Author Roles in FastTrack 

Step I: Writing Your Publication Draft 

1. Review the  WSU Extension Publication Categories to determine the type of publication you desire to produce. 
2. Review and follow the CAHNRS Communications  Style Guide.
3. Use the required Word template (Word Doc).
4. Use the Required Forms (pdf) to complete these steps. 
5. Review and complete the Copyright Checklist, page 2 of Required Forms.
6. Send Copyright Permission Form, page 3 of Required Forms, to anyone contributing copyrighted information to your publication (photographic images, tables, text, figures, etc.). Have them sign and return the form to you. Complete Photographic Likeness Consent Form, page 5 of Required Forms, if necessary. (This form is required when there are photos of individuals in which a face is recognizable.) 
7. Complete Photographic Likeness Consent Form, page 5 of Required Forms, if necessary. (This form is required when there are photos of individuals in which a face is recognizable.) 
8. Complete Human or Animal Research Form, page 4 of Required Forms. 
9. All forms should be uploaded with your manuscript submission.  

Step II: Submitting Your Publication to the FastTrack System 

1. Go to the FastTrack system. 
2. Log into the system using the login ID and password provided to you. If you have not received an email with a login ID and password previously, please visit Express Academic to register. 
3. Click on the My Submissions tab. 
4. Click on Submit a New Document. 
5. Input the publication title and author(s). Fill in all the blanks. 
6. Select the document type. 
7. Select the topic areas that best describe the publication. Multiple selections can be made by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on selections. 
8. Attach your manuscript. Click on the browse function to attach the document file. 
9. Add any comments that you feel are necessary to clarify the submission. 
10. Indicate if a Program Director, Department Chair, or District Director invited you to submit the publication by checking the Invited Document? box.  Click on Submit Document to initiate the process. 

Step III: Monitoring the Review Process 

1. Go to the FastTrack system. 
2. Click on My Submissions. 
3. Your current submission will appear under My Current Submissions. Look under the heading labeled Status to see the status of your submission. 
4. If you have questions, click on E‐mail the Editor. 

Step IV: Respond to Reviewer Input 

1. Once peer review is complete, the Program Director will make one of three decisions: 
   • Accept as is. 
   • Resubmit with revisions. 
   • Reject submission. 
2. You, the author, will receive an e‐mail notification of the decision. 
   • Accept as is means that the reviewers had no changes, and the manuscript goes directly to the editing and design queue. 
   • Resubmit with revisions means that changes suggested by the peer reviewers need implemented into the document and then may be resubmitted. 
   • Reject submission means that the publication is not acceptable, and no further action is necessary. The author may contact the Program Director to ask why the submission was rejected. 
3. Examine recommendations of each reviewer and either make recommended changes or respond as to why you did not feel that the changes were appropriate. Please explain or address each change that was not implemented. Use track changes mode when editing the document. An Excel spreadsheet or separate Word document works well for explanations. 
4. If you choose to resubmit the manuscript with revisions, log in to  FastTrack, click on your previous submission number and on the left side of your screen you will see an Action column. Click on Submit Revised Document which will open another window for uploading your revised document. 
5. If you choose, you may Decline to resubmit your document. 
6. If significant changes are made beyond those recommended by reviewers and/or the Program Director, the document may be subject to a second review. This will be determined by the Program Director. 
7. The Program Director will be notified automatically by e‐mail when you have either resubmitted your document or declined to resubmit. 
8. The Program Director will review the final document and compare it with the recommended changes of the peer reviewers. The Program Director will make the decision to Accept or Deny the final submission. Once the decision has been made, the system will send an automatic e‐mail to the author, initiated by the Program Director. 

Step V: Finalize Manuscript for Publication 

1. Upload the required forms to the  FastTrack, if you have not already done so. Be sure to upload them into the correct Submission ID#. All forms are required before your publication can be edited, designed, and published to the web. (Make sure you have uploaded your high-resolution images as separate files. Images and figures embedded in Word will not be accepted for design.) 
2. Once the Publication Coordinator has received all necessary materials from you, the manuscript will be added to the queue and assigned to an editor, in the order it is received. (The author can check the status of their manuscript in the queue.) 
3. The editor will work with you through a maximum of two iterations of changes. (It is not appropriate to make major modifications to the text, tables, graphs, or images at this point.) 
4. When editing and design have been approved by the author, the publication will be published to the web.