What Happens to My Paper? - The British Psychological Society
What Happens to My Paper?
This guide is designed to help you understand the process that your manuscript will
go though from the point that you submit it to one of the British Psychological
Society’s journals up until the point when it is (hopefully) published.
The overall process can be divided into two stages:

The Editorial Process

The Production Process
Each of these processes is described in more detail below.
The Editorial Process
1. Submitting your paper
Before submitting your manuscript, please view the Author Guidelines for the
journal you have chosen on Wiley Online Library. Submit the manuscript by
selecting the ‘submit a paper’ link from this page. This will take you through
to the journal’s electronic editorial office.
2. Who decides what to publish?
Most papers submitted to our journals are peer reviewed. However, some are
rejected without going through the peer review process if the Editor decides
that they are not suitable for the journal.
The final decision on what to publish rests with the Editor of the journal. The
journal editors are experts in their field and make unbiased, independent
decisions. In maintaining high levels of quality through the peer review
process, we are able to assure our readers that only the most relevant leading
research is published in our reputable journals.
The acceptance criteria for the Society’s journals are rigorous and about 80%
of manuscripts are rejected.
3. What happens after my paper is submitted?
When you submit a paper it is given an initial check by the Managing Editor
to ensure that it conforms to the submission criteria, before being forwarded to
the Editor who decides whether it is suitable for sending out for peer review.
If a paper is selected for peer review, the Editor will either send the paper to
suitable reviewers or assign an Associate Editor to act on their behalf.
The Action Editor (i.e. the Editor or Associate Editor who is handling your
paper) will usually invite two or three reviewers to comment on the article and
make a recommendation about its suitability for publication. Each reviewer is
normally allowed 28 days to submit his or her report, but may occasionally be
allowed longer.
When the reviewers’ comments have been received, the Action Editor will
make a decision, taking into account their recommendations, and you will be
notified of the decision by e-mail.
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The decision may invoke another round of peer review at a later stage if you
are invited to revise and resubmit your article (see decision notification
e-mails and what they mean, below). It is usual for a paper to go through at
least two author revisions before acceptance.
4. Reviewers
On most of the Society’s journals, reviewers are selected on an ad hoc basis
and may have no connection with either the journal or the Society. This
ensures that we receive as wide a mix of views on the manuscript as possible.
Several of our journals also employ a panel of reviewers who have agreed to
review a pre-specified number of manuscripts per year. The Action Editor may
choose any combination of ad hoc and panel reviewers in this case.
Reviewers are chosen based on their knowledge in the related field of
research, their independence from the author of the paper (and any related
institutions), their ability to evaluate the paper fully and fairly, and their
availability to assess the paper within the allotted timeframe. Although
reviewers’ recommendations are highly valued in the peer review process, the
final decision on a manuscript always rests with the Action Editor.
If you are a suitably qualified psychologist and would like to be considered as
a possible referee for papers submitted to the Society’s journals, we would be
pleased to hear from you - please complete the online Journals Reviewer Form
at https://www.bps.org.uk/content/become-reviewer.
5. Paper status indicators and what they mean
Authors can see a general indication of the status of their submitted
manuscript at any time on the online peer review system. The main statuses
indicated are:

New submission: The paper has been submitted successfully by the
author and is waiting to be checked by the Managing Editor before
being forwarded to the Editor.

Awaiting allocation: The paper has been assigned to the Editor but
has not yet been sent to reviewers (however, the Editor may have
assigned the manuscript to an Associate Editor – there is no separate
system status to indicate this). The Action Editor may decide to make a
decision without allocating reviewers.

Under review: The paper is with reviewers for comment or waiting
for the Action Editor’s decision. If the initial reviews are conflicting,
the Action Editor may occasionally decide to approach an additional
reviewer.

Decision made – notification imminent: The Action Editor has
written an e-mail addressed to the corresponding author and the author
will be notified of the decision as soon as the Managing Editor has
proofread that e-mail or the Editor has checked it.
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6. Decision notification e-mails and what they mean
There are several decisions that authors may receive after submitting their
paper to one of the Society’s journals:

Reject without review: The Action Editor has rejected the paper
without sending it for peer review.

Reject: The paper has been through the peer review process and the
Action Editor has decided that it is not suitable for publication.

Revise and resubmit: The paper has been through the peer review
process and the Action Editor has decided that it may be suitable for
publication after substantial changes are made. The Action Editor and
reviewers will usually suggest improvements that will make the paper
suitable for publication.

Accept with minor amendments: The paper has been through the
peer review process and the Action Editor has decided that it would be
suitable for publication after some relatively minor changes.

Accept: The Action Editor has decided that the paper is suitable for
publication in its current form.
7. Speed
Journal editors try to reach decisions on papers and notify authors as quickly
as possible. Reviewers are normally given 28 days to submit their reports.
Unfortunately, in rare instances reviewers do not respond promptly and we ask
authors to remain patient in such cases.
The Society’s policy is that authors should be notified of the decision within
90 days of submission and most manuscripts are processed more quickly than
this.
8. Appeals
If you feel that your manuscript has been unfairly rejected because an
important aspect was misunderstood or overlooked by the reviewers, you may
appeal to the Action Editor who may then decide to reconsider his or her
decision.
In cases of dispute, the appeal may be referred to the Editor of the Journal. If a
satisfactory resolution is still not achieved, the Editor may refer the appeal to
the BPS Editorial Advisory Group, where the Chair will act as arbitrator. This
decision is final.
9. Summary
A flowchart summarising the editorial process can be found at the end of this
document on page 7.
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What Happens to My Paper? - The British Psychological Society
The Production Process
1. Paper acceptance
Once your paper has been accepted you will be notified by e-mail. Your paper
will then be sent to the typesetters for copyediting and layout.
The British Psychological Society’s Media Centre are notified about all
accepted papers and they decide whether they will be press released. You may
also seek media coverage yourself but we request that you advise the Media
Centre (e-mail: [email protected]; tel: +44 (0)116 252 9500) prior to
any activity on your part.
2. Author services
When your paper has been accepted you will be sent an email giving you
access to ‘Author Services’, an online portal which will enable you to track
your paper and access additional services. Below are the key events which you
can track using Author Services.

Accepted article received in production: The manuscript has been
received by the typesetter for production to begin.

Proofs sent: Typesetting of the proof has been completed, and an email alert with a link to the online proof has been sent to the
corresponding author. Corrections should be returned as soon as
possible.

Corrections received: Author corrections have now been received.
There will be a delay before your article appears online while the
typesetter makes the corrections.

EarlyView: The corrected article is now published online, ahead of
inclusion in a print issue. You may view your article online at this
stage. Please note that this is the final, published version of your
article; no further changes can be made to it. You can download a PDF
Offprint from Author Services.

Issue published online: The issue containing the article is now
published online. The print publication of the article in an issue may
precede or follow this stage.
You can view the home page for Book and Journal Author Services at
http://authorservices.wiley.com/. As well as the tracking service mentioned
above, Author Services offers author discounts on Wiley books and useful
information about topics such as copyright, ethics, English-language editing,
electronic artwork guidelines, how to optimize an article for search engines
and archiving rights.
3. Copyright
To protect authors and journals against unauthorised reproduction of articles,
the British Psychological Society requires copyright to be assigned to itself, on
the express condition that authors may use their own material at any time
without permission. The corresponding author will receive an email prompting
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them to login into Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing
Service (WALS) they will be able to complete the license agreement on behalf
of all authors on the paper. Further information about copyright can be found
at http://exchanges.wiley.com/authors/licensing-info--faqs_333.html
Authors of articles published in Wiley journals are permitted to self-archive
the submitted (preprint) version of the article immediately on acceptance, and
may self-archive the accepted (peer-reviewed) version after an embargo
period. For the BPS journals, the embargo period is 12 months.
For more information, please see http://exchanges.wiley.com/authors/wileyself-archiving-policy_361.html
4. Open Access
OnlineOpen is available to authors of primary research articles who wish to
make their article available to non-subscribers on publication, or whose
funding agency requires grantees to archive the final version of their article.
With OnlineOpen, the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's
institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made available to nonsubscribers upon publication via Wiley Online Library, as well as deposited in
the funding agency's preferred archive. For more information, please see
http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-828081.html
5. Author proofs
An email providing a link to the PDF of your typeset paper will be sent to you
approximately 2-3 weeks after acceptance. This gives you the opportunity to
approve the typesetting and mark any corrections on the online proof (but not
introduce substantial amounts of new material). We ask authors to check their
proof within five days. Instructions for annotating the proof electronically will
be provided on the website.
6. Article appears online
Once corrections have been made, your article will be published on the
‘EarlyView’ page of the Journal’s website on Wiley Online Library. This is
the final version and will be available for subscribers to download, allowing
your research to be searchable and citable before the hard copy journal is
published. Once uploaded, it will then wait in the production queue for
allocation to an issue. Depending on the publication lags for each journal, this
may take up to 12 months.
7. Issue collation
Articles are selected for a print issue and the typesetters send a final set of
proofs for checking by the Production Editor. Once approved, the issue will
proceed to press and print copies will be mailed out to subscribers. Your
online article will automatically move from the ‘EarlyView’ page to the
relevant online issue.
8. Summary
A flowchart summarising the production process can be found at the end of
this document on page 7.
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What Happens to My Paper? - The British Psychological Society
Editorial Flowchart
Author submits
manuscript
Editor reads
and assesses
manuscript
Editor chooses to manage peerreview process themselves
Manuscript sent to
Associate Editor
Manuscript sent
for peer-review
Reject
without
review
Reject
without
review
External referees read
manuscript and submit
recommendations
Action Editor reads
recommendations
and makes decision
Revise and
resubmit
Accept
Accept with
minor changes
Author revises and
resubmits manuscript
Editor reads and
assesses revised
manuscript
Reject
Reject
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Production
What Happens to My Paper? - The British Psychological Society
Production Flowchart
Acceptance
2 weeks
Link to proofs sent to author
5 days
Author submits corrections
1 week
Typesetters make corrections
1-2 weeks
Article appears online
6-12 months
Production Editor selects papers for print
issue and receives final revised proofs for
checking
2 weeks
Issue is approved for press and
printed according to schedule
2 weeks
Journals delivered to distributors
2 days
Journals mailed to all
subscribers
1 week
Author receives a link to PDF offprint
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Author receives a link
to the PDF offprint