Q: Is it really worth paying for the "bells and whistles" provided by Editorial Manager?

A: Some of the capabilities offered by Editorial Manager may seem unnecessary during the course of a demonstration, however as soon the system goes live with real authors, reviewers, and editors there is an immediate appreciation for this functionality.

For example, Editorial Manager provides the Editor with a screen that displays all of the essential information required to make a decision in a single place such as all manuscript revisions, reviewer comments and decision terms for each revision, decision letters for prior revisions, etc. While other systems may store all of this information, editors quickly become frustrated if they have to manually gather these items from different parts of the system.

In other words, features that appear to be "bells and whistles" during the course of initial evaluation quickly play a critical role in the use of a live system and should not be overlooked. Cheap systems that are not fully featured may end up costing a lot more in loss of user goodwill, support and later reengineering.

Because Editorial Manager includes many more features, it may not be cheaper than other systems, but it is a lot more cost effective.