </ol>
</li>
<li><strong>Refereeing rounds</strong>
<ol>
+ <li>Choice of refereeing cycle
+ <p>
+ Upon appointment, the Editor-in-charge can choose one of the following cycles:
+ <ul>
+ <li>default refereeing cycle</li>
+ <li>short refereeing cycle</li>
+ <li>direct Editorial Recommendation</li>
+ </ul>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For first-time submission, the choice is between the default refereeing cycle, or the direct Editorial Recommendation. For resubmission, all three choices are available, the short cycle being meant for rapid re-consultation of referees from previous rounds. Upon choosing either the direct or short refereeing cycles, the online Submission Page is automatically created and opened for contributed Reports and Comments, and the Editor-in-charge is required to immediately open a refereeing round.
+ </p>
+ </li>
<li>Opening
- <p>Upon appointment of the Editor-in-charge, or resubmission after a major revision,
- a refereeing round must be opened.
- At least 3 referees must be invited to provide a Report.
+ <p>For the default or short cycles,
+ a refereeing round must be opened. For a default refereeing cycle,
+ at least 3 referees must be invited to provide a Report. For the short cycle (meant for resubmissions), at least one of the previous referees must be reinvited.
Referees can accept or decline the invitation; if a referee declines or fails to commit
within 5 working days, the Editor-in-charge must seek an alternative referee.
</p>
</li>
<li>Duration
- <p>The indicated duration of a refereeing round is 4 weeks for normal papers and 8 weeks for Lecture Notes,
- counted from the moment one of the invited referees first accepts to provide a report.
+ <p>The indicated duration of a refereeing round in the default cycle is 4 weeks for normal papers and 8 weeks for Lecture Notes,
+ counted from the moment one of the invited referees first accepts to provide a report. For the short cycle, the duration is 2 weeks.
Referees will automatically be sent reminders of impending deadlines.
</p>
</li>
<li>Access to identities
<p>Besides the invited Reports, contributed Reports and Comments can also be provided by
- registered Contributors. Although anonymity can be requested by the Contributor upon
- submission of a contributed Report, this implements anonymity on the public interface only: the
- identity of the authors of all contributed Reports are accessible to the Editor-in-charge of
- the Submission. It is forbidden for the Editor-in-charge to reveal those identities in any
+ registered Contributors. Although anonymity can be requested by the Contributor, this implements anonymity on the public interface only: the
+ identity of the authors of all contributed material is accessible to Editorial Administration and to the Editor-in-charge of
+ the Submission. It is forbidden for them to reveal those identities in any
way, except to non-conflicted members of the Editorial College or of the Advisory Board if it is deemed
necessary.</p>
</li>
@@ -306,7 +335,8 @@
<a href="{% url 'journals:journals_terms_and_conditions' %}#referee_obligations">referee obligations</a>.
Similarly, the Editor-in-charge must verify that the authors of contributed Reports and Comments
also fulfil these conditions (this occurring during vetting of the Report). If in doubt, the Editor-in-charge
- must disregard the Reports and Comments in question when formulating the Editorial Recommendation.</p>
+ must disregard the Reports and Comments in question when formulating the Editorial Recommendation.
+ The Editorial Administration monitors the correctness of the implementation of these conditions.</p>
</li>
<li>Closing and author reponse
<p>At the end of the stated duration, submission of Reports on the Submission Page is deactivated.
@@ -374,7 +404,12 @@
Editorial College.
After being formulated by the Editor-in-charge, the Editorial Recommendation
is made visible to all non-conflicted Fellows.
- At this point, the recommendation can be one of these possibilities:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A number of Fellows (depending on the recommentation, see below) is selected by Editorial Administration and specifically given voting rights on the Recommendation. This selection is made to ensure sufficient expertise, enforce checks on impartiality and avoid conflicts of interest. Other qualified Fellows can claim voting rights on the Recommendation if they so wish, by contacting Editorial Administration (in the interest of workflow control, not all Fellows are expected to vote on all Recommendations, but rather only on the ones they are given voting rights on).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ At this point, the Recommendation can be one of these possibilities:
</p>
<ul>
<li>(for submissions to field-leading titles only) Publication as Select</li>
@@ -383,6 +418,7 @@
<li>Rejection.</li>
</ul>
<br/>
+ <p>The precise voting protocol depends on the Recommendation:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Publication as Select</strong>
<p>
@@ -395,7 +431,8 @@
with any of the authors. The Editor-in-charge by definition supports this promotion
to Select and does not need to vote;
other Fellows are asked to agree, abstain or disagree with the recommendation
- to publish as Select. The Submission is promoted to Select if either:
+ to publish as Select. Editorial Administration initiates the vote by giving 9 specialist
+ and 6 further same-discipline Fellows voting rights. The Submission is promoted to Select if either:
</p>
<ul>
<li>specialist Fellows unanimously agree</li>
@@ -415,12 +452,13 @@
<p>
If the editorial recommendation is to publish the paper, Fellows with expertises
corresponding to those of the Submission can vote to agree, abstain or disagree with
- publication. The Submission is accepted if:
+ publication. Editorial Administration initiates the vote by giving 9 specialist Fellows voting rights. The Submission is accepted if:
</p>
- <ol>
+ <ul>
<li>at least 4 specialist Fellows agree and none disagree</li>
- <li>a majority of all specialist Fellows agrees.</li>
- </ol>
+ <li>a majority of specialist Fellows agrees.</li>
+ </ul>
+ <br/>
<p>
Upon acceptance, the authors are informed and the paper is immediately
forwarded to Production.
@@ -443,7 +481,7 @@
<li><strong>Rejection</strong>
<p>
If the editorial recommendation is to reject the paper, specialist Fellows are asked
- to agree, abstain, or veto the recommendation.
+ to agree, abstain, or veto the recommendation. Editorial Administration initiates the vote by giving 9 specialist Fellows voting rights.
</p>
<p>
If a majority of specialist
diff --git a/submissions/templates/submissions/sub_and_ref_procedure.html b/submissions/templates/submissions/sub_and_ref_procedure.html
index 3f556b7a8ab33769276749ce658e816cc50f223d..8fa50032af1efd937458f252648d960474d86f62 100644
--- a/submissions/templates/submissions/sub_and_ref_procedure.html
+++ b/submissions/templates/submissions/sub_and_ref_procedure.html
@@ -56,7 +56,9 @@
</li>
<li>
<strong>Screening: finding an Editor-in-charge</strong>
- <br/>The Submission is internally forwarded to Fellows of the relevant Editorial College, for them to consider becoming Editor-in-charge. For our Commons journals, members of the community can also be approached (in which case they become guest Fellows). If a (guest) Fellow expresses interest in the submission, he/she becomes Editor-in-charge. This screening process should occur on a timescale of 5 working days. Authors are contacted by our editorial administration in case of problems, in particular if extensions to the screening period prove necessary.</li>
+ <br/>The Submission is internally forwarded to Fellows of the relevant Editorial College, for them to consider becoming Editor-in-charge. At this stage, qualified Fellows can exceptionally volunteer and immediately formulate a Recommendation for rejection without refereeing (this Recommendation is then processed according to the Editorial Recommendation rules below).
+ As a special provision for our Commons-class journals, members of the community can also be approached (in which case they become guest Fellows).
+ If a (guest) Fellow expresses interest in the submission, he/she becomes Editor-in-charge. This screening process should occur on a timescale of 5 working days. Authors are contacted by our editorial administration in case of problems, in particular if extensions to the screening period prove necessary.</li>
<li>
<strong>Activation of the Submission page</strong>
<br/>Following successful screening, a Submission Page is activated. The Submission is immediately opened to Contributor Reports, Comments and Author Replies, all of which are vetted by an Editorial Fellow before eventually appearing online.</li>