Did you miss “How to Find Your Journal Production Flow: Case Studies for Small and Medium Publishers,” Scholastica’s free ALPSP Conference session? You can catch the recording on demand here! Read on to learn more

Are you looking for ways to streamline peer review to production handoffs at the scholarly journals you work with?

Ensuring manuscripts flow smoothly from acceptance to production isn’t always easy, especially when moving files between multiple people and systems. However, there are various technical and workflow strategies journal teams can implement to make their processes more streamlined, supporting speedier publication times and a better overall experience for editors and authors.

Scholastica’s free ALPSP session “How to Find Your Journal Production Flow: Case Studies for Small and Medium Publishers,” explored steps journal teams can take to eliminate production process bottlenecks and points of redundancy and leverage automation opportunities to work faster.

Click here to register to watch the recording on demand.

Below is a roundup of highlights from the webinar, which aired on September 18th, 2025.

Webinar overview

Over the years, Scholastica and Technica Editorial have helped hundreds of journals optimize their publishing workflows (including some joint clients) — from improving the quality and consistency of incoming submission files to automating time-consuming typesetting steps to integrating publishing tools and processes with downstream services (think archives, indexes, and external hosting platforms)… and the list goes on.

During the ALPSP webinar, experts from Scholastica and Technica shared case studies of how they’ve helped clients find their “production flow” to speed up their time to publication and reduce coordination costs. Topics covered included how to:

  • Streamline peer review to production handoff processes, from developing a pre-export checklist for sending accepted manuscripts to production to eliminating manual submission formatting steps that can be automated during typesetting
  • Establish rapid feedback channels for copyediting and proofing, including Nikki’s top tips for getting a hold of unresponsive authors
  • Pick the right automation style for your needs, breaking down Algorithmic and Machine Learning approaches with examples

The session was moderated by Scholastica’s Head of Marketing and Community Development, Danielle Padula, and featured the following speakers:

William Horne, Technical Editorial Manager, Scholastica: Will manages Scholastica’s US-based production team and supports the development of its single-source typesetting software, including helping to introduce various new automated article customization options. In his role, Will oversees the typesetting of thousands of articles each year for journals in STEM, the humanities, social sciences, and law. Before joining Scholastica, Will served as EdGE Outreach Coordinator for Omprakash and an English teacher for The Fulbright Program, working in Laos.

Nikki Lazenby, Associate Director of Technica Editorial: Nikki earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was thrilled to stay in the lovely Chapel Hill area as part of the Technica team after graduating in 2011. Now an Associate Director at Technica, Nikki uses her book publishing, peer review management, copyediting and proofreading, and production experience in the publishing community over the past decade to ensure authors and Technica clients are receiving the best editorial support possible.

Get the webinar recording, plus further resources

The “How to Find Your Journal Production Flow: Case Studies for Small and Medium Publishers” webinar is now available to watch on demand. Click here to register to have the Zoom recording sent to your inbox.

All registrants will also receive interactive process reflection and optimization worksheets that they can use to gain further value from the session, including the following:

  • Publishing process audit questions to facilitate meaningful discussion around improving peer review to production handoffs and considering current or potential automation opportunities
  • Production-ready submission checklist with suggested submission form requirements and validations to help journals gather more correct and complete manuscript details upfront
  • Manuscript preparation instructions audit checklist to ensure your instructions for authors are clear and comprehensive while culling formatting steps you can automate during production

We invite you to join the webinar conversation by sharing your thoughts and questions in the blog comments section below and on social media. You can find Scholastica on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Many thanks to ALPSP for the opportunity to host this sponsor session, and thanks to the panelists for taking the time to be part of it!