Initiate proposal

Initiate Proposal 

Cochrane Support and Central Editorial Service Only

If a previous submission for the review exists on the Central Editorial Service site, you do not need to Initiate Proposal to create an invitation from scratch. See Solicit commentary.

1. Initiate a proposal

• On your editorial menu, select the Proposal Menu tab > New Proposals > Initiate Proposal

• Select Article Type (protocol, review). Select Cochrane Review for both reviews and updates 
• Proceed with No Schedule Group

• Pre-select Article Type of the submission you are inviting (e.g. Review: Intervention).
  • It is essential to pre-select an article type. This allows us to report on the submissions we are expecting.
• In the title field, copy and paste the title from RevMan.
• Author Response Due: enter 0 (zero) - we do not use this option.
• Author Submission due: add the number of days before the invited submission is due. You can estimate if needed as you can adjust this on the letter screen later in the process. 
  • Default values:
    • Protocol = 120 days
    • Reviews and Updates = 365 days
• Target Publication Date: set to one day after the submission due date. 
  • Setting this date allows us to filter the Proposal Menu by due date.
• Proceed and Build PDF

• On the New Submission screen, confirm Article Type shows correctly.
• Select Section/Category
  • If the submission is in the topic area of an active Cochrane group, select the group name.
  • If authors are working independently, select "Central Editorial Service". 
  • You do not need to attach files > Next > Build PDF for my Approval.

• Go to Proposals Needing Approval.
• When the PDF is ready View Proposal from the Actions menu.
• This will download a copy of the PDF for you to review - if you wish you can open the PDF to confirm the title shows correctly.
• Approve Proposal > OK

2. Assign Editor and add RevMan ID

• Click to Return to Manage Proposals Menu.

• Go to New Proposals Requiring Assignment.

• In the Action menu Assign Editor.

• Assign to yourself or another editor.

• Send Default Letter (this does not send an email).

• Click to Return to Manage Proposals Menu.

• Go to View all Assigned Proposals or, if you have assigned this to yourself, New Assignments - Proposals.

• Details > copy and paste the RevMan ID into the correct field. 
  • You can locate the RevMan ID on the Advanced tab of the properties in Archie, or in the RevMan dashboard URL. 
  • It is essential to add the RevMan ID. This allows us to record in RevMan that the submission is invited.
• Save and Close

3. Assign authors

• From the Actions menu Invite Authors
• Search for Authors > Go 
• Locate the Corresponding Author, searching by Last Name or another filter of your choice.

• Select author as Asn. (Assign) > Proceed

• On the Confirm Selection and Customize Letters screen, select the correct letter for the article type that you are inviting: 
  • Author Assignment for Protocol
  • Author Assignment for Review
  • Author Assignment for Update
• Copy and paste the title into the Full Title field. This ensures that the title will be pulled into the template email.
• Check that the Author Submission Due date is correct.
• Click to Customize the letter and make any edits needed.  

• In the body of the email, any text showing as %TEXT% is an automatic merge field. This will convert to text when the message is sent. Click Preview Letter at the top of the screen to see the full text.
• CC. all co-authors into the email (you can use the Email all authors option in Archie/RevMan to copythe addresses as a string).
• If the review is managed by an active group, copy the Managing Editor/group lead into the email
• Save

• Confirm the title and submission due date show correctly
• Tick to Lock title(s) for Author
• Submit to send the email to the Corresponding Author (cc. the rest of the author team and group lead)
• Return to Main Menu to initiate another proposal