The system sends your letter to the corresponding author only. The system does not send it to co-authors to avoid confusion and contradiction when there are multiple authors.

The system gives the author the choice to revise the paper according to your requirements or to ‘choose not to revise.’ If the author chooses the revise, s/he needs to upload two documents: the revised paper, and the ‘revision document’ in which the author tells you how the revised document addresses the concerns posed in your development letter.

Formatting for publication. The ‘Accept subject to revision’ letter recommends to the author to save time by formatting the next draft for publication. Waiting until all the revisions are completed to format just delays publication. But not all authors follow this advice and sometimes a revised formatted paper loses its formatting when the author further revises the paper. In any case, the author needs to submit a fully formatted paper before you accept it. A template is available at http://www.informingscience.org/Uploads/JournalFormat.docx.

You accept a paper for publication when the revision meets all these conditions:

  1. The revision contains all the requirements specified in your development letter. All sentences and paragraphs make sense and are free of grammatical and spelling errors.
  2. The paper conforms to the formatting guidelines for the journal. If it doesn’t, use the best practice template: ‘Step 3 Acceptance Letter – BUT camera-ready formatted copy with author bios and photos still needed’ to fill in the wording and recommend ‘accept pending revisions.’
  3. The references are in APA format; while they may not be perfect, they should include all bibliographic information.
  4. The formatted paper contains a brief biography and a photo (head and shoulders) for each author at the end.