Dear Dr. Qiang Yu, Dr. Liwang Ma, Dr. Tim Green and Dr. T.D. Wang,

My name is George Vleeming, and I am the Journal Manager for the journal Agricultural Water Management (AGWAT).

As you may know, the journal’s submission, review and decision process is managed entirely online using the Elsevier Editorial System. Please refer to the attached guide for information on how to log into and use EES for tracking the submission of the special issue manuscripts:

http://nonsolus/ep_procedures/Procedures/Proc_files/EP2006.071.pdf

For future reference, the Elsevier Editorial System for AGWAT is located at the site: http://ees.elsevier.com/agwat/

You have to login at this site as Editor with your username and password; the authors have to login as Author after they have registered themselves and their usernames and passwords are given them.

To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified for inclusion into the Special Issue you are editing, it is important that the authors select: Special Issue: Water Use Multiple Scales  when they reach the "Article Type" step in the submission process. Please make sure that you give the authors this instruction when you send out invitation letters and/or instructions to the potential authors. Please tell them in this letter also, before they submit their papers, to read the Guide for Authors at the above AGWAT site very well and ask them to submit as soon as possible.

As the Journal Manager, I will make sure that the Special Issue is published both online and in print. I also provide the journal with assistance in the editorial process. More specifically:

All new and revised submissions will first be directed to me. I will check each submission for completeness (presence of figures, no missing text, no errors in PDF file). Then I will forward the paper to you, Dr. Qiang Yu (as Managing Guest Editor), and if necessary, you can forward the paper directly to one of the other Guest Editors (by assigning the paper to him) if you want this Guest Editor to handle this paper.

If the paper is a NEW SUBMISSION (i.e., not an "R"-number) for the Special Issue I would be grateful if you (the handling Guest Editor) could provide me the names and email-addresses of four potential reviewers in the field 'Manuscript Notes' (under Details), and after you have done this tick the Display Manuscript Notes Flag. 
Then I will immediately invite the potential reviewers.

For reviewers you take from the list suggested by the author, that you can find (under Details) in the field Comments or in the field Additional Information on the bottom, it is sufficient to give me only the names, but please put above these names then: From author's list.

If the paper is a REVISION (so with an "R"-number) for the Special Issue please make your decision on this paper as soon as possible. However, if you like the revision to be sent to the (same) reviewer(s) again first, please mention this in the field 'Manuscript Notes' (under Details), and after you have done this tick the Display Manuscript Notes Flag (as above).

Throughout the review process I will remind reviewers when their reviews become overdue. Similarly, I will remind Authors to submit revisions in a timely manner.

When the Guest Editor has accepted a paper in EES, the system will automatically forward the accepted paper to Dr. Qiang Yu and after he accepts the paper this will be automatically forwarded to Dr. Brent Clothier and after his acceptance it will reach me for final processing (sending out decision letters to the author(s) and then put it in the production process for publication).

Since all submissions are directed to me to check for completeness, please let me know if you will be able to send me a list of authors that will be submitting to the special issue.

At this time, I would also like to request some additional information from you. Can you please inform me if I should expect any non-manuscript materials information, such as a preface, acknowledgments, logos of sponsors, introduction/foreword, or editorials?

If you have any questions about the editorial process for the journal, please feel free to contact me. If you encounter technical difficulties while using the system (that are unrelated to the workflow or peer review process), please contact our Editor Support department via e-mail at editorsupport@elsevier.com. Our support department can also answer e-submission system queries by telephone:

If an author contacts you with a system query, please refer them to the telephone numbers above, or ask them to write to authorsupport@elsevier.com

If a reviewer contacts you with a system query, please refer them to the telephone numbers above, or ask them to write to reviewersupport@elsevier.com

Note that this information is also posted on EES and can be reached by clicking on "Contact Us".

I will be your contact at Elsevier for all queries regarding things like submitted papers, articles in press, and other details involved in the production of your special issue. I look forward to working with you!

Sincerely,

George Vleeming

Journal Manager AGWAT