We are excited to announce that the two journals—Exploration of Targeted Anti-tumor Therapy (ETAT) and Exploration of Immunology (EI)—have officially started using ARES System. With this update, all 14 Open Exploration journals are now using ARES System, a user-friendly platform for manuscript submission and peer review, designed to optimize workflows for authors, editors, and reviewers while ensuring secure, efficient processing for publishers.

All Open Exploration journals use ARES System for submission and peer review management, which means that all journals now share a central reviewer database. This enables efficient allocation of reviewer resources, unifies quality control standards, and safeguards academic fairness. Furthermore, our manuscript production system has collaborated with ARES System, simplifying editors’ workflows and ensuring the rapid flow of manuscripts. We believe that ARES System will provide strong momentum for our development.

On June 12, 2025, the ARES System Development Report was released, providing a detailed account of its development and current status. Over the past four years, the ARES System has processed over 1,600 submissions, and what’s more remarkable, even with this sustained high volume of submissions, it has sustained efficient and high-quality peer review—with an average of 3.25 days of reply invitation and 6.21 days of review report submission, with an average of 4.59/5 review speed score and 4.32/5 overall review quality score. Currently, the ARES System supported by over 5,700 reviewers, and has achieved stable operations across both service scale and processing efficiency.

Since launched, ARES system has undergone multiple rounds of systematic technological upgrades. These enhancements have not only significantly improved its operational stability but also refined its functional capabilities, ultimately forging a distinct competitive edge:

●  Flexible time management and status control: reviewers can set their status as “Available for Review” or “Unavailable” to avoid being disturbed by a large number of review invitations.

●  Two-way matching for efficient peer review: Recommended by ARES system and editor self-filtering.

●  One-stop review management: Reviewer can manage all review tasks and communications in one place.

●  Point reward: Reviewers earn redeemable points for their contributions (1 point = 1 USD).

We believe that the collaboration between Open Exploration and the ARES System will surely contribute to the development of global scientific research. Open Exploration will continue to embrace innovation with an open mindset, using ARES System as a bridge to connect more authors and reviewers, and jointly build a smoother and more inclusive academic ecosystem.