Manuscript tracking is the process of monitoring a scholarly submission as it moves through the different stages of a journal’s editorial process. It allows authors and editorial teams to identify the current position of a manuscript, review important activity associated with it, and determine whether any action is required.
In a modern journal environment, tracking is more than knowing whether an article has been submitted. A manuscript may move through several stages, involve multiple reviewers, undergo revisions, and remain active for weeks or months. Alkademy Press provides a digital environment where journals can keep these submission records accessible as manuscripts progress through their editorial lifecycle.
Effective manuscript tracking gives each participant an appropriate view of the submission. Authors may need to know whether their manuscript is still being assessed or has progressed to another stage, while editors may need more detailed information about outstanding reviews, revisions, assignments, or decisions.
What Does Manuscript Tracking Do?
Manuscript tracking provides visibility into the current and previous states of a journal submission.
After an author submits a manuscript, the journal needs to know what happens next. The submission may be awaiting an initial assessment, assigned to an editor, undergoing peer review, waiting for a revision, or approaching an editorial decision.
A tracking system records these developments and presents them in a way that users can understand.
For example, an author may see a sequence such as:
Submitted → Editorial Assessment → Under Review → Revision Requested → Revised Manuscript Received
The exact terminology varies between journals, but the principle remains the same. Each status represents a point in the manuscript’s journey.
For editorial staff, tracking can provide a broader operational view. Instead of opening individual email conversations or searching through spreadsheets, they can identify manuscripts that are waiting for action and review their associated activity.
Key Features of Manuscript Tracking
A useful tracking system should provide more than a single status field. Several capabilities contribute to meaningful visibility.
Submission Status
The current status tells users where the manuscript is within the journal’s process.
Common statuses may include submitted, awaiting assessment, assigned to editor, under review, revision requested, revised, accepted, or rejected.
Clear status terminology helps users understand the current position of a submission without needing to interpret technical system information.
Manuscript Identification
Each manuscript should have a unique identifier that remains associated with the submission.
A manuscript ID makes it easier for authors and editorial teams to distinguish one submission from another, particularly when a journal receives many papers from similar subject areas or recurring contributors.
It can also be used when communicating about a manuscript with the editorial office.
Status History
The current status only tells part of the story.
A useful tracking system can preserve previous statuses and important changes so that the journal can understand how the submission reached its current position.
For example, a manuscript that is currently under review may have previously been assigned to an editor and passed through an initial assessment.
A historical record provides context that a single current-status label cannot provide.
Activity Timeline
A manuscript may generate numerous events throughout its lifecycle.
These can include submission, editor assignment, reviewer activity, revision uploads, decisions, and other workflow changes.
An activity timeline can bring these events together chronologically, making it easier to understand what has occurred without manually reconstructing the sequence.
Author Visibility
Authors often want to know what is happening with their submissions after they have been sent to a journal.
Providing appropriate status information through an author portal can reduce uncertainty and give contributors a way to check their manuscript without repeatedly contacting the editorial office.
The amount of information exposed to authors should reflect the journal’s communication policies. Confidential editorial or reviewer information should not be disclosed simply because a tracking system exists.
Editorial Monitoring
Editorial staff need a different level of visibility.
They may need to identify manuscripts that have remained in a particular stage for too long, determine which submissions are waiting for an editor, or see which manuscripts require further action.
A tracking interface can make these operational questions easier to answer.
Search and Filtering
Journals can accumulate a large number of submissions over time.
Search and filtering tools allow staff to locate manuscripts according to criteria such as manuscript ID, title, author, status, assigned editor, submission date, or other available information.
This becomes increasingly valuable as the journal’s submission volume grows.
Submission History
A manuscript can have a complex history that extends across several stages and participants.
Keeping this information with the submission allows editorial teams to review earlier activity when necessary.
Submission history can also help distinguish a revised manuscript from an entirely new submission.
Notifications
Tracking can be complemented by notifications when important events occur.
Authors may receive communications when their submission has been received or when action is required from them. Editorial users may receive alerts concerning assignments, reviews, revisions, or other workflow events.
Notifications help ensure that status information is not only available but also actionable.
Who Uses Manuscript Tracking?
Different users rely on manuscript tracking for different reasons.
Authors use it to follow the progress of their submissions and identify when they need to respond to a journal.
Corresponding authors may monitor the submission on behalf of the wider author group and handle communication with the editorial office.
Editors use tracking to understand which manuscripts are under their responsibility and determine what needs attention.
Managing editors can use broader tracking views to oversee the journal’s submission pipeline and identify delays.
Editorial assistants may rely on tracking information when performing administrative follow-up or responding to author enquiries.
Journal administrators can use submission records when reviewing operational activity across a publication.
The value of tracking comes from giving each role the information needed to perform its responsibilities without exposing information that should remain restricted.
Manuscript Tracking vs. Manuscript Workflow
Manuscript tracking and manuscript workflow are related but serve different purposes.
Manuscript workflow defines the stages through which a submission is expected to move.
Manuscript tracking records and communicates where that submission currently is within those stages.
For example, a journal may define a workflow containing submission, assessment, review, revision, and decision stages. Tracking tells the journal that a particular manuscript is currently in the review stage and shows relevant activity that has occurred.
Workflow establishes the route. Tracking provides visibility into the journey.
A journal management platform benefits from supporting both because knowing the intended process is less useful if the editorial team cannot determine how individual manuscripts are progressing through it.
Manuscript Tracking vs. Submission Status
Submission status is usually a specific indicator describing the current state of a manuscript.
Manuscript tracking is the broader practice of monitoring that state over time.
A status might simply say “Revision Requested.” Tracking can provide additional context, such as when the request was made, whether the author has responded, which version was submitted, and what happened before the revision request.
This distinction becomes particularly important when journals handle complex submissions. A single status can communicate the present state, while tracking provides the surrounding information needed to understand it.
Why Is Manuscript Tracking Important?
Manuscript tracking helps journals maintain visibility across an editorial pipeline that can contain hundreds or thousands of submissions.
Without reliable tracking, staff may need to rely on individual inboxes, spreadsheets, shared folders, or memory to determine what has happened to a manuscript.
A well-organized tracking process can help journals:
- Locate submissions quickly
- Monitor progress across editorial stages
- Identify manuscripts requiring action
- Reduce unnecessary status enquiries
- Keep submission records organized
- Follow revision activity
- Review historical changes
- Support editorial workload management
- Improve communication with authors
- Identify delays within the submission pipeline
Tracking is particularly valuable when multiple editors or administrative staff participate in the same journal. Everyone can work from the relevant submission record rather than maintaining separate versions of its progress.
Common Manuscript Tracking Challenges
One of the most common problems is incomplete visibility.
If information about a manuscript is spread across emails, spreadsheets, and separate file locations, it can be difficult to establish its true current state.
Another challenge is outdated information. A tracking system only remains useful when status changes and important activities are recorded promptly.
Overly broad status labels can create another problem. A manuscript marked simply as “in progress” does not tell an author or editor whether it is awaiting an assignment, being reviewed, undergoing revision, or waiting for a decision.
There is also a balance between transparency and confidentiality. Authors need useful information about their submissions, but journals must protect reviewer identities, confidential comments, and internal editorial discussions where applicable.
A strong tracking system therefore needs both useful visibility and appropriate access controls.
How Does Manuscript Tracking Improve the Author Experience?
Authors can become frustrated when they have little information about what happens after submission.
A clear tracking interface can provide reassurance by showing that the manuscript has been received and indicating its general position within the journal’s process.
It can also make requests for author action easier to understand. When a revision is required, for example, the author should be able to identify that a response is needed and access the relevant submission area.
This does not mean that journals should expose every internal activity. Effective author tracking provides enough information to create clarity while respecting the confidential nature of peer review and editorial decision-making.
How Does Manuscript Tracking Support Editors?
Editors often manage several manuscripts simultaneously, each at a different stage.
Tracking gives them a way to distinguish active submissions from those that require attention.
An editor may need to identify which manuscripts are waiting for reviewer responses, which have received revised files, or which are ready for an editorial decision.
Instead of reviewing every submission individually, useful tracking tools can help editors narrow their attention to specific groups of manuscripts.
For managing editors and editorial administrators, this broader visibility can also reveal patterns such as unusually long review periods or growing numbers of submissions awaiting assignment.
Alkademy Press and Manuscript Tracking
Alkademy Press supports manuscript tracking as part of its wider journal management environment, giving authors and editorial teams access to information associated with their submissions.
A notable part of the platform’s approach is its author portal, where contributors can work with their submissions after entering the journal’s system. Authors can save drafts, upload files, and manage submission-related information without relying entirely on email exchanges with the editorial office.
For the editorial side, the platform provides dashboards designed around journal roles. This allows staff and editors to work with the submissions relevant to their responsibilities and maintain awareness of the manuscripts being handled.
Tracking also becomes more useful when it connects with other journal activities. A submission can accumulate review activity, revisions, editorial actions, and other information while remaining associated with its journal record.
This gives Alkademy Press a practical role in helping journals maintain continuity across submission handling, rather than treating manuscript tracking as an isolated status feature.
What Should You Look for in Manuscript Tracking Software?
When evaluating manuscript tracking software, consider whether it provides meaningful visibility rather than simply displaying a collection of status labels.
Important capabilities may include:
- Clear manuscript statuses
- Unique manuscript IDs
- Status history
- Activity records
- Author-facing submission views
- Editorial dashboards
- Search and filtering
- Submission-date information
- Editor assignment visibility
- Revision tracking
- Review-stage monitoring
- Deadline information
- Notifications
- Role-based access
- Historical submission records
- File and version association
- Multi-journal support
- Reporting capabilities
It is also important to evaluate how tracking interacts with the rest of the journal’s operation. The most useful system is one where status information reflects actual editorial activity and where users can move from a submission overview to the information needed to take the next action.
Good manuscript tracking should answer three basic questions quickly:
Where is the manuscript? What has happened so far? What needs to happen next?