Building with Blueprints: Making user feedback the foundation of ScholarOne Gateway

The unique ecosystem of peer review and editorial management software 

Here's what makes ScholarOne different from your typical software platform: we're not just serving one type of user. We work primarily with publishers and editors as our direct customers, but the real magic happens when authors and reviewers actually use the system to submit manuscripts and conduct peer reviews. It's like building a restaurant: the owners pay the bills, but success depends entirely on whether diners enjoy their meals. 

This ecosystem makes improving the tool more complex, because we’re catering to the needs of a variety of different stakeholders. Publishers need layered, multidimensional workflows and administrative control, but authors want (and deserve) simple, intuitive submission processes. Reviewers need easy access to manuscripts and streamlined review tools, while editors require comprehensive oversight capabilities. To get this balance right, user feedback must be our north star. 

The reality of UX in scholarly publishing 

To put it diplomatically, scholarly publishing has not always prioritized user experience. One recent Reddit post noted that "scientific software is intentionally designed to be as unwelcoming in terms of user experience and interface as possible," and scholarly publishing has created "thousands of unique information seeking channels" that frustrate users. 

The feedback we receive only further confirms this as the primary challenge, and while it isn't unique to us, it demands attention. As the years have progressed, the delta between what people expect from consumer technology and the reality of what academic platforms offer has grown and users are, understanding, increasingly frustrated with the disparity in experiences.  

So how can we gather user feedback that is specific and actionable enough to make meaningful changes to technology like ScholarOne, used by millions of researchers around the world?  

User-prioritized product development 

Product development without user feedback is basically building in the dark. Especially for a piece of software as complex as ScholarOne, we need user feedback to balance multiple stakeholder needs and validate our development priorities.  

Product features and enhancements driven by user feedback can raise satisfaction scores by 20%. That kind of uplift can make a tremendous difference in how smoothly researchers interact with ScholarOne Manuscripts and in their overall experience. It also has knock-on effects for the customers at the end of our B2B equation; happier users mean less need for investment in operational and administrative support, training resources, and more. 

The ScholarOne blueprint: creating better experiences for everyone 

We’ve been centering user feedback for years in ScholarOne, and one of the key things we’ve learned is that researchers today expect a commensurate level of user experience from academic platforms that they receive from consumer technology. 

ScholarOne Gateway, our new centralized author hub, perfectly illustrates this approach, with:   

• User-centric design that eliminates confusion and friction 

• Modern, intuitive interfaces for authors, reviewers, and editors 

• Unified experiences across a publisher's entire journal portfolio 

Importantly, a visually intuitive interface—a common request we’ve heard in our user feedback—directly affects user retention: research shows design accounts for 94% of first impressions, and 75% of users judge an organization’s credibility based on its look and usability. Scholarly publishing is a uniquely trust-driven ecosystem, so improving that retention and reinforcing that credibility is essential for ongoing engagement.  

The beauty of focusing on user feedback is that improvements often benefit multiple user types simultaneously. When we simplify the author submission process based on feedback, it also reduces the support burden on editorial staff. When we streamline reviewer workflows, it improves response rates and reviewer satisfaction, which helps editors manage their journals more effectively. 

For us, user feedback is an ongoing conversation, a relationship built on trust that we enforce with each new feature or development. With user feedback, we can be proactive. ScholarOne Manuscripts succeeds when all stakeholders across the research community can focus on advancing knowledge rather than wrestling with software. User feedback is what makes that possible, turning a complex workflow management system into a tool that actually serves the people who use it every day.