Using the right tools can be an easy way to save money for small- or medium-sized journals.

Running a journal is a complicated business, but at the end of the day, all businesses need to make money to survive. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a variety store down the street or a massive publishing company with hundreds of academic journals. Money is the thing that lets you pay for your staff, your rent, your resources, and more. So, it makes sense to save money where possible. Right?

In this article, we’ll go over specific processes you can look at to save a bit of money. This will allow your company to be more efficient and be able to spend money is a more effective way.

But how do you do that? Simple. Know the right tools to invest in.

Why the right tools matter

If you’ve ever used a typewriter, you know why a computer is more efficient. A typing error on a typewriter is a labourious thing to address. A typing error on a computer is immediately fixable.

So, why did we ever use typewriters? Prior to a typewriter, notes had to be done by hand. Writing on a typewriter is far faster than writing by hand. The constant evolution in tools for writing made the typewriter the right tool for the job—until it wasn’t anymore. This example doesn’t mean that tools are destined to be replaced (though they can be), it means that managers need to keep an eye on progress. What tools can be brought in to your business to make it more efficient?

Another important consideration is whether or not a new tool is more effective.

Efficiency vs effectiveness

It’s important to not conflate these two things. They’re different ideas and using the right tools can sometimes improve both.

Efficiency is largely focused on “how” a job or task gets done. A more efficient process might mean that the project gets done faster or require less steps. A more efficient process very often means that money is saved. If it takes less time to perform a task, that task can be repeated more times in the same amount of time as the old process. Getting more work done in less time is almost always a target for many companies. At the end of the day, this often translates to “more money earned”.

Effectiveness, however, is more focused on the results of whatever the task in. A more efficient process does not necessarily mean a more effective process.

Here’s a great example of the difference between efficiency and effectiveness.

Emails can be written out by hand, personalized, and sent to potential contributors to your journal. They can also be sent out using a template. The template will, without a doubt, be a faster and more efficient way of handling this type of communication. But people will always react more positively to personalized communications.

If you have 1000 emails to send, personalizing each and every one of them would be prohibitive. It would cost time (and importantly money) to do that and there’s no significant payoff that is guaranteed by spending this time (and money).

What are the right tools for a small or medium-sized journal?

This will largely depend on what specific task you’re looking to address. For example, are you trying to make your English editing team more effective? This might just be a question of needing to reevaluate your workflows for the department. But if you’re tracking your projects in an Excel spreadsheet, this might not be as efficient as using an automated journal management tool.

Small- and medium-sized journals can have rapidly evolving needs so they need the right tools. While a major publisher can have a variance of a dozen papers (or more) on any week (or even day), ten papers could effectively double a small journal’s monthly workload. This means that they need a tool that is flexible enough to scale up quickly. Or to scale back down if necessary.

Take a look at the different services that JAMS can help you automate!

While knowing what tools are the right tools for you, knowing when to change them is also of critical importance.

When should you switch tools?

There isn’t a single, “correct” answer to this question. Sometimes it there are multiple approaches. Other times, you might have one obvious choice. Streamlining your processes is a great way to save time and money. Whatever the factors are, you need to be able to adapt to changes. And this means to be able to scale accordingly as is needed.

The short answer to this question is “when you need to”. But figuring out when that is can be tricky.

Here, one of the best options you have is to listen to your managers, team leaders, and staff. Fostering an environment where your team can provide feedback can let you know about issues before they become significant problems.