Journal Management Services

Journal Management Services for Academic Publishers and Scholarly Societies

Our journal management services give academic publishers, scholarly societies, and editors-in-chief complete operational support across editorial office management, COPE-compliant ethics oversight, and editor and reviewer recruitment. Furthermore, a dedicated journal manager handles your manuscript tracking, peer review coordination, and editorial calendar on platforms you already use, including ScholarOne, Editorial Manager, and Open Journal Systems. Request a free consultation and receive a custom quote within 24 hours, with transparent monthly pricing.

✦ Core Journal Management Services

Journal Management Explained

What Are Journal Management Services?

Journal management services are outsourced operational support for academic journals, covering editorial office management, peer review coordination, COPE-compliant ethics oversight, production, hosting, indexing, and editor and reviewer recruitment. Furthermore, a dedicated journal manager handles your day-to-day workflow, so your editors-in-chief focus on scientific decisions rather than administrative tasks.

Also called Journal Management as a Service (JMaaS), this model is used by scholarly societies, academic publishers, university presses, and new journals that need professional operations without the cost of an in-house editorial team. In addition, our journal management services integrate directly with your existing submission platform, including ScholarOne, Editorial Manager, Open Journal Systems (OJS), and Scholastica, so there is no system migration or disruption to active workflows.

Unlike one-off editorial services such as copyediting or proofreading, journal management services address the full operational lifecycle of your journal. Specifically, this includes manuscript tracking, reviewer invitation workflows, decision letter preparation, ethics investigation support, retraction management, CrossRef DOI registration, DOAJ and Scopus indexing readiness, and monthly operations reporting for the editor-in-chief.

Journal Management Service vs Journal Management System: What Is the Difference?

A journal management system (JMS) is software you install or subscribe to, such as Open Journal Systems (OJS), ScholarOne Manuscripts, Editorial Manager, Scholastica, or JAMS. In contrast, a journal management service is a professional team that operates your journal for you, often on top of the software you already use. In addition, many publishers combine both: they license a system (software) and hire a service (people) to manage the day-to-day work on that system.

Feature	Journal Management System	Journal Management Service
What it is	Software platform	Human operational team
Who runs it	Your in-house staff	Our dedicated journal manager
Examples	OJS, ScholarOne, Editorial Manager, Scholastica	ManuscriptLab, JournalPath, Aptara
Peer review	You coordinate	We coordinate
Ethics investigations	Software logs cases	We investigate and resolve
Editor recruitment	You handle outreach	We handle outreach and onboarding
Monthly reporting	You pull data	We prepare and present reports
Best for	Publishers with in-house editorial staff	Publishers wanting to outsource operations

If you already have software but need a team to run it, our journal management services plug directly into your existing system. However, if you need both the software and the team, we handle platform setup during onboarding at no extra cost.

Complete Service Breakdown

Our Complete Journal Management Services

Our journal management services cover every operational function your journal needs across the full publishing lifecycle. Furthermore, a dedicated journal manager integrates with your existing platforms, including ScholarOne Manuscripts, Editorial Manager, Open Journal Systems (OJS), Scholastica, and JAMS, so there is no system migration or workflow disruption. As a result, you receive a single partnership that replaces the complexity of managing multiple vendors, in-house staff, and software subscriptions.

Your journal's day-to-day editorial office runs on manuscript tracking, author correspondence, reviewer coordination, and decision letter preparation. Our editorial office management service handles all of these professionally so your editors-in-chief focus on scientific evaluation rather than administrative tasks.

What we handle

Real-time manuscript tracking from submission through final decision
Author and reviewer correspondence in your journal's voice and style
Decision letter preparation (accept, reject, revise with reasoning)
Editorial calendar management and issue planning
Submission platform administration on ScholarOne, Editorial Manager, OJS, Scholastica, or JAMS
Overdue review alerts and escalation workflows
Journal office email management and query resolution within 24 hours

Peer review quality determines your journal's reputation, so we treat it as a core service rather than a background task. Furthermore, we support single-blind, double-blind, and open peer review workflows, matching your journal's existing policy without changing it.

What we handle

Reviewer invitation workflows with personalised outreach
Structured review forms configured for your journal
Automated reminder emails at 7, 14, and 21 days
Deadline enforcement and escalation protocols
Reviewer acceptance and decline tracking
Report collection, compilation, and quality checks
Reviewer response rate monitoring and performance analysis
Senior reviewer identification for editorial board promotion

Once a manuscript is accepted, production begins. In addition to editorial handling, we provide full production services that take your accepted papers from final draft to published article in multiple formats.

What we handle

Copyediting against your journal's style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, AMA)
Typesetting and layout design
JATS XML generation to NLM/NISO international standards
CrossRef DOI assignment and metadata registration
Multi-format output: PDF (print-ready and screen), HTML, and full-text XML
Reference formatting and link checking
Proof correction cycles with authors
Final galley preparation and publication-ready delivery

Your journal needs a reliable website, submission portal, and secure cloud infrastructure. Therefore, we provide full technical hosting on enterprise-grade cloud environments, including custom journal website design, mobile-responsive layouts, and continuous security monitoring.

What we handle

Custom journal website design on your domain or subdomain
Cloud hosting with 99.99 percent uptime guarantee
Mobile-responsive design for all devices
Secure submission portal with role-based access
SSL encryption and daily backups
OAI-PMH endpoint configuration for metadata harvesting
Journal website content management and updates
Technical issue resolution with 2-hour response SLA

Indexing in major academic databases determines whether researchers find and cite your articles. Specifically, we handle every step of indexing readiness and application for the databases that matter most to your subject area.

What we handle

CrossRef DOI registration for every article (membership setup included)
CrossMark services for post-publication updates and corrections
Cited-by Reference tracking for citation analytics
ORCID integration for verified author identification
iThenticate plagiarism screening for every submission
DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) application preparation
Scopus and Web of Science application support
PubMed and PubMed Central (PMC) indexing readiness
Google Scholar citation meta tag implementation for every article
Portico and CLOCKSS archiving setup for long-term preservation

Ethical compliance is non-negotiable for peer-reviewed journals, so our ethics specialists handle every stage of research integrity oversight. In addition, we align every editorial decision with international standards from COPE, ICMJE, WAME, and CSE.

What we handle

COPE guideline implementation across all editorial decisions
ICMJE recommendations for medical and biomedical journals
Pre-submission plagiarism screening with iThenticate
Authorship dispute investigation and resolution
Conflict of interest declaration review
Ethics investigation case management (full COPE workflow)
Retraction notices and expressions of concern preparation
Post-publication correction handling per CrossMark standards
Data availability statement verification
AI disclosure policy compliance per ICMJE 2026 updates

A journal's reviewer pool and editorial board directly determine its peer review turnaround and scientific credibility. Therefore, we run targeted recruitment campaigns to identify, invite, and onboard qualified associate editors and peer reviewers across your subject area.

What we handle

Associate editor identification by subject area, institution, h-index, and publication record
Personalised outreach campaigns to candidate editors and reviewers
ORCID verification and institutional affiliation checks
Peer reviewer database building with expertise tagging
Editor onboarding and orientation with your journal's policies
Editorial board diversity strategy (geography, gender, career stage)
Reviewer response rate tracking and quality scoring
High-performing reviewer promotion to editorial board positions

You cannot improve what you do not measure. For this reason, every ManuscriptLab partnership includes detailed monthly operations reports and quarterly strategic review calls, so editors-in-chief and publishers always know how their journal is performing.

What we handle

Monthly operations reports covering submissions, decisions, and ethics cases
Reviewer turnaround time tracking and benchmarking
Acceptance rate analysis by subject area and author geography
Editorial board activity and recruitment pipeline metrics
Submission trend analysis for strategic planning
Author country distribution and subject area trends
Quarterly review calls with ManuscriptLab's journal management lead
Custom dashboards for publishers managing multiple journals

Scope Clarification

Our journal management services do not include scientific peer review itself (your appointed reviewers conduct the actual review) or final editorial acceptance decisions (your editorial board retains that authority). Instead, we manage the operations, workflows, and compliance that surround those decisions, so your editorial team focuses only on scientific judgment.

Platform Compatibility

Platforms We Work With

Our journal management services integrate directly with every major submission and peer review platform used by academic publishers. Furthermore, we work on top of your existing system rather than requiring migration, so your editors, reviewers, and authors continue using the login they already know. In addition, we support custom and proprietary platforms built in-house by larger publishers, with full API integration where available.

ScholarOne Manuscripts

The most widely used submission and peer review platform for scholarly publishing. Our journal managers run day-to-day operations inside your ScholarOne instance, including manuscript tracking, reviewer invitations, decision letter preparation, and reporting.

Editorial Manager (Aries Systems)

Trusted by Elsevier, Springer Nature, and major medical publishers for submission and peer review workflows. Our team configures reviewer templates, manages escalation protocols, and handles correspondence inside Editorial Manager without disrupting your existing setup.

Open Journal Systems (OJS)

Developed by Public Knowledge Project (PKP), OJS powers thousands of independent and open-access journals worldwide. We handle the editorial operations layer on OJS, from manuscript triage to CrossRef DOI assignment, so you benefit from both the open-source platform and professional management.

Scholastica

A modern cloud platform used by small to medium publishers for peer review and open-access publishing. Our journal management service plugs into your Scholastica workflow, taking over administration, reviewer coordination, and production without changing your current configuration.

JAMS (by MDPI)

A scalable modular system powered by MDPI, trusted by independent publishers and Diamond OA journals. We manage editorial operations inside JAMS, including submission handling, peer review, and billing coordination, giving you professional operations without additional vendor contracts.

Custom and Proprietary Systems

Large publishers often use proprietary platforms built in-house. In that case, we integrate through APIs where available, or operate directly inside your custom system, so your established workflows continue uninterrupted.

Why Choose Us

Why Publishers Choose ManuscriptLab for Journal Management

Our journal management services replace the complexity of in-house editorial staff, multiple software subscriptions, and vendor contracts with a single partnership built around five commitments. Furthermore, every commitment below is backed by specific deliverables, measurable outcomes, and transparent reporting, so you always know what you receive and how your journal is performing.

Dedicated Journal Manager + Backup Support

Every ManuscriptLab partnership assigns one dedicated journal manager as your single point of contact, with a trained backup manager who steps in during leave or peak workload. Furthermore, your manager learns your journal’s subject area, editorial policies, author voice, & reviewer preferences, so operations stay consistent. As a result, you get one accountable person who knows your journal inside & out, zero disruption during holidays or peak submission cycles, & direct access through email, scheduled calls, & real-time workflow updates.

Global Reviewer and Editor Network

Access ManuscriptLab’s network of 750+ PhD-qualified editors across 1,117+ subject areas. Specifically, this network gives your journal a ready pool for peer reviewer identification, associate editor recruitment, and editorial board diversity, all without starting outreach from scratch. In addition, our editors cover STEM, medical, social sciences, and humanities, which means faster reviewer response times, reduced reviewer fatigue through broader rotation, and editorial board diversity across geography, gender, and career stage.

Transparent Monthly Operations Reports

Every editor-in-chief and publisher receives a detailed monthly operations report covering submission volumes, reviewer turnaround times, ethics cases handled, acceptance rates, & editorial board growth. Furthermore, a quarterly review call with your journal management lead aligns on performance trends, upcoming priorities, & strategic adjustments. Consequently, you get real journal performance data in your inbox every month, clear benchmarks against industry turnaround times, early warnings on bottlenecks before they affect your editors, & strategic planning based on actual data.

COPE-Compliant Ethics Infrastructure

Our ethics specialists implement full COPE guidelines across every editorial decision, including authorship verification, conflict of interest review, ethics investigations, retraction notices, and expressions of concern. In addition, every post-publication correction is prepared per CrossMark standards, aligned with ICMJE recommendations where applicable to medical journals. Therefore, your journal benefits from a documented audit trail on every editorial decision, protection against post-publication integrity crises, and ethics expertise your in-house editors do not have the bandwidth to maintain.

Multi-Journal Portfolio Management

Publishers managing two to fifty or more journals get one coordinated partnership instead of multiple vendor contracts. Specifically, we provide portfolio-wide reporting, shared editor and reviewer pools across your titles, consistent ethics compliance, and custom MOU and SLA terms for enterprise programs. As a result, your editorial office benefits from a single point of contact, a single invoice, cross-journal editor and reviewer resource sharing, and consistent operational quality across your entire portfolio, with volume pricing available for larger publishers.

500+

Journal partners worldwide

750+

PhD-qualified editors in our network

1,117+

Subject areas covered

20+

Years of academic publishing expertise

COPE-Compliant

Workflow on every partnership

Add-Ons and Compliance

Optional Add-On Services and Industry Standards

Beyond our core journal management services, we offer specialized add-on services for publishers with specific operational needs. Furthermore, every ManuscriptLab partnership operates under internationally recognized compliance standards, so your journal integrity is protected across every editorial decision, ethics case, and author interaction.

Optional Add-On Services

For publishers who need targeted expertise beyond the standard plans, we offer the following productized add-ons, available with any Essential, Complete, or Enterprise partnership:

Reviewer Database Cleanup

Systematic audit and cleanup of your reviewer database to remove fake accounts, duplicates, and outdated profiles. We verify every account through ORCID validation, institutional domain checks, and professional profile corroboration.

Platform Migration from OJS or Legacy Systems

Full migration support to move your journal from Open Journal Systems or legacy editorial systems to ScholarOne, Editorial Manager, Scholastica, or JAMS. We handle historical article transfer, metadata migration, DOI reassignment, and submission continuity.

Journal Launch Package

End-to-end launch support for new journals, including ISSN registration, CrossRef DOI setup, editorial board recruitment, website design, and indexing readiness for DOAJ, Scopus, and PubMed. Journal moves from concept to first issue in approximately 90 days.

Multi-Language Journal Support

Operational support for journals publishing in Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic, or other non-English languages, including translated correspondence, native-language reviewer coordination, and metadata localization for regional indexing databases.

Enterprise Portfolio Setup

Strategic setup for publishers consolidating 10+ journals under one partnership, including portfolio-wide reporting dashboard configuration, cross-journal editor pool integration, unified ethics compliance workflows, and custom MOU and SLA terms.

Scope Clarification: Our journal management services do not include scientific peer review itself or final editorial acceptance decisions. Specifically, we manage the operations, workflows, and compliance that surround those decisions, so your editorial board retains full scientific authority.

Compliance and Industry Standards We Follow

Every ManuscriptLab partnership operates under the compliance frameworks that leading academic publishers trust. Furthermore, you can verify each standard directly through its official authority:

COPE ICMJE WAME CSE OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association) SSL Secured NDA Available

Our ethics specialists align every editorial decision with COPE guidelines and ICMJE recommendations, while our data handling follows SSL encryption, secure cloud storage, and automatic file deletion after offboarding. In addition, non-disclosure agreements are available for institutional clients, sensitive journal content, and pre-publication research.

How It Works

How Our Journal Management Partnership Works

From initial consultation to continuous operations, our journal management services follow a structured five-step process that gets your journal fully managed in approximately four to six weeks. Furthermore, every step includes clear deliverables, defined timeframes, and transparent accountability, so your publishers and editors always know what happens next.

Journal Audit and Agreement Setup

Every partnership begins with a full operational audit of your journal, covering current submission volumes, workflow bottlenecks, ethics policies, submission system configuration, and editorial board composition. In addition, we review your existing contracts, platform access requirements, and reporting preferences before finalising the service scope, pricing structure, and formal partnership agreement. As a result, you receive a tailored proposal that reflects your journal’s actual needs, not a generic service package.

Timeframe: Week 1 to 2

Dedicated Team Assigned to Your Journal

Once the agreement is signed, we assign a dedicated journal manager as your single point of contact, along with an ethics compliance specialist and a recruitment coordinator supporting your journal in the background. Furthermore, every team member is briefed on your journal’s subject area, editorial standards, author voice guidelines, and strategic goals, so operations align with your existing editorial culture from day one. In addition, a trained backup manager is also assigned to cover leave periods and peak workloads.

Timeframe: Week 2 to 3

Editorial Operations and Ethics Monitoring Go Live

Your dedicated team activates manuscript tracking, author and reviewer correspondence, decision letter preparation, submission platform administration, and COPE-compliant ethics monitoring inside your existing system. Specifically, this works on ScholarOne, Editorial Manager, Open Journal Systems (OJS), Scholastica, JAMS, or your custom platform, so there is zero migration and no disruption to active submissions already in your workflow. Consequently, your editors and reviewers continue using the login they already know while we take over operations behind the scenes.

Timeframe: Week 3 to 4

Editor and Reviewer Recruitment Campaigns Launched

Our recruitment coordinator profiles your editorial board gaps by subject area, institution, and geographic distribution, then launches targeted outreach campaigns to qualified associate editors and peer reviewers from our network of 750+ PhD-qualified editors across 1,117+ subject areas. In addition, every incoming editor and reviewer receives personalised onboarding, including your journal’s editorial policies, scope requirements, and submission platform orientation. As a result, your editorial board diversity and reviewer pool continue to grow month after month.

Timeframe: Ongoing from Week 4

Monthly Reports and Quarterly Review Calls

Every month, your editor-in-chief and publisher receive a detailed operations report covering submission volumes, reviewer turnaround times, ethics cases handled, acceptance rates, editorial board growth, and recruitment pipeline progress. Furthermore, every quarter, your journal management lead schedules a strategic review call to align on performance trends, upcoming priorities, policy changes, and any adjustments to your service scope. Therefore, you always have real journal performance data in hand and a transparent partnership that evolves with your journal’s needs.

Timeframe: Continuous

📋 Fully managed: Once onboarded, our journal management services run continuously across every operational area your journal needs. In contrast, your editors and publishers focus entirely on scientific evaluation, editorial leadership, and strategic direction, while we handle the operational workflow behind every decision.

Who We Help

Who Our Journal Management Services Are Built For

Our journal management services are built for the full range of publishers and editors who manage peer-reviewed academic journals. Furthermore, each ICP below has distinct operational needs, so we tailor the partnership scope, service tier, and pricing structure to match your organizational model, submission volumes, and strategic goals.

Scholarly Societies and Associations

Societies with volunteer editors face a specific challenge: your editors joined for the scientific contribution, not to coordinate reviewer invitations and chase overdue reviews. Furthermore, our journal management services take over the entire operational workload while keeping your society in full editorial control. Specifically, we offer society-friendly pricing, consistent operations across editor rotations, and a dedicated journal manager who understands your society’s publishing standards and member expectations.

Academic Publishers (Small to Medium)

Small and medium academic publishers often need to grow without adding editorial headcount. In addition, our journal management partnership provides scalable operations that absorb increasing submission volumes, more complex ethics cases, and expanding editorial boards without requiring you to hire, train, and manage in-house staff. As a result, you expand your journal portfolio while keeping fixed costs predictable and operations consistent across every title you publish.

University Presses and Research Institutions

University presses and institutional publishing programs need professional operations that match the standards of commercial publishers. Specifically, our journal management services support departmental journal initiatives, faculty-led publications, and institutional repositories, with full ScholarOne, Editorial Manager, and Open Journal Systems compatibility. Moreover, institutional pricing agreements include multi-journal rate structures, shared infrastructure, and dedicated support for your campus publishing office.

New and Launching Journals

Launching a new journal requires editorial board recruitment, COPE compliance setup, submission platform configuration, website design, CrossRef DOI registration, and indexing readiness, all before your first submission arrives. Therefore, our journal management services provide an end-to-end launch package that takes your concept from naming and ISSN registration through first issue publication in approximately 90 days. In addition, we handle every step so your scientific founders focus only on building the journal’s intellectual direction.

Open Access and Diamond OA Publishers

Open access journals and Diamond OA publishers face unique operational demands, including APC management, open access compliance per OASPA guidelines, and global author support. Specifically, our journal management services handle APC invoicing, waiver policy administration, DOAJ and Scopus indexing applications, and compliance with funder mandates such as Plan S. Furthermore, we support Diamond OA journals operating in the Global South with pricing structures and workflows designed for emerging-market publishing economies.

Editors-in-Chief Looking to Delegate Operations

Senior editors who were appointed to lead a journal’s scientific vision often find themselves consumed by administrative work instead. Furthermore, our journal management services remove the operational burden by handling manuscript tracking, reviewer coordination, decision letter preparation, ethics investigations, and editorial board recruitment, so you focus purely on scientific evaluation and strategic direction. As a result, you reclaim time for actual editorial leadership while a dedicated journal manager runs the day-to-day operations behind every editorial decision.

Human-Led Operations

100% Human Experts, AI-Transparent Operations

Every editorial decision, ethics investigation, reviewer invitation, and author communication in our journal management services is handled by a trained human journal manager, never by AI. Furthermore, we maintain a transparent AI usage policy that discloses exactly where we use AI assistance (such as reviewer expertise matching suggestions and metadata tagging) and where we never allow it (editorial decisions, peer review quality assessment, and ethics investigations), so your publishers, editors, and author community always know the integrity of your operational workflow.

AI-Transparent Operations

In addition, our AI usage aligns with COPE guidelines and ICMJE 2026 disclosure recommendations, so any AI-assisted operational task is documented and available for your editorial board to review. As a result, your journal remains fully compliant with the AI disclosure policies now enforced by Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor and Francis, and ICMJE member journals, with no risk of undisclosed AI involvement in your editorial workflow.

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Human Editorial Decisions

Every editorial decision made by qualified human editors with your journal's full policy context, never by AI.

Transparent AI Policy

Clear documentation of where AI assists our operations (reviewer matching, metadata) and where it never operates (editorial judgment, peer review quality).

COPE and ICMJE Aligned

AI usage aligned with international compliance standards from COPE and ICMJE 2026 recommendations, documented for audit.

Transparent Pricing

Journal Management Pricing with No Hidden Fees

Our journal management services are offered through 3 flexible plans, so your partnership scope matches your journal’s size, submission volume, and operational needs. Furthermore, every plan includes transparent pricing with no hidden fees, no long-term lock-in, and a custom quote delivered within 24 hours of your consultation. In addition, multi-journal publishers receive custom portfolio pricing with volume discounts and tailored SLA terms.

Essential Plan

Editorial Office Support

Built for small journals that need professional day-to-day operations without full ethics and recruitment coverage. Specifically, this plan handles your editorial office workflow on your existing submission platform, with monthly reporting to your editor-in-chief.

Complete Plan

Full Journal Management

Our most chosen plan for established journals that need end-to-end operational support covering editorial office, ethics, & recruitment. Furthermore, this plan includes everything in Essential plus full COPE compliance & active editor & reviewer recruitment campaigns.

Enterprise Plan

Multi-Journal Publisher Operations

Designed for academic publishers managing multiple journals or complex editorial portfolios. Specifically, Enterprise includes everything in Complete, plus multi-journal coordination, custom MOU & SLA terms, & cross-journal editor & reviewer resource sharing.

Dedicated journal manager with trained backup support

100 percent human-led editorial operations (no AI replacing editor judgment)

Transparent AI usage policy aligned with COPE and ICMJE 2026 guidelines

Secure encrypted file transfer and automatic data deletion after offboarding

Non-disclosure agreement available for institutional and sensitive journal data

Platform compatibility with ScholarOne, Editorial Manager, OJS, Scholastica, JAMS, and custom systems

24-hour response SLA for routine queries, 2-hour SLA for critical operational issues

Zero migration required (we work on top of your existing system)

100% human operations

COPE-compliant

Transparent pricing

Zero vendor lock-in

24-hour custom quote

What Journal Editors Say

Academic Journals That Rely on
ManuscriptLab for Operational Management

From individual faculty to entire research departments — here is what our institutional partners say about Departmental Publication Support.

ManuscriptLab took over our entire editorial office operations and the difference was immediate. Reviewer response rates improved, authors receive timely updates, and our editors-in-chief can finally focus on actual science rather than chasing emails all day.

Their ethics compliance support is exactly what our journal needed. When we had a complex authorship dispute, ManuscriptLab's team guided us through the COPE process step-by-step. The case was resolved professionally and confidentially without any public controversy.

We asked ManuscriptLab to help us rebuild our reviewer database after significant reviewer fatigue. Within three months they had onboarded 85 qualified new reviewers across our subject areas. Our average review turnaround dropped from 42 days to just 18 days.

The monthly operations reports have completely transformed how we manage our journal. We now have actual data on reviewer response rates, ethics case volumes, and editorial board activity — information we simply did not have before ManuscriptLab started managing us.

As a society journal with entirely volunteer editors, we were struggling with consistency. ManuscriptLab now handles all the admin — tracking, correspondence, ethics screening — and our volunteer editors actually enjoy their role again instead of drowning in operational tasks.

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is journal management as a service (JMaaS)?

Journal management as a service, often shortened to JMaaS, is a subscription-based model where an external provider handles a journal’s editorial office operations, ethical compliance, and reviewer-editor recruitment under a formal partnership agreement. Essentially, it functions like software as a service, but for the operational backbone of academic journals.

What is the difference between a journal management system and a journal management service?

A journal management system, such as ScholarOne or Editorial Manager, is software that automates submission and peer review workflows. In contrast, a journal management service like ManuscriptLab provides the trained human team that actually operates those systems, manages correspondence, enforces COPE compliance, and recruits qualified editors and peer reviewers.

Can we outsource only one service area, such as editorial office or ethics compliance?

Yes, you can. Our Essential plan covers editorial office support alone, which is ideal if your in-house team already handles ethics or recruitment. Additionally, you can scale up to the Complete plan later as operational needs grow, without any migration cost or data transfer complication.

How quickly can you onboard our journal?

Standard onboarding takes approximately 14 to 21 days from signed agreement to live operations. During this period, we conduct a full workflow audit, assign your dedicated journal manager and backup manager, integrate with your existing submission platform, and brief the team on your editorial policies and house style.

Do you make editorial or peer review decisions on behalf of our journal?

No, we do not. Specifically, our journal management services cover operations, workflows, ethics documentation, and recruitment, while your editorial board retains full scientific authority over accept, reject, and revision decisions. Essentially, we manage the process; your editors own every scientific judgment.

Do you support indexing applications for Scopus, PubMed, and DOAJ?

Yes, we support preparation and submission of indexing applications for Scopus, PubMed Central, DOAJ, and Web of Science as part of our journal indexing support service or Enterprise plan. In addition, we help improve your journal’s metadata, archival policies, and ethics statements to meet each database’s technical and editorial criteria.

How do you handle COPE ethics investigations and retractions?

Our ethics specialists follow the Committee on Publication Ethics flowcharts step by step. First, we document the concern confidentially. Next, we draft author correspondence, prepare evidence packages, and coordinate editorial board review. Finally, we publish retraction or correction notices through CrossMark and update CrossRef metadata to preserve the scholarly record.

Can you manage multiple journals under one partnership?

Yes, our Enterprise plan is purpose-built for publishers consolidating 10 or more journals under one partnership. Moreover, you receive portfolio-wide dashboards, cross-journal reviewer pools, unified ethics workflows, and custom MOU and SLA terms, which significantly reduces the per-journal operational cost compared to managing each journal in-house.

What happens to our journal data if we decide to end the partnership?

Your data remains yours at all times. Upon offboarding, we export all manuscript records, reviewer databases, editorial correspondence, and reporting archives in open formats such as CSV, JSON, and JATS XML. Furthermore, we securely delete our working copies within 30 days and provide written confirmation of deletion.

How is confidentiality protected during the engagement?

Every ManuscriptLab team member signs a strict non-disclosure agreement before accessing journal data. Additionally, we offer institutional NDAs on request, use SSL-encrypted platforms, store files in secure cloud environments with access logging, and strictly separate client workspaces so no data crosses between the journals we manage.

Which journal subject areas do you support?

Our network of 750-plus editors spans 1,117-plus subject areas, which includes medicine, life sciences, engineering, computer science, social sciences, humanities, business, law, and interdisciplinary fields. Therefore, whether your journal is a specialist clinical publication or a broad-scope open-access journal, we can match qualified editorial talent to your scope.

Do you require long-term contracts, or can we start month-to-month?

We offer flexible agreement terms. Specifically, publishers can start with a 3-month pilot, a 6-month standard partnership, or a 12-month plan with better per-month pricing. Furthermore, there are no cancellation penalties beyond the current billing cycle, so you retain full control over the partnership length.

🏫 Partner with ManuscriptLab

Let Your Editors Focus on Science —
We'll Manage Everything Else

Join academic journals and publishers worldwide that rely on ManuscriptEdit for professional editorial office management, COPE-compliant ethics support, and strategic editor and reviewer recruitment.

Journal Management Services for Academic Publishers and Scholarly Societies

What Are Journal Management Services?

Journal Management Service vs Journal Management System: What Is the Difference?

Our Complete Journal Management Services

Editorial Office Management

Peer Review Coordination and Management

Production and Publication Services

Technical Infrastructure and Hosting

Indexing and Discoverability Support

Ethics and Research Integrity Compliance

Editor and Reviewer Recruitment

Analytics, Reporting, and Journal Performance Insights

Platforms We Work With

ScholarOne Manuscripts

Editorial Manager (Aries Systems)

Open Journal Systems (OJS)

Scholastica

JAMS (by MDPI)

Custom and Proprietary Systems

Why Publishers Choose ManuscriptLab for Journal Management

Dedicated Journal Manager + Backup Support

Global Reviewer and Editor Network

Transparent Monthly Operations Reports

COPE-Compliant Ethics Infrastructure

Multi-Journal Portfolio Management

Optional Add-On Services and Industry Standards

Optional Add-On Services

Reviewer Database Cleanup

Platform Migration from OJS or Legacy Systems

Journal Launch Package

Multi-Language Journal Support

Enterprise Portfolio Setup

Compliance and Industry Standards We Follow

How Our Journal Management Partnership Works

Journal Audit and Agreement Setup

Dedicated Team Assigned to Your Journal

Editorial Operations and Ethics Monitoring Go Live

Editor and Reviewer Recruitment Campaigns Launched

Monthly Reports and Quarterly Review Calls

Who Our Journal Management Services Are Built For

Scholarly Societies and Associations

Academic Publishers (Small to Medium)

University Presses and Research Institutions

New and Launching Journals

Open Access and Diamond OA Publishers

Editors-in-Chief Looking to Delegate Operations

100% Human Experts, AI-Transparent Operations

Human Editorial Decisions

Transparent AI Policy

COPE and ICMJE Aligned

Journal Management Pricing with No Hidden Fees

Editorial Office Support

Full Journal Management

Multi-Journal Publisher Operations

What's Included at Every Pricing Tier

What Journal Editors Say

Academic Journals That Rely on ManuscriptLab for Operational Management

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

🏫 Partner with ManuscriptLab

Let Your Editors Focus on Science — We'll Manage Everything Else

Get a Custom Quote

Get a Custom Quote

Request a Consultation Slot

Academic Journals That Rely on
ManuscriptLab for Operational Management

Let Your Editors Focus on Science —
We'll Manage Everything Else