Saving time and effort with the new submission experience in Editorial Manager

Authors share their first impressions as the interface rolls out to more journals

Researchers are under increasing time pressure: in the recent Researcher of the Future survey, fewer than half (45%) of respondents agreed that they have sufficient time for research. With the goal of enhancing the service provided to authors foremost in our mind, we are therefore redesigning the submission process in Editorial Manager. Our aim is to make submitting and reviewing manuscripts faster and easier, so that authors, reviewers and editors have more time to focus on what matters most: the science.

Watch this video for an overview of the updates to Editorial Manager.

These enhancements are designed to reduce unnecessary effort and create a more consistent experience across journals. More than 800 journals have already moved to the new submission experience (NSE), and their authors are citing time saved and the user-friendly interface as their favorite benefits so far.

Faster submissions mean more time for research

With the NSE, authors are taken step by step through the submission process, and they are asked for only the information needed at each step — redundant data entry is eliminated, helping save time.

Authors who have used NSE highlight the time they saved as a major benefit — submission time with the new interface is 62% faster (falling from 88 to just 33 minutes) on average.

“The streamlined process for submission really saves time,” said Reza Pulungan, a professor at Universitas Gadjah Mada. “I think other Elsevier journals will benefit from this submission system.”

User-friendly interface enhances the submission experience

With a modern user interface and single sign-on, the streamlined system makes submission easier and more user-friendly for authors. Indeed, 90% of authors are satisfied with the new interface.

“The biggest improvement is the reduced number of submission steps and the more intelligent, streamlined design of the system,” commented author Wang Peng, Ph.D. candidate. “The new submission interface is intuitive and user-friendly. Its clear guidance simplifies the process and improves user experience.”

Complete submissions support editor decision-making

The simplified workflows not only save authors’ valuable time; they also ensure that submissions are complete and the formatting high-quality, making them easier to review. Better formatted submissions reduce decision time and support faster, better-informed editorial decisions, accelerating a journal’s overall time to final decision.

Next step: Extending NSE to more journals

Author feedback from the first group of journals to adopt the NSE shows that the initiative is comfortably on track to achieve our mission: a next-generation publishing experience.

“A great thank you,” commented one author. “That was the best and easiest submission system I encountered among the different journals from Elsevier. Suggest sharing your approach with the others.”

The NSE will continue to benefit more journals, authors, editors and reviewers in the coming months. If you have questions about the innovations and your journal, please reach out to your regular publishing contact.

• Read more: Innovations in Scientific Publishing