RESEARCH EXCHANGE
Research Exchange is an evolving platform, continuously updated to meet the needs of the scholarly publishing community. This roadmap showcases recent feature releases and upcoming developments aimed at improving the experience of authors, reviewers, editors, and journal administrators across the workflow. For full details on individual updates, visit our release notes.
Features marked in the Editor Feedback column reflect direct responses to input from our editorial community, because building the right tools means listening to the people who use them. We are committed to our agile development model, and feature delivery timelines may shift as we incorporate ongoing feedback into our prioritization.
| Editor Feedback Feature | Feature | User | Description | Delivery Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reviewers can opt out from reviewer invitations at journal level | Reviewers | Allow reviewers to opt-out from future contact when responding to invitation | Jul-26 | |
| Extend author email search to all editors | Editors, admins | All editors can now search for manuscripts by author email address on the Dashboard, aligning their capabilities with FAEs, EAs, and JMs. | Jul-26 | |
| Yes | Email notification center | Editors | Adds a centralized hub that enables users to control their own preferred settings, and to toggle on/off certain notifications. | Jun-26 |
| Yes | AI disclosure submission question | Authors | Journals now have the option to include a separate question (with free text field) at submission to collect author disclosures on AI usage, providing a transparent way for authors to communicate this information. | Jun-26 |
| Yes | Notifying overdue or unresponsive reviewers | Reviewers | Ensures all reviewers who accepted an invitation but did not submit a report—including overdue reviewers—receive a “your report is no longer needed” notification when a manuscript is accepted or rejected | May-26 |
| Yes | Reviewer Invitation Queue | Editors, reviewers | The reviewer-queue pilot is now available for all journals. Editors can now set up a queue of reviewers to invite in order of preference. It includes auto-invitation of assigned reviewers, in sequence, until the required number of reviewers have agreed to review. | May-26 |
| Improved Conflict of Interest matching | Editors | Editors can now better disambiguate authors through the use of researcher identifiers (like ORCiD). and a manuscript’s co-authors are now automatically excluded from reviewer search results. Advisory warnings will also appear when a potential reviewer and any co-author have a shared publication or are from the same institution, further safeguarding the integrity of peer review. | Apr-26 | |
| Author Dashboard improvements | Authors | Authors are now able to view the decision letter for their manuscript through the Author Dashboard. They’ll also be able to view any accompanying files provided by reviewers or editors. | Apr-26 | |
| Improved scope matching in Screening | Journal Admins | Journals will now see a much clearer “in or out” result in screening based on aims and scope, supported by relevant journal publications. | Apr-26 | |
| Yes | Custom email signature at user level | Editors | Users will be able to customize their default signature which will automatically populate email templates for the respective sender. For example, allowing editors to add initials, affiliations or academic titles in line with their preferences. | Mar-26 |
| Yes | Conversation Tool Updates: Tagging and notifications | Editors, admins | Enables any users assigned to a manuscript or with observing permissions to be tagged and notified in the Conversation Tool and to leave their own comments. | Feb-26 |
| Three-tier editorial workflow | Editors, admins | Support for migrating journals with three tiers of editors, e.g. Editor-in-Chief, Senior Editor and Handling Editor; configuration updates to existing single or two-tier journal workflows will be considered at a later date. | Feb-26 | |
| Allow changes to issue type at acceptance | Editors | Enable editors to control, at the point of acceptance, whether a manuscript submitted to a regular issue should be published in a special issue, or vice versa. | Feb-26 | |
| Yes | Additional dashboard filter and search enhancements | Editors | Enables editors to toggle between journal roles without leaving their dashboard and enables search by author email. | Jan-26 |
| Editor Feedback Feature | Feature | User | Description | Planned Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Authorea deposit and file update | Authors | This feature allows submitting authors to opt-in to deposit their manuscript as a preprint to Authorea. | Jul-26 | |
| Enhanced integration with Dryad | Authors, admins | Question included in the submission process to assist authors with data deposit and automatically alerts Dryad at submission and acceptance stages. | Jul-26 | |
| Rescind reject decision | Admins | Will enable journal admins to return a rejected manuscript to peer review. | Jul-26 | |
| Dashboard search by keywords | Editors, admins | Allow users to generate a 'soft' match between the free-text keyword entered in their dashboard side-panel and the keywords related to a manuscript's title/abstract, to assist with manuscript identification and assignment. | Jul-26 | |
| Yes | Ad-hoc email communication | Editors, admins | Enables Editorial Board Members, Editorial Assistants, and Journal Managers to send ad hoc email communications to authors, reviewers, and co-editors directly from the manuscript interface, with every message automatically logged for full traceability. | Aug-26 |
| Yes | Configurable reviewer deadline and email reminder cadence | Reviewers | Introduces new configuration options for reviewer and editor deadlines at journal level, in defined increments, to accommodate different preferences and subject expectations. Reminder cadence will automatically recalculate in accordance with the newly defined deadlines. | Aug-26 |
| EBM or Specialized Reviewer Search | Editors | Improved search for journal-specific Editorial Board Reviewers, making it easier for editors to locate and assign from large reviewer pools. | Aug-26 |
| Editor Feedback Feature | Feature | User | Description | Planned Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Disambiguation of researcher profiles | Editors, reviewers | Enhancements to Wiley’s researcher database will improve the quality of data in researcher profiles and reduce instances of an individual appearing multiple times in reviewer suggestion results. | Ongoing |
| Yes | Reject & Resubmit decision option | Editors | New 'Reject and Offer Resubmit' decision type, to be enabled at journal level for journals that meet defined eligibility criteria (such as rate of resubmission). Decision type to be available at any decision point where Reject is currently offered. Gives editors an option between outright rejection and revision: editors can reject a manuscript in its current form while inviting the author to submit a substantially revised version as a new submission, with traceability back to the original. | Sep-26 |
| Yes | Manuscript ID naming conventions | Authors, editors, reviewers | New Intuitive Manuscript ID format (Journal Code-Year-Sequential Number) to replace current numbering conventions, making manuscript IDs easier to recognize and reference across the system. | Sep-26 |
| Yes | Reviewer ratings | Editors, admins | Ability to apply journal-specific quality indicator to specific reviewer profiles to surface in suggestions and reporting | Sep-26 |
| Author-suggested reviewers | Authors, reviewers | Will enable authors to suggest and oppose reviewers. Given the integrity risks associated with author-suggested reviewers, enablement will be limited in the first instance, with a formal governance process and monitoring of use to avoid exposure of journals to integrity risks. | Oct-26 | |
| Yes | Enhancements to manuscript status filtering | Editors, admins | Ongoing improvements to the clarity of manuscript status filters. | Dec-26 |
| Reviewer pool management | Admins, editors | Adds the ability to dynamically add and remove individuals from journal-specific reviewer pools. | Dec-26 | |
| Reviewer recognition with ORCID | Reviewers | Will enable reviewers to get credit for their review in their ORCID profile | TBC | |
| Yes | Reviewer can decline and suggest another reviewer | Editors, Reviewers | Will allow reviewers to suggest alternatives when declining a review invitation. | TBC |
| Allow users to change article type at revision | Authors, admins, editors | Enables changes to article types and subsequent changes to editorial workflow after the point of initial submission. | TBC | |
| Yes | Editors can attach files to recommendations | Editors | Will enable editors to upload files when making recommendations on a manuscript, which will be made available to the author as part of their decision letter. | TBC |
| Triple anonymous peer review | Authors, editors, reviewers | Support triple anonymous peer review workflow in line with Standard Terminology for Peer Review: reviewer identity is not made visible to author, author identity is not made visible to reviewer, reviewer & author identity is not made visible to (decision-making) editor. | TBC | |
| Additional reviewer search filters | Editors, Reviewers | Additional options to filter search results to more efficiently locate known reviewers, including filter by affiliation, reviewer engagement (the number of reviews completed for the journal in question and the recency of reviewer or author activity for the journal in question). | TBC | |
| Change issue type at revision | Authors | Will allow authors to change issue type at revision (possible at acceptance currently) and ensure workflow changes are appropriately reflected in Review. | TBC | |
| Enable response actions on behalf of reviewers | Admins, reviewers | Will enable admins to act on behalf of a reviewer to respond to invitations and submit a review. | TBC |
| Editor Feedback Feature | Feature | User | Description | Pilot Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Customizable email templates | Admins | The ability for journals to customize selected sections of email templates – including editor assignments, reviewer invitations, decision letters, and editor recommendations – at the journal level is forthcoming. This eliminates repetitive editing on a manuscript-by-manuscript basis, whilst enabling more personalized communications. Some changes to templates will require coordinating with Wiley’s technical team and your Wiley contact will work with you on moving your specific requirements forward. Given the critical nature of this update and its deep integration with existing editorial workflows, customizable email templates will be introduced through a phased rollout with changes being tested and validated before going live. This approach allows for a smooth, disruption-free user experience for all journals. We will initially deploy template customization across a limited group of journals to validate the process and the robustness of the solution. Your Wiley contact will reach out with further information about making these changes for your journal in due course. | Starting June-26 |
| Yes | Direct access to file download of manuscript reporting (CSV) from Dashboard | Editors, Journal Admins | Users will be able to download a CSV export directly from the Research Exchange Review dashboard, giving real-time, manuscript-level reporting without the need to wait for scheduled PowerBI subscription reports. This feature is being rolled out as a phased pilot across a limited group of journals to test and validate the reporting access before making live across all journals. This will allow for a smooth, disruption-free user experience. | Started May-26; planned release August-26 |
| User-validated keywords | Editors, Reviewers | Will allow users to edit the keywords that inform editor and reviewer suggestions to improve the accuracy of manuscript matching based on research expertise, keywords, recency of publications, and number of similar articles they've authored | Pilot Ongoing | |
Enhanced Image Manipulation checks | Admins, editors | Will improve the quality and efficiency of image manipulation checks with the integration of the ImageTwin tool. | Pilot Ongoing | |
| Yes | Ability for non-Wiley editorial offices to upload files on behalf of authors during submission | Admins | Enables staff at external editorial offices to access submissions and upload files on behalf of authors when manuscripts are in draft, for example to allow for minor copyediting or other post-acceptance changes to be made. | Pilot Ongoing |
| Editor Feedback Feature | Feature | User | Description | Delivery Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taxonomies for Wiley Online Library topic collections | Authors, Editors | Will enable journals to use portfolio-level or journal-specific custom subject taxonomies to classify accepted manuscripts at publication, which will be validated by the author at submission. | Dec-25 | |
| Yes | Recording editor availability | Editors, Admins | Editors can record their availability to ensure manuscripts are not assigned to them. | Dec-25 |
| Yes | Choice of Academic Editor assignment or invitation | Editors, Admins | Support for journal workflows where Academic Editors are assigned, rather than invited, to handle a submission (initially available for journals migrating from now; can be configured for already-migrated journals from December onwards). | Nov-25 |
| Manual Triage Editor assignment | Editors, Admins | Supports journal workflows where admins manually assign Triage Editor (initially available for journals migrating from now; can be configured for already-migrated journals from December onwards). | Nov-25 | |
| Integrate Research Exchange with Support Chat Function | Editors | Adds an AI Chatbot to provide in-system, immediate, and efficient Editor support. | Nov-25 | |
| Yes | Dashboard search by Editor | Editors | Enables editors with oversight permissions to search for manuscripts within their dashboards by editor name or email address. | Nov-25 |
| Flexibility for editors to adjust required number of reviews | Editors | Enables editors to amend their desired number of reviews required to make decisions on an article-by-article level (while ensuring a minimum number has been met for acceptance decisions). | Oct-25 | |
| Yes | Improvements to editor dashboard filters | Editors | Enhance editor dashboards and manuscript filters, e.g., ordering filters by chronological manuscript status and enabling filter by different manuscript properties (Commissioned, Special Issues, Transferred, Transparent Peer Review, Article Type). | Oct-25 |
| Gold OA: Multiple discount codes | Authors | Supports journals with discounts from multiple societies | Sep-25 | |
| Yes | Total publication history keywords for reviewers | Editors | Previously, editors could only view keywords from a reviewer's publications directly related to the manuscript under review. The system now displays keywords from the reviewer's complete publication history, giving editors a fuller picture of reviewer qualifications and subject matter expertise | Sep-25 |
| Attach file in escalation steps | Editors, admins | Will allow the ability to attach a file when a manuscript is escalated to a specialist, and for the specialist to attach a file when returning their report. | Sep-25 | |
| Enhanced deadline management in Research Exchange Commission | Editors, Authors | Updates include the ability for editors to easily grant extensions to author invitation deadlines, automatically informing authors, as well as a more strategic approach to deadline reminders. | Sep-25 | |
| Commission search enhancements | Editors | New search functionality within Research Exchange Commission allows users to more quickly locate commissions by searching for commission name or ID. | Sep-25 | |
| Linking another paper to manuscripts in Review | Admins, Editors | Within the same journal, a user can search and link other submissions to an in-progress manuscript. Journal staff can view papers that were linked to the in-progress manuscript in Submission and Review. | Sep-25 | |
| Ability to attach files to "Return to Draft" | Admins | Checkers and lead screeners can now attach a supporting file at “Return to Draft” decision, making it easier to provide examples, reference materials, and documentation to help authors understand requested changes. | Sep-25 | |
| Conversation tool | Editors | Enables editors assigned to a manuscript to discuss submission: posting comments and responses in a new conversation panel. | Sep-25 | |
| Sending manuscript to reviewer at invitation | Editors | Will allow the ability to share a secure link to the manuscript with the reviewer at the invitation step. | Sep-25 | |
| Yes | Identify and invite specialist reviewers | Editors, reviewers | Allows journals to set up categories of specialist reviewers, e.g. Statistical Reviewer, Early Career Researcher, Editorial Advisory Board, and identify these easily when searching for reviewers. | Aug-25 |
| Transparent Peer Review (TPR) | Reviewers, authors | Authors can opt in to a peer review process whereby the entire review history of the manuscript is published alongside the published article. | Aug-25 | |
| Improved management of authorship changes | Authors, admins | Ensures integrity of authorship by alerting journal admins to any changes in the author list when a manuscript is revised. | Aug-25 | |
| Yes | Re-invite a declined reviewer | Editors | Enables editors to re-invite a reviewer who has previously declined to review. | Aug-25 |
| Additional submission questions | Authors | Additional submission questions to be configured and reportable upon request, such as confirmation of authors' status as Early Career Researchers to determine eligibility for journal awards, and providing social media details | Jul-25 | |
| Improvements to reviewer suggestion tool | Editors | When searching for reviewers, editors can add custom keywords of their choice to refine and improve the accuracy of results. | Jul-25 | |
| Yes | Include files in decision emails | Editors | Enables editors to upload files when making their decision on a manuscript, which will be made available to the author as part of their decision letter. | Jul-25 |
Suppress email to author at Request Files stage | Admins | Ability to suppress email at Materials Check/Request Files stage, enabling admin to replace manuscript files if there is no need to consult with the author. | Jun-25 | |
Selection of TOC category at decision stage | Editors, admins | For journals that organize their issues on Wiley Online Library by Table of Contents (TOC) sections, editors can indicate TOC category when making a decision to accept an article for publication. | Jun-25 | |
| Filter reviewer suggestions by active journal pool | Editors, reviewers | To assist editors further in the reviewer invitation process, allows the option to filter reviewer suggestions by those actively reviewing for the journal. | May-25 | |
| Yes | Post-acceptance update to Main Document file | Authors | Allows update of the main manuscript file following acceptance, when minor edits have been made (e.g., copyediting). | May-25 |
| Support for Continuing Medical Education (CME) reviewer credit | Reviewers | Opt-in for reviewers to receive Continuing Medical Education credit when completing a review, for journals offering this service. | May-25 | |
| Link submissions to published articles | Authors, editors | Author linking of a submission to a published article, e.g., a Letter to the Editor about a published article or a Registered Report. | May-25 | |
| Send bulk invitations in Research Exchange Commission | Editors | Enables editors to send multiple invitations at once for a special issue. | May-25 | |
| Invite-only article types | Admins, authors | Enables admins to configure invite-only article types, to support with commissioning content. | Apr-25 | |
| Adjusted frequency of decision required notifications | Editors | Ensure decision/recommendation required reminders are sent to editors less frequently, and only when the required number of reviews are received, with no reviews or invitations pending. | Apr-25 | |
| Commission: improved flexibility and visibility of due dates | Authors, editors | Due dates for manuscripts invited via Research Exchange Commission can be customized without affecting due dates for other papers within the same group. | Apr-25 | |
| Yes | Further updated text in email templates | Editors, reviewers | Additional content and tone updates to email templates for reviewers and editors, reflecting feedback. | Apr-25 |
| Yes | Editor-authored manuscripts hidden from view | Editors, admins | Prevents editors from viewing and taking actions on manuscripts they have co-authored and submitted to their own journal. | Apr-25 |
| Yes | Enhancements to reviewer search results | Editors | Editors will see the same level of information about reviewers surfaced by system suggestion as they will for those from manual search. | Apr-25 |
| Support for Dryad data deposit | Authors, admins, editors, reviewers | Support for authors depositing their research to Dryad, making the Dryad reference available in the peer review workflow. | Apr-25 | |
| Yes | Enhancements to reviewer information | Editors | Editors can see suggested reviewers’ publication and retraction histories alongside their previous reviewer activity for the journal. | Mar-25 |
| Overdue reviewers able to submit comments after due date | Reviewers, editors | Reviewers with overdue reviews can submit their reports at any point before a recommendation or decision is made, without need for an extension. | Mar-25 | |
| Gold OA (Phase 3): display discount in Review | Admins, authors, editors | Editors of Gold Open Access titles will see details of discounts or waivers claimed by authors at submission. | Feb-25 | |
| Yes | Automatically list previous reviewers on revised manuscripts | Editors | Easier location and re-invitation of reviewers of previous manuscript versions for revisions, without need to toggle between versions. | Feb-25 |
| Yes | PDF file for peer review | Authors, editors, reviewers | Authors, editors, and reviewers can download a single manuscript PDF containing all manuscript files. | Feb-25 |
| Yes | Preview decision emails | Editors | Editors can preview emails for all decision types before sending to the author. | Feb-25 |
| Yes | Edit reviewer comments in decision emails | Editors | Editors can edit reviewer comments in decision emails, e.g. to clarify meaning, correct errors, or remove problematic content. | Feb-25 |
| Yes | Full-text email history visible in Review | Editors, admins | Improved Activity Log enables editors to view all emails sent during the lifecycle of the manuscript within Research Exchange Review. | Jan-25 |
| Commission tool now available | Editors | Designed to streamline invitation workflows, boost efficiency, and elevate your journal’s impact. Find out more here. | Jan-25 | |
| Yes | Reviewer file upload | Reviewers | Reviewers can upload a file as part of their review. | Dec-24 |
| Yes | Updated text in email templates | Editors, reviewers, authors | Updated content and tone in 25 email templates for reviewers and authors, reflecting feedback. | Dec-24 |
| Yes | Ability for Editor-in-Chief to assign self as handling editor | Editors | Editors-in-Chief can self-assign as handling editors and complete tasks without requiring a separate account. Find out more here | Nov-24 |
| Yes | Extend reviewer due date | Editors, reviewers | Editors and journal admins can extend a reviewer's due date within 10 days of their deadline. | Nov-24 |
| Improved 'Return to Draft' and 'Refuse to Consider' Reasons | Editors | Menu of reasons for refusal to consider or return to draft in addition to a free text ‘Comments’ box. | Sep-24 | |
| Automatic screening for Author Names in Double Anonymous Manuscripts | Authors, admins | New feature supports checks for double anonymous manuscripts in the Screening application. | Sep-24 | |
| Editorial Oversight Permissions | Editors | Triage Editors and Academic Editors can be assigned ‘viewer’ permissions, enabling a view of manuscripts submitted to the journal. | Aug-24 |