Design and Implementation of Journal Manuscript
Submission and Review System Based on SaaS
Han Lai
State Key Lab. of Software
Engineering
Wuhan University
Wuhan, China
laihan@whu.edu.cn
Rong Peng
State Key Lab. of Software
Engineering
Wuhan University
Wuhan, China
rongpeng@whu.edu.cn
Jingsong Cui
Computer School
Wuhan University
Wuhan, China
jscui@whu.edu.cn
Yuze Ni
State Key Lab. of Software Engineering
Wuhan University
Wuhan, China
niyuze@whu.edu.cn
Ying Huang
State Key Lab. of Software Engineering
Wuhan University
Wuhan, China
nhwshy@whu.edu.cn
Abstract— With the pervasiveness of the success cases of SaaS
applications, outsourcing the manuscript submission and review
system of periodical presses to SaaS providers becomes a new
trend. This study proposes a solution for constructing the journal
manuscript submission and review system based on level-3
maturity model of SaaS. In this article, the requirements of the
system have been elicited, the architecture has been designed, and
the key implementation has been presented. By renting the
services provided by the system instead of buying or developing,
the periodical presses can not only obtain better technical
support, but also save costs. In addition, the periodical press can
utilize its agglomeration effect based on SaaS platform and
subscribe the value-added services such as journal
recommendation service to implicit contributors and reviewer
recommendation service to periodical presses which will be
helpful to promote the quality and impact factor of the journal.
Keywords- SaaS; manuscript; multi-tenant; submission; review
I. INTRODUCTION
With the pervasiveness of Internet, more and more business
processes of the periodical presses have been supported by
network applications. The manuscript online submission and
review process is the classical one. It can shorten the
submission cycle, accelerate the editors’ and reviewers’
refereeing procedure and build the bridge for immediate
communication between the authors and editors [1]. Restricted
by economic and technical conditions, many periodical presses
cannot bear the software and hardware costs for development
and maintenance of the online manuscript submission and
review system, especially in developing countries [2, 3].
Recently, SaaS (Software as a Service) has become an
exceptionally attractive computing paradigm in various
business sectors. In SaaS paradigm, the SaaS provider can
provide services continually on an on-demand mode through
network. Thus, there is no need to worry about software
upgrade and maintenance, and no need to buy and operate any
software and hardware. This means that overhead costs of the
system, including management, operation and maintenance can
be minimized. Therefore, SaaS paradigm has been popular in
various fields including public administration [4].
In this paper, the manuscript online submission and review
system based on SaaS model is proposed. Based on the
requirements and common business procedure elicited, a PaaS
based SaaS architecture design and its key implementation
solutions are presented. With the operation of the manuscript
online submission and review system, the periodical presses
can lease the valuable services provided instead of buying or
developing. In addition, the periodical presses can utilize its
agglomeration effect based on SaaS platform and subscribe the
value-added services such as journal recommendation services
and reviewer recommendation services to promote their
prestige levels and influences.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section
II introduces the related work. Section III introduces the SaaS
model and its advantages. Section IV presents the requirements
of the journal manuscript submission and review system based
on SaaS. Section V describes the design of the system. The key
technology and solution of the system are given in Section VI.
Section VII summarizes the paper and discusses future work.
II. R
ELATED WORK
Many researchers have studied the design and implement of
the manuscript submission and review system based on ASP
(Application Service Provider) model [5-7] but not based on
the SaaS paradigm. Tananbaum and Holmes [8] have
discussed the evolution of Web-based peer-review systems.
Du [9] and Zhong [3] have investigated the feasibility of the
periodical presses making use of the cloud computing, and
presented the operational model, but their focus lies on the
business mode. Some studies [10-12] also have discussed the