Understanding the review process
Associate Editors
#EditorObservations 13 Associate editors (YouTube, 1m 21s)
At Annals of Tourism Research, associate editors have the most responsibility because they are experts in either the subject area investigated, or the method used in a newly submitted article. When a manuscript is assigned to them, they can – and they frequently do – desk-reject this paper. Such a decision does not contradict the editor-in-chief’s decisions not to desk-reject, but rather reflects that associate editors have more specific expertise.
Associate editors handle the entire review process. This is very labour intensive because it involves moderating the comments provided by reviewers and the responses provided by and changes made by the authors. This process typically takes many months. At Annals of Tourism Research, we asked associate editors to focus on the verbal assessment of reviewers rather than on their publication recommendation (“accept”, “minor revision”, “major revision”, “reject”). The reason for this request is that reviewers perceive these recommendation terms differently. For example, a very strict reviewer may recommend rejection, but the verbal comments indicate that, if the authors are motivated, they could improve the paper in the way required. At the other end of the spectrum, some reviewers may be very generous with the publication recommendation, but list conditions for publication in the verbal comments which are impossible to implement. The role of associate editors is to determine – given the detailed verbal assessments of experts – if authors can be given an opportunity to revise the paper or if the likelihood of the manuscript improving to publishable level is low and the best outcome for everyone, therefore, is to reject the paper without further delays.
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At Annals of Tourism Research, we benefit greatly from the diversity of our Associate Editors – diversity in expertise, disciplinary background, geographic location and gender.
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Scott McCabe and I are proud of the 50:50 gender representation among our Annals of Tourism Research Associate Editors, but know that there’s still plenty of room for improvement in other areas.
We always consider diversity when we make new appointments because we know that diversity strengthens the Annals of Tourism Research team, but doesn’t just happen automatically.
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Scott McCabe & I process every article.
Associate Editors (AEs) handle the review process.
Today an AE gave an author 2048 words of recommendations for improvement.
Thank you, Annals of Tourism Research AEs, for shaping tourism research!
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Scott McCabe and I are fortunate to have brilliant Associate Editors at Annals of Tourism Research and Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights.
Even with a desk rejection they try to provide comments to help authors improve their paper for submission to another journal.
This is how publishing should work.
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Today one of our Associate Editors had to reject a paper.
Authors received 3 high-quality reviews = 1302 words of detailed constructive feedback.
Scott McCabe and I are incredibly grateful to our AEs for their hard work🙏
Not easy to secure 3 quality reviews!
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Like all of us Annals of Tourism Research Associate Editors are time-poor.
Yet they take time to explain desk rejections.
Today I saw a very detailed justification w tangible guidance.
Super-grateful to our AEs for helping authors irrespective of where paper gets published 🙏
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The Annals of Tourism Research team is hugely appreciative to authors who take the time to provide positive feedback. Here’s a recent example that illustrates the effort and care our Associate Editors dedicate to handling manuscripts. The author has kindly allowed me to share their comments.
Email To The Editors In Chief
“I’m sure you know this, but Ksenia is an exceptional AE. Navigating a “reject” communication in the way she did, with genuine care surrounding a core message full of constructive/helpful guidance for us (the authors) to use as we move forward, was extraordinary”
Email To The Associate Editor
“I would like to share my heartfelt gratitude for your email which exuded care and generativity. As someone who has been a researcher/scholar/educator/practitioner for decades, I can tell you that in my experience, reading an AE’s response letter (especially when it is to share the news of a rejection), rarely has elements of warmth and care at the level you have shared with us. Thank you for that gift.”
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Scott McCabe and I are having a wonderful “journal editor week”. We received a few more lovely emails from authors, and the kind note below from one of our Associate Editors.
We have always wanted the manuscript review process to be a win for all involved. Most days we fail to achieve this aim, but some days there are glimmers of hope 
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There is no doubt that the work load and work pressure for all of us has been increasing steadily over the past few years.
Despite this, many of our Annals of Tourism Research associate editors volunteer to serve as Curators of Curated Article Collections. Scott McCabe and I are hugely grateful to them for putting in all the extra work required to create these wonderful collections of knowledge.
Curated Collections offer a comprehensive overview of a research topic and outline where future work in this areas is urgently needed.
You can browse our 14 Curated Collections.
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Feeling privileged to work with such amazing Annals of Tourism Research Associate Editors, authors and readers.
Reader raised methodological concern about a published paper on 13.10.
By 19.10. the Associate Editor has obtained and assessed a detailed response by the authors.
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At Annals of Tourism Research, we invite scholars to become Associate Editors after having worked with them for a while as reviewers and authors. This gives us a good understanding of their expertise, their value system and their commitment to the role.
We cannot accept offers from scholars we are not familiar with – via unsolicited emails or otherwise. Even if they take the time to look up our names online before contacting us. 
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No doubt there are plenty of conspiracy theories about how editors-in-chief get appointed. Here’s how it works at Annals of Tourism Research:
The current editors-in-chief provide recommendations from among the Associate Editors. Given the amazing Associate Editors we have at Annals, there is no shortage of worthy candidates – we are very fortunate indeed ☺️
The publisher takes it from there: they look at their contributions to tourism knowledge; assess the history of their editorial decisions as Associate Editors and talk with potential candidates to assess fit in terms of their value system and vision for the future of the journal, considering diversity also as the list of candidates narrows. Pretty straight-forward, really.
