The copyediting process is divided into three steps, and involves the Copyeditor and the Author. Additionally, the Copyeditor can edit the article metadata at any time, by clicking on Review Metadata.

Step 1
In the first step, the Copyeditor clicks on the file name to download the submission document and open it. The Copyeditor then directly copyedits the document text, following the agreed upon copyediting standards for the journal. (These can be customized by the Journal Manager in Setup Step 4.5.)

Additionally, the Copyeditor can keep track of any suggested changes and corrections, as well as questions for the Author and/or Section Editor, by clicking on the Copyedit Comments icon. When finished the initial copyedit, the Copyeditor saves the file to the computer and uploads it for the next step, which is the Author copyedit.

Once the copyedited file is uploaded, the Copyeditor clicks the email icon under Complete for Step 1. This leads to an email to the Author and the Editor, informing them that Step 1 is complete. The Copyeditor should note in the email if there are any Author and/or Editor Queries for the Section Editor to consider.

Step 2
The author can now log in and access the article from the Submission Queue (found under User Home). The Author downloads and opens the copyedited version from Step 1 and reviews the copyediting, responding to any Author Queries directly on the file. The Author saves the file and uploads it in Step 2, which makes the file available to the Copyeditor for the final copyedit. The Section Editor will respond to any Editor Queries by email to ensure that Author and Section Editor do not upload versions of the file on top of one another. The Author sends a completed email to the Copyeditor and Section Editor, initiating, in effect, the third step. For further information on the Author's Copyediting process, see Author's Role: Copyediting.

Step 3
The Copyeditor downloads and opens the copyedited file in Step 2 and creates a clean version (with all traces of the copyediting process removed) based on the responses of the Author and Section Editor, which is ready for the Layout Editor to turn into the published version of the submission. The Copyeditor uploads the clean copy in Step 3, which then becomes the Layout Version. The Copyeditor then uses the email icon under Complete to notify the Layout Editor and Section Editor that copyediting for the submission is now complete.