Becoming an Associate Editor

Becoming an Associate Editor

To meet the needs of submission volume and staff rotation, the Muma Case Review will appoint Associate Editors (AEs) to manage the progress of cases through the review process. Normally, AEs will be appointed from the ranks of our most successful reviewers. Interested reviewers are encouraged to contact the MCR Editor-in-Chief regarding their willingness and ability to serve as an AE.


Duties of an Associate Editor

The MCR Associate Editors manage the review process for individual case studies. The specific activities required are as follows:

  • When a case comes in, the Editor-in-Chief will normally assign both an Associate Editor and a group of reviewers to the case. The assignment includes expected deadlines for reviews to be returned.
  • When the initial review deadline is reached, the AE will often need to prompt reviewers that have not yet submitted. This can be done within the review system.
  • When an acceptable number of reviews have been returned (usually 2 or 3), the AE examines them and makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief regarding the submission. Normally, the recommendation is in one of three forms:
    1. Accept, subject to minor revision. Specific requests for modifications should be listed. These might include formatting changes.
    2. Accept, subject to major revision and subsequent review. A detailed list of items that need to be addressed should be part of the message sent by the AE through the system, written in a tone that mentors, rather than criticizes, the case and the author. This decision and letter will be sent to the author.
    3. Decline, with a detailed explanation for the decision and suggestions to the author regarding how subsequent submissions could be improved.
  • The Editor-in-Chief then approves the AEs decision, or requests some rewording, and the author is notified. At that point in time:
    • In the case of decision (1), the AE will spot check the minor revisions when they are resubmitted
    • In the case of decision (2), acceptance subject to major revision, the AE will be responsible for looking at the revised case and carefully ensuring that required modifications have been made. This may entail sending it back to reviewers.
    • The AE’s work is done for decision (3).

Workload

Normally, an effort will be made to ensure that AEs have no more than one active case at a time. In the event a large volume of cases is submitted, AEs may be assigned more than one submission to manage in parallel. Under these circumstances, the process of recruiting additional AEs for the MCR will commence.