How to Submit a Manuscript in Editorial Manager

Editorial Manager is the manuscript submission and peer-review platform built by Aries Systems Corporation, an Elsevier company since 2018. It is used across Elsevier’s own journal portfolio, by Cell Press, and by many other publishers who license it independently of any Elsevier relationship. This guide walks through the mechanics of getting a manuscript into an Editorial-Manager-based journal from the author’s side — creating an account, working through the submission wizard, designating co-authors, uploading files, and tracking the manuscript afterward. For what Editorial Manager is and how it compares to ScholarOne Manuscripts and OJS on ownership, cost, and CRediT/JATS handling, see Editorial Manager vs ScholarOne vs OJS: Manuscript Submission Systems Compared. For the platform-agnostic version of this process — what to have ready before you start, cover-letter conventions, and what happens editorially after you submit — see Manuscript Submission Process: A Step-by-Step Guide. If the journal you’re submitting to is an Elsevier title specifically, Elsevier Peer Review: Models, Editorial Manager, and Reviewer Recognition covers Elsevier’s review models and reviewer-recognition programs.

Because Editorial Manager is licensed and configured separately by every journal that uses it, field names, the exact order of steps, and which fields are required versus optional vary by title — a journal’s editorial office can turn optional fields on or off, add custom questions, and relabel steps in its own instance. The sequence below is the structure that holds across the large majority of Editorial-Manager-based journals; treat the specific field labels a given journal shows you as authoritative over anything here if the two disagree.

1. Before you start: what to have ready

Editorial Manager’s submission wizard does not reliably preserve a half-finished entry if your session times out, and re-entering data is a common source of frustration. Gather the following before opening the portal:

• The manuscript file(s), formatted to the journal’s specifications — see Scientific Figure Rules for Journal Submission for figure-specific technical requirements (resolution, format, colour mode).
• The full author list, including each co-author’s affiliation and ORCID iD — Editorial Manager supports signing in via ORCID and, on many journals, requires or strongly encourages every listed author to have a linked ORCID iD.
• A designated corresponding author — confirm who this is before you start, since Editorial Manager treats the corresponding author as a distinct role from the submitting author, and they are not automatically the same person.
• Disclosures: funding sources, conflicts of interest (see Conflict of Interest Disclosure), a data availability statement if the journal requires one, and any AI-assistance disclosure the journal’s policy calls for.
• A cover letter, prepared according to that specific journal’s guidance — some journals want it as a separate uploaded file, others provide a dedicated text field in the wizard itself.
• Suggested and/or opposed reviewers, if the journal’s form asks for them, with institutional (not personal) email addresses.

2. Creating or accessing an Editorial Manager account

Each journal runs its own separate Editorial Manager instance, reachable from a link on that journal’s own website (there is no single shared ‘Editorial Manager’ login page across journals). On first use for a given journal, an author has two routes into an account:

• Register directly with a username, password, and contact details on that journal’s Editorial Manager site.
• Sign in with ORCID, where the journal has enabled ORCID authentication — this links the ORCID iD to the Editorial Manager account and can pre-populate name and affiliation fields from the ORCID record. See ORCID Sign-In / Authentication for how this OAuth flow works.

Because each journal’s instance is separate, an author who publishes across several Editorial-Manager-based journals typically holds a separate account per journal rather than one account that works everywhere, unless the journals share a common ORCID-linked identity that the publisher has configured to carry across titles. After signing in, an author with an existing publication history at that journal lands on the Author Main Menu, the hub for starting a new submission and viewing the status of any submission already in progress.

3. Starting a new submission

From the Author Main Menu, selecting ‘Submit New Manuscript’ (label varies by journal) launches a multi-step wizard. The steps are typically presented one screen at a time, with a progress indicator, and most Editorial Manager instances let you save and return to an incomplete submission from the Author Main Menu rather than requiring you to finish in one sitting:

1. Article type. Selecting the correct article type (original research, review, brief communication, case report, letter, etc.) first matters because it determines which downstream fields, word limits, and figure limits the rest of the wizard applies — get this right before proceeding, since changing it mid-submission can reset other entered fields on some journal configurations.
2. Title, running head, and classification. Enter the manuscript title and any journal-specific classification, section, or subject-category fields used for editor and reviewer assignment.
3. Abstract and keywords. Paste or type the abstract into the provided field (some journals require a structured abstract with defined subheadings) and enter keywords, often against a controlled list the journal maintains.

4. Entering authors and designating roles

The author-information screen is where the full author list is entered, one author at a time, and where roles are assigned:

• Add each co-author with their name, institutional affiliation, and email address. Many journals require or invite each co-author to have a linked ORCID iD entered here, and some send each co-author a separate email requiring them to confirm authorship and any required disclosures directly — don’t assume adding a name is sufficient if the journal’s workflow expects an independent confirmation step from that co-author.
• Set the order of authors as it should appear on the manuscript; Editorial Manager typically lets you drag or reorder entries before finalizing.
• Designate the corresponding author. This is usually a checkbox or radio-button flag on one author’s entry, separate from simply being the person who is logged in and submitting — the submitting author and the corresponding author of record are not necessarily the same person, and Editorial Manager tracks them as distinct roles.
• Contributor roles. An increasing number of Editorial-Manager-based journals collect structured CRediT contributor role selections per author directly in this screen rather than as free text in the manuscript itself — Editorial Manager has offered native, configurable CRediT capture since Editorial Manager 13.0 (2016). Where the journal has this enabled, you’ll select the applicable role(s) for each co-author from the standard CRediT taxonomy list.

5. Uploading files

Editorial Manager uploads files individually against labelled slots the journal defines (e.g. ‘Manuscript,’ ‘Title Page,’ ‘Figure 1,’ ‘Supplementary Material,’ ‘Cover Letter’), rather than accepting one combined document in every case — many journals still require the manuscript body and the title page as separate files to support anonymized review. Order matters: Editorial Manager uses the order you assign to each uploaded item to auto-assemble a single merged PDF for you to review before final submission.

• Upload each file into its correct labelled category; using the wrong slot (e.g. uploading a figure as ‘Supplementary Material’ instead of ‘Figure’) is a common cause of a submission being technically incomplete.
• After all files are uploaded, Editorial Manager builds a proof PDF. Review this proof carefully — conversion or formatting errors introduced at this step (misplaced figures, dropped special characters, reflowed tables) are a frequent, avoidable reason a manuscript gets sent back for technical correction before it ever reaches an editor.
• If the PDF build fails or times out, the most common causes are an oversized file, an unsupported file format for that slot, or a browser session that expired mid-upload — re-attempt with a smaller file or a supported format (check the journal’s specific file-type list) rather than assuming the system is broken.

6. Additional information, disclosures, and reviewers

Most Editorial Manager instances present one or more further screens for:

• Funding information and conflict of interest declarations for each author.
• Ethics approval and consent statements, where the journal’s scope requires them.
• Data availability statements.
• Suggested and/or opposed reviewers, if the journal collects them — the handling editor is not obligated to use author suggestions, and an author cannot suggest a reviewer who has an obvious conflict of interest with any listed author.
• Any required checkbox declarations (e.g. confirming the manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere, that all authors have approved submission).

7. Final review and submission

The last step is normally a summary screen showing the assembled PDF and all entered metadata for a final check. Once you approve it and click submit, the manuscript typically moves into a status such as ‘Submissions Being Processed’ or an equivalent journal-defined initial-screening status — it has not yet reached an editor at this point. Editorial Manager sends a confirmation email to the submitting (and often the corresponding) author once the submission is received.

8. Tracking submission status afterward

The Author Main Menu is also where you track a submission’s progress after clicking submit. Status labels are journal-configurable but commonly include groupings such as:

• Submissions Being Processed — received and undergoing initial editorial/technical screening, not yet assigned to an editor.
• Submissions Sent Back to Author or Incomplete Submissions — returned before reaching an editor, usually for a technical issue (missing file, incomplete disclosure, formatting problem) that needs correcting and resubmitting.
• Submissions Needing Revision — a decision requiring the author to revise and resubmit has been recorded, following peer review.
• Submissions with a Decision — an editorial decision (accept, reject, revise) has been recorded and is available to view, typically alongside reviewer comments where the journal shares them.

Clicking into a submission from any of these lists typically shows a status history log and, once available, the decision letter and any reviewer comments. Because these category labels and their exact wording are set per journal, treat the list above as the common pattern rather than a literal reproduction of what a specific journal’s Editorial Manager instance will show.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a separate Editorial Manager account for every journal?

In most cases, yes — each journal runs its own Editorial Manager instance with its own account database, even though the interface looks the same across journals because they share the same underlying Aries Systems software. Signing in with a linked ORCID iD can streamline re-entering profile details across journals, but it does not by itself merge separate journal accounts into one login.

Can I add a co-author after I’ve already submitted?

Not directly through the author’s own account once a submission is in progress at the journal — author-list changes after submission (adding, removing, or reordering authors) normally have to go through the journal’s editorial office, since authorship changes after submission can raise the kind of concerns covered under authorship criteria and require editor sign-off, not just a re-edit of the form.

Why does Editorial Manager keep failing to build my proof PDF?

The most common causes are an oversized or unsupported file in one of the upload slots, special characters or embedded fonts the conversion step can’t handle, or a browser session that timed out mid-upload. Try a smaller file, a supported format for that specific slot, and a fresh session before contacting the journal’s editorial office.

Does Editorial Manager require ORCID?

It depends on the journal’s configuration. Editorial Manager supports ORCID sign-in and many journals require or strongly encourage a linked ORCID iD for the submitting author and co-authors, but this is a per-journal setting rather than a universal Editorial Manager requirement.

Where can I see whether my manuscript has been assigned to an editor yet?

The Author Main Menu’s submission-status view shows this — a manuscript still listed under an initial-processing status (label varies by journal) has not yet been assigned; once it moves to a status indicating editor or reviewer assignment, that stage has begun. Editorial Manager does not typically expose the handling editor’s name to the author directly; that information, if shared at all, usually comes through the decision letter or direct correspondence from the editorial office.