Welcome and thank you for your support of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and the Open Access movement. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases is devoted to the pathology, epidemiology, treatment, control, and prevention of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), as well as public policy relevant to this group of diseases. The NTDs are defined as a group of poverty-promoting chronic infectious diseases, which primarily occur in rural areas and poor urban areas of low-income and middle-income countries. They are poverty-promoting because of their impact on child health and development, pregnancy, and worker productivity, as well as their stigmatizing features. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases focuses on a group of about twenty to thirty NTDs in order to: Provide an Open Access forum for the NTDs community to publish high quality, peer-reviewed research articles as well as timely reviews, opinions, and policy papers. Highlight the importance of the NTDs to the global community. Promote the activities and careers of young investigators entering the field of NTDs, especially investigators from developing and resource-poor countries. Build research and training capacity in developing countries by giving Southern scientists, health care providers, and public health officials free access to the most up-to-date information about the NTDs and by facilitating publication of their work. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases is one of a suite of influential journals published by PLOS. Information about the other journals, the PLOS business model, PLOS innovations in scientific publishing, and Open Access copyright and licensure can be found in Appendix IX. Table of Contents PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editorial Board Membership ........................................................................ 2 Manuscript Evaluation ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Invitations................................................................................................................................................. 3 Independent Evaluation ............................................................................................................................ 4 External Peer Review ................................................................................................................................ 5 Decisions .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Revisions ................................................................................................................................................ 10 Appeals on Decisions .............................................................................................................................. 11 Editorial Support ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Appendices ..................................................................................................................................................... 13 1 PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Associate Editor Handbook First Edition Version 1.6 PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSHIP To ensure the fairest and most objective decision-making, the editorial process at PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases is run as a partnership between the Editor-in-Chiefs, the board of Deputy Editors, and a team of academic experts who act as Associate Editors. These individuals are leaders in their fields and represent the full breadth of research on NTDs. Going Away and/or Unavailable In addition, PLOS NTDs regularly invites Guest Editors to act as In advance of an absence, Associate Editors Associate Editors on specific manuscripts. Members of our editorial should email the PLOS NTDs Team with the board have a regular responsibility to edit papers, while guests are following information: asked to manage the review of papers which suit their particular field Unavailability dates; of expertise, and play an important role in maintaining the structure Confirmation of ability to continue and vibrancy of our broad journal. handling existing assignments A full organizational chart can be found in Appendix VI. Getting Started Return the information requested in your Welcome Letter to [email protected]. Log into the journal’s Editorial Manager manuscript submission system. Create a personal profile, including all contact details, classifications of scientific disciplines and keywords. Review all information in this Handbook and the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editorial Board Knowledge Base. Contact the PLOS NTDs Team with any questions. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Editorial Board Membership 2 PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Associate Editor Handbook First Edition Version 1.6 MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION Associate Editors rarely provide peer review reports themselves but operate at a higher level by evaluating submitted papers, securing peer reviewers, and then rendering an initial decision about the paper after peer review. This section provides a high-level overview of the steps of this process. Appendix II describes how to complete specific tasks during this process in Editorial Manager, the journal’s manuscript management system. •Associate Editors should aim to respond to the initial invitation to handle a manuscript within 24 hours. Invitation •Within three days of accepting the invitation, the Associate Editor makes an initial decision as to whether the manuscript is suitable for review. Independent •The Associate Editor is not required to send the paper out for review. If a paper is worthy for review, Associate Editors Evaluation are expected to invite reviewers upon accepting an assignment, or no later than three days after. •Associate Editors are expected to manage the peer review process, soliciting and monitoring reviews. External Peer •All reviews should be received within two to four weeks. Review •Associate Editors aim to submit their decision and accompanying decision letter for approval by the Deputy Editor within three days from receipt of the last review. Decision INVITATIONS Each manuscript is assigned by the PLOS NTDs Team to a Deputy Editor, who then invites an Associate Editor based on their area of expertise. When to Accept or Decline Associate Editors may receive invitations to Front Matter Articles, Accept the invitation if: The submission is in your field. such as Reviews, as well as Research Articles. The article type will be You have time. specified within the invitation email. Further information about each You have no competing interests. of these article types can be found in Appendix IV. Decline the invitation if: The submission is not in your field. When responding to invitations to handle manuscripts Associate You are not available (e.g. holiday, Editors should: sabbatical, already handling several manuscripts). Aim to respond within 24 hours of receipt. You have a competing interest. Use the links within the email to accept or decline (see Appendix II). 3 PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Associate Editor Handbook First Edition Version 1.6 If declining, provide the reason from the drop down menu, along with alternative suggestions for Associate or Guest Associate Editors with the appropriate expertise to handle the manuscript in the Comments box. Please note that up to 3 Associate Editors can be invited simultaneously for each manuscript. If a Deputy Editor has found more than 3 editors that can handle a manuscript, invitations will go out to the first 3 editors at once and the remaining invitations will reside in the queue and be sent several hours later on the same day. After 2 days, if the manuscript has not been accepted by an Associate Editor, a reminder email will be sent to all invited editors that have not yet responded. A similar reminder will be issued again after 4 days. No reminder emails will be sent after 6 days and the invitations do not expire. However, if one Associate Editor agrees to handle the manuscript, the remaining invitations will automatically terminate and the pending invitees will be notified that another Associate Editor has agreed to handle the manuscript. INDEPENDENT EVALUATION Editorial Board members are responsible for the content of the journal and must fully evaluate each submission throughout the period of their editorial oversight. After agreeing to handle a new submission, the Associate Editor should conduct an independent assessment to evaluate whether or not the manuscript fits within the journal scope, and is therefore suitable for peer review. Associate Editors should make this initial decision within three days of Editorial Ethics: Evaluating Manuscripts accepting the invitation. Evaluate all manuscripts fairly, At this stage, the Associate Editor can: objectively, and in a timely manner. Editorial decisions are completely 1. Reject the manuscript without review. independent of financial 2. Invite reviewers. considerations regarding an author’s ability to pay publication fees. 3. Open a discussion session with other members of the PLOS If an Associate Editor realizes they Neglected Tropical Diseases Editorial Board and/or PLOS NTDs have a COI during evaluation of a staff. submission, they should notify the PLOS NTDs Team and recuse themselves. 4 PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Associate Editor Handbook First Edition Version 1.6 To be