Academic Publishing Tech Stack Dev for IT Company
- Digital Strategy UX/UI Design Web Development
- $10,000 to $49,999
- May 2024 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"They maintained strong project coordination."
- Information technology
- Bellevue, Washington
- 11-50 Employees
- Online Review
- Verified
Crystal Infoway has developed an end-to-end academic publishing technology stack for an IT company. The goal is to streamline the manuscript processing, peer-review operations, and automated formatting.
Crystal Infoway has delivered tangible improvements across the academic publishing workflow, reflected through efficiency gains, quality improvements, and platform adoption. The team has demonstrated a structured and responsive project management approach throughout the engagement.
The client submitted this review online.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your company and position.
I am the Chief Operating Officer of Optemyze
Describe what your company does in a single sentence.
Optemyze empowers an integrated academic research ecosystem - streamlines research manuscript submission and management, and enables rigorous peer-review workflows - to accelerate high-quality research publication.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What specific goals or objectives did you hire Crystal Infoway to accomplish?
- To design and build a seamless manuscript submission & workflow management platform that enables authors to submit, track, revise, and manage research papers efficiently while integrating editorial and publication processes.
- To develop a robust peer-review management system that automates reviewer assignment, evaluation workflows, communication, and decision lifecycle, ensuring timely, rigorous, and transparent academic review.
- To build an automated manuscript formatting engine that instantly converts author submissions into journal-compliant templates, ensuring correct structure, citations, styling, and layout, reducing editorial effort and speeding time-to-publication.
SOLUTION
How did you find Crystal Infoway?
Upwork
Why did you select Crystal Infoway over others?
- High ratings
- Great culture fit
- Good value for cost
- Company values aligned
How many teammates from Crystal Infoway were assigned to this project?
2-5 Employees
Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.
Crystal Infoway was engaged to design, develop, and implement a unified academic publishing technology stack to streamline manuscript processing, peer-review operations, and automated formatting.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION & WORKFLOW PLATFORM
Crystal Infoway is responsible for developing an end-to-end system for authors, editors, and administrators to manage the full lifecycle of research manuscripts.
Scope of Work:
Build author onboarding, profile management, and secure submission workflows
Enable submission tracking
Editorial dashboard to manage, assign roles, and oversee progress
Key Deliverables:
Role-based access & authentication
Submission and revision workflow engine
Tracking dashboard & status timelines
PEER-REVIEW AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Crystal Infoway implementedd a structured peer-review management system that ensures transparency, quality, and timely evaluation.
Scope of Work:
Automated/assisted reviewer assignment workflows
Multi-stage review flow: desk-screening, peer review, re-review
Communication loops among editors, authors, and reviewers
Key Deliverables:
Review dashboard for editors
Review and feedback workspace
Role-based privileges - root, admin, reviewer
AUTOMATED MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING ENGINE
Crystal Infoway will deliver a smart formatting engine that transforms raw manuscript submissions into journal-ready templates.
Scope of Work:
Automated conversion to journal-compliant structure & styling
Correct formatting of headings, paragraphs, citations, tables, references
Integration with Optimus for seamless processing
Key Deliverables:
Standardized journal templates
Export-ready files for production/publication
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
The engagement with Crystal Infoway delivered tangible improvements across the academic publishing workflow, reflected through efficiency gains, quality improvements, and platform adoption.
Key measurable outcomes include:
Manuscript Submission & Workflow Platform
60% reduction in time required for authors to complete the submission process
40% faster editorial handling through structured workflow & tracking
100% visibility across the manuscript lifecycle via real-time dashboards
Peer-Review Automation System
Reduction in review cycle time from ~6–8 weeks to 3–5 weeks
Online review and feedback flow made tracking much easier for both Reviewers and Editors
Automated reminders reduced follow-up workload by 50%
Overarching Impact
Higher throughput of manuscripts processed end-to-end
Lower operational dependency on manual intervention
Improved author & reviewer experience resulting in higher engagement & satisfaction
Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?
Crystal Infoway demonstrated a structured and responsive project management approach throughout the engagement. They followed an iterative delivery model with regular checkpoints, ensuring transparency across requirements, development progress, and timelines.
Delivery Timeliness
Most major milestones were delivered on schedule, with clear communication in cases where additional time was required due to scope refinement or complexity. Revised timelines were always aligned collaboratively and met thereafter.
Responsiveness to Needs:
The team was highly receptive to feedback and evolving requirements. They maintained active communication via scheduled reviews and ad-hoc discussions, incorporated changes efficiently, and provided workable options when constraints were identified.
Open to Change and Evolution:
Their willingness to adapt to new functional expectations and accommodate enhancements helped accelerate product maturity.
Overall, they maintained strong project coordination, ensured the timely delivery of core features, and demonstrated a flexible, solution-oriented mindset throughout the build.
What was your primary form of communication with Crystal Infoway?
- Virtual Meeting
- Email or Messaging App
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
What stood out most about Crystal Infoway was their ability to convert even the complex workflows into practical and user-intuitive digital solutions.
Their team quickly grasped the nuances of scholarly submission, peer-review lifecycles, compliance requirements, and formatting standards - showing strong domain learning agility.
They consistently demonstrated:
Proactive problem-solving with thoughtful technical suggestions
High flexibility in adapting to evolving functional needs
A solution-first mindset focused on delivering value rather than simply fulfilling scope
Strong communication that kept stakeholders aligned throughout the build
This combination of domain absorption, engineering capability, and responsive collaboration made them distinctive and highly effective.
Are there any areas for improvement or something Crystal Infoway could have done differently?
Our overall experience was highly positive, and we encourage Crystal Infoway to continue expanding into emerging technology-competency areas, such as AI/ML-driven workflows, data analytics & visualization to further broaden their capabilities and market reach.
The team demonstrated many strengths throughout the engagement, remaining responsive, collaborative, and consistently committed to delivering a quality solution.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS