Running an academic journal is far more operationally demanding than most editors anticipate. Beyond the science itself lies a dense layer of coordination: managing submissions, chasing reviewers, communicating with authors, tracking revisions, meeting publication deadlines, and maintaining the kind of consistency that indexing bodies expect.
For most editorial teams, this workload is invisible until it isn't — until a reviewer goes quiet, an author hasn't heard back in three months, or a submission backlog quietly becomes a reputational problem.
A Virtual Editorial Office (VEO) exists to manage exactly that layer.
What is a Virtual Editorial Office?
A Virtual Editorial Office is an outsourced service that handles the day-to-day operational management of an academic or scientific journal. Rather than relying on an editor-in-chief or academic institution to coordinate workflow internally, the journal contracts a specialist team to manage its operations remotely.
The "virtual" in the name simply means the team is not physically embedded in your institution. In practice, they function as your journal's operational backbone — managing everything from the moment a manuscript arrives to the moment it is published.
What Does a VEO Actually Do?
The scope of a VEO service varies by provider, but a full-service offering typically covers:
Submission management — Receiving and logging new manuscript submissions, performing initial compliance checks (scope, formatting, ethical declarations), and routing papers to the appropriate editor.
Peer review coordination — Identifying suitable reviewers, sending invitations, tracking responses, managing follow-ups with reviewers who go quiet, and consolidating review outcomes for the editor's decision.
Author communication — Keeping authors informed at every stage, managing revision requests, and responding to queries on behalf of the editorial team in a timely and professional manner.
Decision processing — Preparing decision letters, managing revision rounds, and tracking final decisions through to acceptance.
Production liaison — Passing accepted manuscripts to the typesetting and production team, coordinating proofs with authors, and ensuring the article is publication-ready.
Deadline and workflow tracking — Maintaining editorial calendars and ensuring issues are published on schedule.
Reporting — Providing editors and publishers with regular status updates on submission volumes, turnaround times, and pipeline health.
For a journal handling even 100–200 submissions per year, this represents a substantial and sustained operational commitment.
Who Needs a Virtual Editorial Office?
VEO services are most valuable for:
- New journals that lack an established administrative infrastructure
- Established journals whose editorial team is stretched across teaching and research responsibilities
- Institutions launching multiple journals simultaneously under a research programme
- Publishers in a growth phase who need operational capacity without building a permanent in-house team
- Journals preparing for indexing applications, where process consistency and documentation are critical requirements
Across Saudi Arabia and the GCC, research output is growing rapidly — driven by Vision 2030 mandates, university KPIs tied to publication volumes, and increased institutional investment in research. Many of the journals emerging from this environment are well-funded and editorially strong, but operationally under-resourced. A VEO bridges that gap.
The Benefits of Outsourcing Your Editorial Office
Beyond relieving administrative pressure, a well-run VEO delivers measurable advantages:
Faster turnaround times. Dedicated coordinators who focus exclusively on editorial workflow move faster than academic staff managing multiple responsibilities in parallel.
A consistent author experience. Authors who receive timely, professional communication are more likely to submit again — and to recommend the journal to colleagues. First impressions matter for a journal's long-term reputation.
Indexing readiness. Indexing bodies such as Scopus and Web of Science evaluate journals in part on the consistency and transparency of their peer review process. A VEO creates and maintains the documentation trail that supports a successful application.
Scalability. As submission volumes grow, a VEO scales with you — without the cost or complexity of hiring and training permanent staff.
Editor focus. When the editor-in-chief is freed from administrative coordination, they can focus on what they genuinely add value to: editorial decisions, scope development, and building the journal's academic reputation.
What to Look for in a VEO Provider
Not all VEO services are equal. When evaluating providers, consider:
- Experience specifically in STM publishing (science, technology, and medicine) or your journal's subject area
- Familiarity with major manuscript management platforms
- Clear service level agreements around response times and reporting frequency
- Experience supporting journals through Scopus, DOAJ, or Web of Science indexing applications
- A portfolio of active journals under management and references from current clients
How Discover STM's VEO Service Works
At Discover STM Publishing, we currently manage the editorial operations of eight peer-reviewed journals — primarily in science, technology, and medicine — for clients across Saudi Arabia and the GCC.
Our VEO service covers the full editorial workflow: submission handling, peer review coordination, author communication, decision processing, and production liaison. We work within your existing manuscript management platform or can recommend and configure one appropriate to your journal's scale and subject area.
Our team also has direct experience supporting journals through Scopus and other indexing applications — ensuring that process consistency, documentation standards, and turnaround benchmarks are in place long before the application is filed.
With over 5,500 manuscripts managed and more than 2,000 reviewers in our network, we bring both the infrastructure and the relationships that a standalone journal would take years to build.
If your journal is growing faster than your current administrative capacity, or you are launching a new journal and want to build on a solid operational foundation from day one, we would be glad to have a conversation.