Templates and Tools for Editors

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Templates and editorial tools help editors communicate consistently, document decisions, manage peer review, handle ethics questions, and support transparent journal operations. Templates should improve quality and consistency, not replace editorial judgment.

This page identifies useful publisher-level templates and tools for CorayNova editors. Individual journals may adapt templates to their discipline, article types, peer review model, workflow, and editorial structure, provided that adaptations remain consistent with CorayNova policies.

· How Editors Should Use Templates

- Adapt templates to the specific manuscript, journal, article type, and decision context.

- Remove irrelevant placeholders before sending communications.

- Use respectful, clear, and specific language.

- Do not promise review outcomes, acceptance, indexing, impact metrics, publication dates, or policy exceptions.

- Keep records of important editorial communications and decisions in the appropriate platform or internal record.

- Escalate complex ethics, complaint, appeal, correction, retraction, or legal issues instead of relying on a standard template alone.

· Recommended Template and Tool Set

Template or Tool
Purpose
Key Content

Reviewer invitation
Invite qualified reviewers and explain expectations.
Manuscript subject, article type, confidentiality, competing interests, expected timeframe where applicable, review route, and decline option.

Reviewer reminder
Follow up on accepted review invitations respectfully.
Submission identifier, due date where applicable, reminder tone, option to request extension or decline.

Reviewer report guidance
Help reviewers produce constructive and useful reports.
Summary assessment, major comments, minor comments, ethics/data concerns, confidential comments to editor, recommendation distinction.

Initial assessment checklist
Support consistent technical and editorial screening.
Scope fit, article type, file completeness, ethics, data statement, permissions, metadata, language readability, overlap checks.

Decision letter templates
Provide consistent author communication for accept, revision, reject, or closure decisions.
Decision, main reasons, required revisions, reviewer comments, response instructions, next steps, no guarantee after revision.

Revision request and response guide
Help authors respond clearly to editor and reviewer comments.
Point-by-point response, revised files, tracked changes where required, missing statements, revised metadata.

Competing interest declaration
Support disclosure and recusal by editors, reviewers, and guest editors.
Financial, non-financial, institutional, personal, academic, competitive, and role-based conflicts.

Special issue proposal form
Assess scholarly value and operational feasibility before approval.
Topic, rationale, scope, guest editors, peer review plan, timeline, conflicts, article types, ethics risks, communication plan.

Ethics escalation record
Document concerns and decisions in difficult cases.
Issue summary, evidence reviewed, dates, people involved, policy route, communications, decision, follow-up action.

Editorial board onboarding checklist
Help new board members understand their role.
Scope, policies, confidentiality, conflicts, peer review expectations, conduct, platform access, escalation routes.

Special issue proposal request route
Support potential journal or special issue proposals.
Proposal template available on request; final assessment requires journal and publisher review.

· Public and Internal Template Access

At the publisher level, CorayNova encourages author-facing and reviewer-facing templates or guidance to be made publicly available where this helps transparency and usability. The exact availability of templates may vary by journal.

Internal editor templates, including full decision letter templates, reviewer invitation templates, reviewer reminder templates, internal ethics escalation records, and internal editorial workflow tools, are for internal editorial use and are not published in full on the website.

Special issue proposal materials are available by request. Prospective societies, editors-in-chief, guest editors, or proposing teams may contact CorayNova to request the proposal template.

· Template Quality Checks

Before a template is used publicly or sent to an author, reviewer, guest editor, or board member, editors should check that the template is accurate, current, respectful, policy-consistent, and free of placeholders.

Templates should be reviewed when CorayNova policies change, journal workflows change, article types are added, peer review models are revised, contact routes change, or recurring communication problems are identified.

· Template Ownership, Versioning, and Journal Adaptation

CorayNova Editorial Office is responsible for maintaining publisher-level editorial templates and tools. Template questions may be directed to editorial@coraynova.com.

Publisher-level templates should carry version information and a last updated or last reviewed date where appropriate. Templates should be reviewed when policies, workflows, contact routes, article types, peer review models, or platform processes change.

Individual journals may adapt templates to their discipline, article types, editorial structure, or workflow, provided that the adapted template remains consistent with CorayNova publisher-level policies and is agreed by the CorayNova Editorial Office.

· Platform and Record-Keeping Tools

Where the CorayNova Journals Platform supports discussion, workflow notes, submission history, file versions, review assignments, and decision records, editors should use those functions consistently. Important editorial actions should not rely only on private email or informal messages when the platform provides a proper workflow record.

Technical questions about platform use should be directed to support@coraynova.com. Questions about editorial wording, policy alignment, ethics escalation, or journal workflow should be directed to editorial@coraynova.com.

Template or Tool	Purpose	Key Content
Reviewer invitation	Invite qualified reviewers and explain expectations.	Manuscript subject, article type, confidentiality, competing interests, expected timeframe where applicable, review route, and decline option.
Reviewer reminder	Follow up on accepted review invitations respectfully.	Submission identifier, due date where applicable, reminder tone, option to request extension or decline.
Reviewer report guidance	Help reviewers produce constructive and useful reports.	Summary assessment, major comments, minor comments, ethics/data concerns, confidential comments to editor, recommendation distinction.
Initial assessment checklist	Support consistent technical and editorial screening.	Scope fit, article type, file completeness, ethics, data statement, permissions, metadata, language readability, overlap checks.
Decision letter templates	Provide consistent author communication for accept, revision, reject, or closure decisions.	Decision, main reasons, required revisions, reviewer comments, response instructions, next steps, no guarantee after revision.
Revision request and response guide	Help authors respond clearly to editor and reviewer comments.	Point-by-point response, revised files, tracked changes where required, missing statements, revised metadata.
Competing interest declaration	Support disclosure and recusal by editors, reviewers, and guest editors.	Financial, non-financial, institutional, personal, academic, competitive, and role-based conflicts.
Special issue proposal form	Assess scholarly value and operational feasibility before approval.	Topic, rationale, scope, guest editors, peer review plan, timeline, conflicts, article types, ethics risks, communication plan.
Ethics escalation record	Document concerns and decisions in difficult cases.	Issue summary, evidence reviewed, dates, people involved, policy route, communications, decision, follow-up action.
Editorial board onboarding checklist	Help new board members understand their role.	Scope, policies, confidentiality, conflicts, peer review expectations, conduct, platform access, escalation routes.
Special issue proposal request route	Support potential journal or special issue proposals.	Proposal template available on request; final assessment requires journal and publisher review.