Publisher Elsevier has successfully obtained a patent in the United States for its online peer-review system.
The patent, which was originally filed in June 2012, covers Elsevier’s Article Transfer Service—an online system for managing article submissions and peer review.
Finally approved on 30 August after three rejections, the patent is said to protect the method by which articles that have been rejected by one Elsevier journal can be recommended for publication in another; a practice in academic publishing often referred to as ‘waterfall’ or ‘cascade’.
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