How to use the Editorial Management Toolkit

How a manuscript flows through the system

Every submission moves through the same direction, regardless of what your event calls each step:

1. Submit — the author creates a new submission under a track, fills in the details, and uploads the manuscript file.
2. Assign reviewers — the Chair, Co-Chair, or Track Chair assigns one or more reviewers, within the reviewer capacity configured for the event.
3. Peer review — each reviewer accepts or declines the assignment, then submits scores, a recommendation, and comments.
4. Decision — the Chair (or Co-Chair, if enabled) prepares a decision from the event's decision labels and publishes it, which notifies the author by email.
5. Revise — if the decision requests a revision, the author uploads a new file against the same submission; this can repeat across more than one revision round, with each round tracked separately (shown as -R1, -R2, -R3 on the submission's ID).
6. Final submission — once accepted, the author uploads the camera-ready file (and, where required, a signed copyright form) to close out the manuscript.
7. Registration — where the event requires it, the author completes a registration form to confirm attendance or publication.

Not every event uses every step — registration and final-submission requirements are configured per event by the Organizer Admin.

Overview: how a editorial program works

1. An institution submits an Editorial Program Application describing its conference, book series, book chapter, or journal, including tracks and an administrator contact.
2. NIBVEDA reviews and approves the application, which provisions a public workspace at its own path (for example /ICSDS-2027) and creates the first Organizer Admin account.
3. People register or log in at that public path and work from whichever roles they hold: submitting manuscripts, reviewing, chairing tracks, or attending as a delegate.
4. The same login can hold more than one role, and even roles across more than one editorial program — use the role/workspace switcher in the page header once logged in to move between them.

Role naming conventions

The Editorial Management Toolkit uses one fixed set of role names internally, but academic conferences and journals often use different, equally valid titles for the same responsibilities. Use whichever name fits your event — they all map to the same workspace and permissions.

Getting started: register and log in

1. Find your event on Editorial Programs, or go directly to its path if you already have it (for example /ICSDS-2027).
2. Use Register on the event's public page to create an account, or Login if you already have one.
3. If you forget your password, use Forgot password on the login form to request a reset link by email.
4. Once logged in, the page header shows your current role and a switcher if your account holds more than one role or workspace.

Author (Contributor)

1. From the event workspace, choose New Submission, select a track, and fill in the title, abstract, keywords, and author list.
2. Upload your manuscript file in the format and size the event allows — check the note shown on the form, since this is configurable per event.
3. Track every submission's status, decision, and file history under My Submissions.
4. If a decision requests a revision, open the same submission entry and upload a revised file; this can happen across more than one round, shown as -R1, -R2, -R3 on the submission's ID.
5. Once accepted, complete Final Submission (camera-ready file, and a signed copyright form where the event requires it) and, if the event asks for it, the linked Registration form.
6. A manuscript can be withdrawn from My Submissions while it is still editable; this hides it from the author workspace and keeps a Deleted-ID history record for the editorial program. Withdrawal is blocked once final submission or registration has started.
7. Need to reach the Chair directly — a status question, a correction, anything outside the normal flow — use Contact to Chair from the submission's row menu.

Reviewer (Referee)

1. Assigned manuscripts appear under your reviewer workspace with an Accept/Decline choice.
2. After accepting, open the manuscript file directly from the assignment card.
3. Complete the review form — scores, recommendation, and comments — and submit it before the event's deadline.
4. Submitted reviews remain visible to you; the Chair controls whether authors can see reviewer comments.

Track Chair (Section / Track Editor)

1. Your workspace is scoped to your own track(s): only that track's manuscripts, reviewer assignments, and report are shown.
2. Use Assign Reviewer to assign reviewers to manuscripts in your track.
3. Use the Track Report tab to check submission and review progress for your track.

Chair & Co-Chair (Editor-in-Chief / Associate Editor)

1. Reviewer Setting — configure minimum/maximum reviewer counts and review-form fields for the event.
2. Users — add or update accounts and roles for the event (Chair itself can only be granted by the Organizer Admin).
3. Manuscripts — oversee every submission, its status, files, and reviewer/review counts.
4. Reviewers — manage the reviewer directory and assign reviewers to manuscripts.
5. Track Management — create tracks and assign track chairs.
6. Role Access Setting — controls which workspace modules a Co-Chair can see.
7. Decision Setting — customize decision labels beyond the system defaults (Accepted, Rejected, Minor/Major Revision, and so on).
8. Prepare Decision & Publish Decision — make and publish accept/reject/revision decisions, individually or in bulk, with a per-label email template.
9. Email Box — read every inbound (Contact to Chair) and outbound email tied to the event.
10. Bulk Excel — download templates and import or export manuscript, reviewer, and decision data as CSV.
11. Reports — export submission, reviewer-progress, decision, and track-workload reports.

Co-Chairs share this same workspace, limited to whichever sections the Chair has enabled under Role Access Setting.

Organizer Admin (Managing Editor)

1. Look up an existing account by email and assign it the Chair role for your event — only an Organizer Admin can grant the Chair role.
2. New Submission Setting — control accepted manuscript file types, size limits, and the submission template link authors see.
3. Event Page Content — fill in the public About page: description, important dates, venue, and organizing committee.
4. Review outgoing email history for the event.
5. Everything available to the Chair is also available to the Organizer Admin.

Delegate (Attendee)

1. Register for the event as a delegate to attend without submitting a manuscript or reviewing one.
2. Your workspace shows your registration status for the event.

Frequently asked questions

Getting help

If something in your workspace does not match this manual, or a link is not working as expected, contact your event's Organizer Admin or Chair first, since event-specific settings (tracks, decision labels, review form fields) are configured per event.