eLANE© Services are organized by user categories: Authors, Reviewers, Associate Editors, Technical Editor (Chief Editor), ASME Staff, and Journal Staff.
Authors can submit papers, follow the status of the paper, and download reviews when they are released. Release of reviews takes place when a decision is made about the acceptability of the paper. Authors can resubmit a paper that was sent back for major revisions along with their responses. When this happens, reviews from the first cycle are retrieved and available to new or past reviewers, the corresponding author and AEs. The paper is tracked with the same ID. Authors of accepted papers can also upload final manuscripts to eLANE. Click on “Author Instructions” for more information.
Reviewers can download papers for review, submit reviews on-line, print completed reviews, and check paper status. Associate Editors select reviewers for each paper. Usually 3 reviews are required but eLANE places no restrictions on how many reviewers are assigned to a paper and how many are needed to make a recommendation. Reviewers can also include a supplementary document containing figures, equations, etc. Click on “Reviewer Instructions” for more information.
Associate Editors are distinguished experts in fields covered by this journal. Papers are forwarded to them by the Technical Editor. Associate Editors select expert reviewers for each paper. Usually 3 reviews are required. AE's assign reviewers and make recommendations about acceptance. AE's can use eLANE to download papers, assign reviewers, view reviews, and make recommendations on acceptance. AE's can also add new reviewers to the database. eLANE maintains a reviewer database organized by technical areas. It also supports a Search capability to find reviewers by first or last name, or by technical areas. AE's can look at reviewer work loads and get statistics related to their own performance and the Journal's overall performance. Click on “Associate Editor Instructions” for more information. A list of current Associate Editors can be found at the journal’s website:
http://asudesign.eas.asu.edu/links/journal/index.html
Technical Editor is the chief editor of the journal. When an author submits a paper to eLANE, an email is automatically sent to the TE. The TE sees new papers listed in his/her in basket. All papers are first viewed by the Technical Editor. If within the scope of the journal, the Technical Editor can assign the paper to one of the Associate Editor's in the technical areas relevant to the paper. This generates an email to the AE and the paper shows up in the AE's stack in eLANE. If not within scope, or for any other reason, the TE can push a button to decline the paper without review. The author will get an email from eLANE to this effect. When the reviews are complete the Associate Editor makes a recommendation to the Technical Editor about acceptance. This generates an email to the TE and the author, while the paper shows up in the TE's stack under "Papers awaiting decision". The final decision is made by the Editor. The TE can also review final manuscripts, generate Form 1258, or ask author to resubmit. The TE can get a wide range of statistics on authors, reviewers, and associate editors. The TE also has access to logs of all users and all activities thereof.
ASME Production Staff can view/download final manuscript materials and Form 1258, contact authors if necessary, and set publication date etc. of published paper.
ASME Journal Staff can view all papers in process and manuscript queries. They can also do all the search and queries that are available to TE.