The five phases

One continuous workflow

Each stage builds on the last - with files, decisions, and metadata carried through automatically. No re-keying, no lost context.

1 Phase 1 · Intake

Submission

Author submits manuscript, files, metadata, and disclosures through a guided portal.

Owners: Author, Editorial office

2 Phase 2 · Triage

Editorial Screen

Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor reviews scope, fit, and quality. Quick desk decisions possible.

Owners: EiC, Associate Editor

3 Phase 3 · Review

Peer Review

Invitations, conflict checks, structured reviews, and revision rounds - all tracked and timestamped.

Owners: Editor, Reviewers

4 Phase 4 · Decision

Decision & Revise

Accept, reject, or request revisions. Decision letters sent, revision rounds linked, audit trail preserved.

Owners: Editor, Author

5 Phase 5 · Publish

Production & Publish

Copyediting, typesetting, proofing, DOI registration, and issue assembly - through to online publication.

Owners: Production, Vendors, Author

Who does what

Roles at every stage

Each user type has a clear lane with the right tools for that stage - and only those tools. No more "where do I click?"

Role

Submission → Publish

A Author

Submit

Revise

Decide

Proof

Publish

E Editor

Triage

Assign

Decide

Approve

Review

Sign off

R Reviewer

—

Review

Re-review

—

P Production

—

CE/TS

Publish

V Vendor

—

Task

Deliver

AD Admin

Config

Report

Active = currently using · Accent = hand-off moment · Done = completes that stage

Stage by stage

What happens at each stage

Every stage is configurable - durations, required actions, who is notified, and what data is captured. Use our defaults, or design your own.

1

Submission & intake

Authors complete a guided submission form with file upload, ORCID linking, funding and conflict-of-interest declarations, and suggested reviewers. Editorial office receives a complete, validated submission.

Author-driven

2

Editorial screening

Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor reviews for scope, fit, and quality. Quick desk decisions (reject or send to review) are one click. Quality checks flag suspected issues early.

Editor-in-Chief · Associate Editor

3

Reviewer assignment & peer review

Match reviewers by subject expertise and history, with conflict-of-interest detection. Send invitations in bulk, track responses, and capture reviews through configurable forms or free text.

Editor + Reviewers

4

Decision & revision

Accept, reject, or request revisions with templated decision letters. Authors resubmit with tracked changes, structured responses, and any new files - all linked to the original submission.

Editor + Author

5

Production: copyediting, typesetting, proofing

Assign tasks to internal staff or external vendors. Authors review and approve proofs. File versions and audit history are preserved automatically.

Production + Vendors + Author

6

Publication & DOI registration

Register DOIs with CrossRef, push to indexing services, and assemble final issues. Publication date and version of record are recorded immutably.

Production

Publication models

One platform, every publishing model

xPaperFlow is built to support the full range of scholarly content - not just one kind of journal.

Scholarly journals

Continuous, issue-based, or article-first publication. Multiple article types per journal with different workflow paths.

Books & monographs

Chapter-based submission, multi-author coordination, and book-level decision and production stages.

Reference works

Multi-volume reference works with editor coordination, contributor pools, and version-controlled updates.

Conference proceedings

Track papers from CFP through review, acceptance, camera-ready, and indexed publication.

Multi-journal publishers

Run dozens or hundreds of journals on one instance with isolated data, shared reviewer pools, and central reporting.

Open access & hybrid

APC tracking, funder compliance checks, and OA repository deposits - configurable per journal.

From submission to publication, in one continuous flow