A growing number of publishers no longer wish to pay recurring tithings to the likes of ScholarOne and Editorial Manager. For these publishers, site licenses are a great way to cut costs, eliminate recurring charges, and seamlessly integrate manuscript processing into their websites. Site license clients are free to develop the code in anyway they wish, by the hand of any developer they choose.

System Requirements

msTracker requires very little in terms of CPU and RAM. Anything built in the last decade will be more than enough. The hosted site runs on an entry-level dedicated server and rarely exceeds 5% utilization. The amount of disk space needed depends on the number of submissions. Multiplying your number of submissions by three will give a good estimate of the megabytes needed. Completed files can be archived to free up space.

Your server should have the ability to send unlimited emails and upload files of at least 25MB. These are settings that can be changed as needed.

Most servers provide the ability to run PHP 7.x or higher and have database software such as MySQL or MariaDB.

Timeline

It takes 4-6 weeks to deploy the turnkey system for a first journal, and less than an hour for publications thereafter. During the initial deployment, we review and test the code for portability and create headers and footers fashioned after your website.

Week 1: Coding, header/footer creation, font and color matching
Week 2: Testing on subdomain.mstracker.com
Week 3: Deployment on subdomain.yoursite.com
Week 4: Testing
Week 5: Activation of first journal

Pricing

The cost for a first journal is $5000. Publications thereafter bill at $2500/title. Per-manuscript and flat-rate options are also available.

Care and Feeding

Once deployed, little attention is needed. The ability to run file and database backups can be learned by non-specialists in about an hour. Training is provided.