Master Thesis Defense - August 5, 2015: Redesign of a Journal Editorial Workflow Management System

Yijing Zeng

Wednesday, August 5, 2015 at 10:00 a.m.
Room EV001.162

You are invited to attend the following M.A.Sc. (Quality Systems Engineering) thesis examination.

Examining Committee

Dr. C. Wang, Chair
Dr. Y. Zeng, Supervisor
Dr. L. Wang, CIISE Examiner
Dr. H. Ge, External Examiner (BCEE)

Abstract

The thesis presents the redesign and the implementation of an online journal editorial workflow management sysem.  The previous version of the journal management system has some problems.  1.  It only supported the submission and review processes which are not enough to cover a complete editorial workflow for a journal;  2.  With two years of usage we found that the original system is neither adequate for user requirements, nor does it provide enough functions.  Hence, we provided an advanced redesigned journal management system.  1.  Introduced the entire editorial workflow by adding the paper proofreading and publication processes; 2.  Not only implemented better user interfaces but also developed new useful functions to help journal editors to manage the processes of academic journal.  Considering the redesign as a design problem, we used a design methodology named Environment based design (EBD) to analyze it.  EBD methodology is applied to handle the redesign by analyzing problems of the system and clarifying the editorial workflow of the journal and user requirements to generate appropriate solutions.  Built on the analysis results, we designed and implemented the new journal editorial workflow management system.  We presented results show significant improvements and enhancements of the redesigned system compared to the old one, and the new system is currently in use as an online submission system of an international scientific journal.  It could also be the basis for a more feature rich and even more automated management system.