Overview of the Paper Review Procedure
When the editors-in-chief have received the authors. manuscript and verified that it falls within the scope of the journal, they invite an associate editor (AE) to manage the reviewing of the submission. Submissions that do not fall in the scope of TODAES or do not contain (sufficient) original content are immediately returned to the authors by the EiC.
The AE selects and invites 3 or 4 reviewers to review the submission. On the basis of the reviews, the AE may moderate a discussion among the reviewers, which may lead to adjustments in their reviews. Subsequently, taking the authors. comments into account, the AE makes his/her recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief (EiC), who will examine the reviews and the AE's recommendation and either accept the AE's recommendation and finalize it or return the submission to the AE with questions and/or suggestions. This two-tier procedure is in place in order to ensure consistent application of reviewing standards. After a decision about the submission is finalized, the EiC communicates this decision to the authors.
Decision Categories
Each decision on a submission falls into one of the following four categories:
- Accept:
No further revisions or review are required before the article appears in an upcoming issue of ACM TODAES.
- Needs minor revisions:
If the authors complete the set of "minor revisions" that have been listed explicitly as such by the AE, the associate editor will check the revisions. If they are judged to be adequate, the revised article will appear in an upcoming issue of TODAES. "Minor" revisions are changes to the manuscript (a) which can probably be completed by the authors with a few days of work and (b) whose success can be checked by the responsible AE without consultation of the paper's reviewers.
- Needs major revisions:
If the authors complete the set of "major revisions" that have been listed explicitly as such by the AE, one or more of the original reviewers will check the revisions and report their evaluations of them to the AE. If the revisions are judged to be adequate, the article will appear in an upcoming issue of TODAES. "Major revisions" are changes to the manuscript (a) which the AE believes the authors can probably complete but (b) which are too extensive or substantial to fall into the category of "minor revisions".
- Reject:
The submission in its present form is not deemed suitable for publication in TODAES. The authors may, however, submit a rewritten version of the manuscript, taking into account the critiques and suggestions of the reviewers and the AE. If such a submission is made, it will be reviewed in its entirety and may be assigned to a different AE and/or reviewers.
Timing of Resubmissions
For each of the decision categories that involve submission of a revised manuscript, there is a time limit from the receipt of the notification email for the resubmission, whose main purpose is to ensure timely publication of research results:
- Minor revisions: 4 weeks
- Major revisions: 8 weeks
Extensions can be granted by the AE and/or EiC if the authors have a particular reason for wanting to resubmit at a later date.
Timing of Publication
Once a submission has reached the category "Accepted", it will be entered in the ACM journal production process. It will be appear in the ACM Digital Library once the issue of TODAES in which it appears is complete, regardless of when that issue appears in print.
Email questions, comments or suggestions to todaes@acm.org