Features of the software include:

• free 6 month trial period: we offer the software on a free, no obligation trial basis for the first 6 months.
• extremely low cost: the standard price is $2000 per year for continuous access to the software and 24/7 technical support.
• lowest price guarantee: If another provider of editorial software provides a lower price, we will not only match it, we will cut whatever you currently pay in half, charging you the lower of $2000 per year or 1/2 of what you currently pay for editorial software!
• easy setup: a free 6 month demo version of the software can be set up for a journal, and within a few minutes you can see exactly how the software works
• easy exit: a journal is never "locked in" to this software. The software allows the journal to download its editorial database as standard ascii Excel-compatible "csv" files and zip files for manuscript, referee reports, etc.
• nightly backups: Editorial Express can be set up for nightly backups to a remote computer system (i.e. your computer). The system is also backed up nightly to two independent tape drives (located in different buildings), providing a high degree of protection against data loss.
• secure connections: Editorial Express runs under secure, 128 bit encryption and strong controls are in place to prevent unauthorized access of confidential editorial data.
• data encryption: sensitive editorial data (including decision letters and referee reports) can be stored in encrypted format.
• powerful access controls: editors have the flexibilty to set access controls for editorial staff. Coeditors can be restricted so they can see only their own assigned submissions, or they can be allowed to see all submissions (and all referees assigned to these submissions).
• electronic submission of papers: authors can submit their papers to the journal electronically via easy web-based forms, or a paper that was submitted via email can be uploaed via the "e-Paper" upload option, or authors can submit hardcopies the "traditional" way. Editorial Express is compatible with any or all of these different modes of submissions.
• electronic submission of referee reports: referees can submit their papers to the journal electronically, anonymously, and securely via an easy web-based form, or referee reports that are emailed to the journal can be uploaed via the "e-Report" upload option. PDF referee reports are automatically "cleansed" of internal identifying information in the document metadata at upload time, so that reports can be transmitted to authors by email, but still guaranteeing the anonymity of the referee.
• built in email notifications: authors who make electronic submissions receive an immediate email confirmation that their submission was successful. Similarly referees who upload referee reports receive an immediate email confirmation that their report was successfully received. The software also has built in "email templates" that the editorial staff can use to customize and facilitate communicate with authors, referees, etc. such as acknowledgements of submissions, requests to potential referees to review a submission (and if the submission is electronic, it can be included in the email message as an attachment), and automatic reminders to referees. Thus, Editorial Express can enable a journal to run the traditional way, but it can also run in a paperless, electronic mode. The software allows authors to submit papers (or referees to submit referee reports, or editors to send authors decision letters) in a variety of formats including Adobe "PDF" and Microsoft Word "DOC" files.
• Automatic multi-level email reminder system: Editorial Express has an automatic reminder system, and automatically generated reminders can be sent to referees and to members of the editorial staff after preset delays. Several levels of reminder messages can be created, with differing delays until the first reminder, from the 1st to the 2nd reminder, etc.
• Easy assignment of editors: editors can view submitted manuscripts online and assign the manuscripts to appropriate members of their editorial board via a simple point and click interface.
• Easy assignments of referees: editors can search large, continuously updated data bases for appropriate referees based on their field of interest, previous papers refereed or submitted to journals and conferences and other criteria, including the referee's record of "timeliness" on previous manuscripts refereed for the journal. Links are also made to outside online databases that contain information on the names, interests, and contact information of potential referees. The economist referee database contains over 30,000 entries with email addresses, web page urls, phone, fax and address info and is continually updated from a variety of sources.
• Alternate distribution modes: referees can be notified about a request to referee a paper via email, and have the option to receive an electronic copy of the submission via email, or via a password protected web page. Referees can file reports (in any format, although formats can be restricted to, eg. pdf files at the option the editor) electronically through a secure web form. Referee reports can be "cut and pasted" into a text window or alternatively, the report could be uploaded as a pdf or doc file if the report contains special symbols or mathematics.
• Automatic email notifications: editors can notify submitters about decisions on their submissions by email, or through importing automatically generated letters into Word or as PDF files that can be edited and printed out directly on a laser printer.
• Numerous built-in reporting functions: the software can generate a continually updated public web site which lists accepted manuscripts and overall statistics on the operation of the journal such as the number of submissions over any selected time period (previoius year, previous month, etc.) the distribution of submissions by area (or JEL code), the mean time to disposition (i.e. to rejection, first decision, acceptance, etc.) and other statistics that the Editorial Board chooses to make public about the operation of the journal. The web page would provide all of these statistics and more on a continually updated basis, and with historical statistics going back as many years as the data exist.
• Statistical reports: Editorial Express can generate private internal statistical reports that can only be viewed by the editorial board. These reports include summaries of the performance of individual coeditors, associate editors, and referees in terms of number of manuscripts they have been assigned, the distribution by area, and the distribution of response times, acceptance rates, and so forth. Response times can be decomposed into component times that sum up to the overall time from submission to decision for each revision cycle of a submission. Overall statistics can then be tabulated depending on the type of reports the editorial board wishes to see, including graphical presentations of the distributions of times to decision broken down into different categories and for various subsamples (e.g. by individual coeditor, or for different time periods, etc.).
• interfaces to electronic publication: Editorial Express can be set up to allow electronic transmittal of the finalized manuscript to the printers for final typsetting, and for linking to a journal web page in the event that the journal decides to make current issues available online. Forthcoming papers can also be made available online in the formats submitted by the submitting author prior to the conversion of the paper into the journal's publication format.
• Credit card charging of submission fees: Editorial Express can be set up to charge and collect submission fees via web based credit card forms.