1. Elsevier Publishers Without Borders: Malawi Medical Journal:
Progress Report, Week #1 (Friday 8-11)
Shalimar Shadeed
Aug 2017

2. Week #1: Publishers Without Borders and the MMJ
Week #1: January 9-13
Week #1: Publishers Without Borders and the MMJ
Aug 7th: Arrived in the afternoon
Aug 8th: Introduction with Editor in Chief, Lucinda Manda-Taylor, and had general discussions on what needs to be done.
January 9th: Met with MMJ’s intern, Fanuel
Review of his tasks process
Meeting with Lucinda on open access and creative common.
Aug 10th : met with Thengo (managing editor) and Yohane (intern).
Week of Aug 11:Various meetings
Met with full journal team and attended their monthly meeting; presented my thoughts on our goals and work together
Met with Managing Editor to review journal process (acceptance to publication)
Solo- work: creating reports and documentations to support goals and objectives, and set recommendations
Have worked with the editor on setting the OA price per article and we have applied for creative common license (CC BY NC-ND).

3. Week #1: activities and objectives summary
Week #1: January 9-13
Week #1: activities and objectives summary
Set job description for all members in the team and ensure they adhere by it.
Assist journal team with developing a strategic plan to improve journal citations and content.
Help the Editor with the transition to Gold OA model; set APC, choose license and help establish workflow in production.
Help the editors identify where delays are happening during production and peer-review processes and overcome it.
Explore other possible revenue streams for the journal

4. Week #1: Independent Work for the MMJ
Week #1: January 9-13
Week #1: Independent Work for the MMJ
Contacted Elsevier colleagues for sample documents on optimizing journal production workflows and ensure faster typesetting times.
Setting the workflow for the gold OA transition for MMJ
Prepared PPT to showcase with journal performance, recommendation and future strategy
Prepared job descriptions documentations for each editorial role in MMJ
Prepared journal citation analysis and content reports- attached.
Created welcome letters for editors; Associate editors, editorial board (rotation and new comers)
Created reports and statistics on content editors should be soliciting this year and in 2018

5. Elsevier Publishers Without Borders: Malawi Medical Journal:
Progress Report, Week #2
Shalimar Shadeed
Aug 2017

6. Week #2: objectives. In Week 2, my aims are as follow:
Week #2: January 17-20
Week #2: objectives.
In Week 2, my aims are as follow:
Make sure all editors are versed with their editorial roles and comfortable with their tasks
Train the team on creating journal performance, citation and strategic reports; train the team on analyzing the content at metrics level
Work with the editors on changing articles layout and typeset model
Ensure the creative common license have been implemented on all articles
Finalize the OA author paid fee model workflow in production
Clear up the backlog of articles in production in ScholarOne
Deliver presentations on publishing ethics and copyright to the editors
Train editors on how to improve promotion of their journal.
Help the editor in chief with restructuring the editorial board members of MMJ.
Update the technical check list used by editors in ShcolarOne and update Scholarone’s configuration (language editing workflow and technical check)
Review the OA policies and forms editors will be using going forward should they move to the author pay based model.
Arrange meetings with all editors to follow up on different tasks assigned to them and support them with any questions they might have

7. Week #2: Publishers Without Borders and the MMJ
Week #1: January 9-13
Week #2: Publishers Without Borders and the MMJ
14-8. Worked with Lucinda on creating 2 virtual special issues this year; women awareness in October, TB virtual special issue and HIV in Dec.
- Shared with Lucinda the Special issue guidelines.
15-8. worked with Lucinda on finalizing one of the virtual special issues.
- Had a meeting with Yohane discuss ways to improve promotion of MMJ. Review the GFA, and assigned the technical check stage for him.
16-8 had a meeting with Andrew, Phanuel, Lucinda and Thengo to follow up on the tasks assigned to them and progress they have made.
Reviewed MMJ’s retraction procedures and made sure it was
Worked with Thengo on changing articles layout and typeset model and applying the creative common license.
Contacted Ian from ScholarOne to clean the backlog of articles in the system (removed 290 submission) and added 2 new configurations to the system.
Delivered presentations on publishing ethics and copyright to the editors
Update the technical check list used by editors in ShcolarOne and update Scholarone’s configuration (language editing workflow and technical check)
Review the OA policies and forms editors will be using going forward should they move to the author pay based model.

8. 17-Aug
Finalize the sharing policy guidelines, GFA, retraction and withdrawal policies.
Met briefly with Lucinda, Andrew and Thengo to discuss pending items and inquire on the progress of things I have proposed in week 1.
Had a meeting with Thengo to ensure he understands how the creative common license should appear on the articles, chosen the new typeset model.
Contacted Ian from ScholarOne to update the configuration of ScholarOne to include technical check stage into the system,
Shared a documentation with Thengo on items that needs to be checked during compilation
Had a meeting with Lucinda on journal finance and expenses. Also, shared an easy template with her to calculate and monitor her expenses going forward.
Editors started working on the Sep issue, and was working with them to identify opportunities to expedite the issue
Twitter account was moved to Fanuel
18-Aug.
Delivered the last presentation on MMJ’s progress, achievements and items to follow up on
Followed up with the interns on MMJ’s presence on social media; interns created a webpage on LinkedIn, Mendeley and started sharing articles
Followed with Thengo on the new typeset model and the creative common implementation
Follow up on OA and article sharing policies on MMJ.

9. Week #2: Independent Work for the MMJ
Week #1: January 9-13
Week #2: Independent Work for the MMJ
Contacted Elsevier colleagues to obtain documentations on author publishing license agreement templates and workflows
Contacted one of my colleagues to provide documentation on production and compilation workflows (Step by step walkthrough guide for what happens the moment papers get logged to production till it gets posted online)
Prepared presentations on OA, copyrights and publishing ethics.
Contacted Cynthia to check on social media monitoring tools that can be integrated to MMJ’s site at a low cost
Prepared a final progress presentation and on how promote MMJ’s content the team.