Top tips for JOSS editors

Aim for reviewer redundancy

If you have 3 people agree to review, take them up on their offer(s), that way if one person drops out, you’ll have a backup and won’t have to look for more reviewers. Also, when sending invites, try pinging a number of people at the same time rather than doing it one-by-one.

Email is a good backup

Email is often the most reliable way of contacting people. Whether it’s inviting reviewers, following up with reviewers or authors etc., if you’ve not heard back from someone on GitHub, try emailing them (their email is often available on their GitHub profile page).

Default to over-communicating

When you take an action (even if it isn’t on GitHub), share on the review thready what you’re up to. For example, if you’re looking for reviewers and are sending emails – leave a note on the review thread saying as much.

Use the JOSS Slack

There’s lots of historical knowledge in our Slack, and it’s a great way to get questions answered.

Ask reviewers to complete their review in 4-6 weeks

We aim for a total submission … publication time of ~3 months. This means we ideally want reviewers to complete their review in 4-6 weeks (max).

Use saved replies on GitHub

Saved replies on GitHub can be a huge productivity boost. Try making some using the example messages listed above.

Ping reviewers if they’ve not started after 2 weeks

If a reviewer hasn’t started within 1-2 weeks, you should probably give them a nudge. People often agree to review, and then forget about the review.

Learn how to nudge gently, and often

One of your jobs as the editor is to ensure the review keeps moving at a reasonable pace. If nothing has happened for a week or so, consider nudging the author or reviewers (depending upon who you’re waiting for). A friendly “👋 reviewer, how are you getting along here” can often be sufficient to get things moving again.

Check in twice a week

Try to check in on your JOSS submissions twice per week, even if only for 5 minutes. Use your dashboard to stay on top of the current status of your submissions (i.e., who was the last person to comment on the thread).

Leave feedback on reviewers

Leave feedback on the reviewers application at the end of the review. This helps future editors when they’re seeking out good reviewer candidates.