The Workflow Settings allow you to configure various parts of the journal’s editorial workflow. The workflow setting has 4 main tabs.
Use this section to configure the submission process.
This section determines what types of metadata will be collected during the submission process, such as keywords and references.
Components are the file types authors may upload to the site. Typically, one file will be the article text, and others can include interview transcripts, data, images, etc. The components available for the author to choose from when making their submission are listed here.
Using the links provided, you can change the Order of the components (how they will be listed to the submitting author), Add a Component (if something you need is not included by default – e.g., Video), or Restore the Defaults (if someone has made too many modifications and you just want to reset everything).
You can also edit each component by selecting the blue arrow to the left of the component name. This will reveal an Edit link and a Delete link.
Name: This is the name of the component, as presented to the author.
Options: Choose how the files associated with this component will be treated and displayed. Anything that is marked as a Dependent file will not be published.
File Type Grouping: Determine whether this component is associated with the submission document, artwork, or is a supplementary file.
Key: Optional short symbol for the component.
In the Submission Preparation Checklist, Authors must check off that they agree with each item on this list. Use the Order link to change the order of the items, use the Add Item link to create a new item, and use the blue arrow to the left of the item name to Edit an existing item.
Use this field to add information for your authors that will be useful during the submission process. This information will be displayed on the journal website.
Author Guidelines: Recommended guidelines include required file types for the submission document, the preferred citation format, or any elements that should be present in the submission.
Copyright Notice: This is the author copyright agreement between the author and the journal, and the author agrees to these terms at the time of submission.
This tab allows you to configure your journal’s review process.
Default Review Mode: Select whether your journal will follow a double blind, blind, or open review process.
Restrict File Access:Check this off if you want the reviewer to respond to the request before accessing the submission files.
One-click Reviewer Access: Enable (default) the first option to provide reviewers with one-click access to the review, bypassing the need to go to the website, login, and find the submission. For security reasons with this option, editors are not able to modify email addresses or add CCs or BCCs prior to sending invitations to reviewers.
Default Review Deadlines: Indicate how long reviewers have to decide to accept or decline a review request from the editor, and how long they have to make a recommendation.
Automated Email Reminders: Reviewers will automatically be notified when they are assigned to a review; however, you may wish to enable or disable reminder emails for reviewers. Use the drop down menu to select either the number of days or “Never Remind” under “Send a reminder if a reviewer has not responded to a review request within the following time (days) after response due date” to set the number of days that can pass after the due date before reviewers will be reminded to accept or reject a review request.
Use the drop down menu to select either the number of days or “Never Remind” under “Send a reminder if a reviewer has not responded to a review request within the following time (days) after response due date” to set the number of days that can pass after the due date before reviewers will be reminded to make a recommendation for a submission.
Hit the Save button to record your changes.
Note that some system settings must be configured by the Site Administrator to send email. See the Administrator’s Guide for more information.
Review Guidelines: Provide your reviewers with criteria for judging a submission’s suitability for publication in the press, which may include instructions for preparing an effective and helpful review.
Competing Interests: Add your competing interest disclosure policy statement here.
Review forms provide reviewers with a set of questions to respond to. This can help focus their feedback in ways that is more useful to you.
Create Review Form: Use the Create Review Form link to make a new form.
The Description and Instructions provide information about the form and when to use it for Journal Managers and Editors. This content is not included on the form that reviewers see. You can add instructions and guidelines for reviewers under Review Guidelines (below).
Back at the Review Forms page, select the blue arrow to the left of the form name to reveal the Edit link.
Select the Edit link and complete the form.
Form Items are form questions.
You can choose whether to make the question mandatory for reviewers and visible to the author.
You can then choose the type of response, including:
Response Options are the selections you make available for the checkboxes, radio buttons, or dropdown menus. A good example of a checkbox response is a Likert scale, where the reviewer must choose only one option: E.g., Good, Neutral, Bad.
Remember to hit the Save button to record your changes.
Use the Preview tab to test out the form.
Once you send the form to a reviewer you will no longer be able to edit it because that would change the record for existing reviews using that form. If you want to make changes to the review form at that point you can copy the existing form and create a new updated version.
Blind Review: Check this box to display a link for instructions on ensuring all submission files are anonymized.
The Journal Manager and Editors may upload documents that they would like to share with the other users in the Publisher Library. Any document added in this area will be visible within a user’s Document Library in their manuscript’s Submission Library.
You can also upload a file here that you would like to be publicly accessible via a URL, which you can link to from other parts of your site, including the author guidelines, submission checklist, or a static page.
Suggested forms that can be uploaded in this area can include the galley approval form, supplemental material cover page, and other forms related to your journals workflow.
To add a file here, click ‘Add a file’ on the top right corner of the Publisher Library box.
Name: Title of Document you want to appear to the user
Type: Select Marketing, Permission, Reports, Other
Public Access: Enabling this will allow users to download this file using the hyperlink provided if it is hyperlinked in other parts of your journal site.
The section allows you to configure the emails that are sent out from the system.
Signature: The information in this field will be added to the bottom of every email sent out by the system.
Bounce Address: A notice will be sent to this email address of any system-sent emails that fail to deliver, such as when the targeted email address is no longer valid.
OJS facilitates work flow communication through the use of prepared email messages. You can view and modify these prepared email templates here. Please note, some configuration is required to send email. See the Administrator’s Guide for more information.
When you edit an email template, you change what it will say every time it is used. For emails that are sent voluntarily, such as a message sent to a reviewer asking them to review a submission, you can also change the contents of the message at the time of sending it. This changes the contents for that message only.
To edit a template:
All of the templates are enabled by default when you install OJS, but you can disable some templates by clicking the Disable button. Most of the templates that can be disabled are messages that are sent automatically by OJS. Disabling the template will mean that the automatic notification will not be sent.
To disable a template:
If you have edited email templates but want to reverse the edits and restore them to their default contents, you can reset them:
Click the button Add Email Template to create a custom email template that you can use when notifying a user or adding a participant to a submission. Note that in versions earlier than OJS 3.1.2, you can create a custom email templates but it will not be available to use at any stage in the workflow.
Click here to filter email templates based on the following: Enabled, Disabled, Custom Template. You can also filter email templates based on who it was sent from and who it is sent to.
There is no direct email attachment option in OJS 3, but you can upload and share public files via the Publisher Library:
You can also choose to modify an existing email template with this URL, or share it publicly on the website.
OJS 3.2 now provides a description for every template outlining the sender and recipient, stage of workflow.
The table below provides an overview of the prepared email templates found in OJS 3.2. Note that “Editor” refers to any type of editor (e.g. journal editor, production editor, etc.). The following columns appear in the table:
| Template | Description | Sender | Recipient | Workflow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CITATION_EDITOR_AUTHOR_QUERY | This email allows copyeditors to request additional information about references from authors. | Copyeditor | Author | Copyediting |
| COPYEDIT_REQUEST | This email is sent by a Section Editor to a submission’s Copyeditor to request that they begin the copyediting process. It provides information about the submission and how to access it. | Section Editor | Copyeditor | Copyediting |
| EDITOR_ASSIGN | This email notifies a Section Editor that the Editor has assigned them the task of overseeing a submission through the editing process. It provides information about the submission and how to access the journal site. | Editor | Section Editor | Submission |
| EDITOR_DECISION_ACCEPT | This email from the Editor or Section Editor to an Author notifies them of a final “accept submission” decision regarding their submission. | Editor/Section Editor | Author | Review |
| EDITOR_DECISION_DECLINE | This email from the Editor or Section Editor to an Author notifies them of a final “decline” decision regarding their submission. | Editor/Section Editor | Author | Review |
| EDITOR_DECISION_INITIAL_DECLINE | This email is send to the author if the editor declines his submission initially, before the review stage | Editor/Section Editor | Author | Submission |
| EDITOR_DECISION_RESUBMIT | This email from the Editor or Section Editor to an Author notifies them of a final “resubmit” decision regarding their submission. | Editor/Section Editor | Author | Review |
| EDITOR_DECISION_REVISIONS | This email from the Editor or Section Editor to an Author notifies them of a final “revisions required” decision regarding their submission. | Editor/Section Editor | Author | Review |
| EDITOR_DECISION_SEND_TO_EXTERNAL | This email from the Editor or Section Editor to an Author notifies them that their submission is being sent to an external review. | Editor/Section Editor | Author | Review |
| EDITOR_DECISION_SEND_TO_PRODUCTION | This email from the Editor or Section Editor to an Author notifies them that their submission is being sent to production. | Editor/Section Editor | Author | Production |
| EDITOR_RECOMMENDATION | This email from the recommending Editor or Section Editor to the decision making Editors or Section Editors notifies them of a final recommendation regarding the submission. | Recommending Editor/Section Editor | Editor/Section Editor | Review |
| EMAIL_LINK | This email template provides a registered reader with the opportunity to send information about an article to somebody who may be interested. It is available via the Reading Tools and must be enabled by the Journal Manager in the Reading Tools Administration page. | Journal Manager | Reader | |
| LAYOUT_COMPLETE | This email from the Layout Editor to the Section Editor notifies them that the layout process has been completed. | Layout Editor | Editor | Production |
| LAYOUT_REQUEST | This email from the Section Editor to the Layout Editor notifies them that they have been assigned the task of performing layout editing on a submission. It provides information about the submission and how to access it. | Editor | Layout Editor | Production |
| LOCKSS_EXISTING_ARCHIVE | This email requests the keeper of a LOCKSS archive to consider including this journal in their archive. It provides the URL to the journal’s LOCKSS Publisher Manifest. | LOCKSS | Journal Manager | Post-Production/Indexing |
| LOCKSS_NEW_ARCHIVE | This email encourages the recipient to participate in the LOCKSS initiative and include this journal in the archive. It provides information about the LOCKSS initiative and ways to become involved. | LOCKSS | Journal Manager | Post-Production/Indexing |
| MANUAL_PAYMENT_NOTIFICATION | This email template is used to notify a journal manager contact that a manual payment was requested. | Author | Journals Manager | |
| NOTIFICATION | The email is sent to registered users that have selected to have this type of notification emailed to them. | System | Registered User | |
| NOTIFICATION_CENTER_DEFAULT | The default (blank) message used in the Notification Center Message Listbuilder. | |||
| OFR_CANCEL_RESERVATION | This email template is used to notify the editor for a cancelled OFR item reservation. | Reviewer | Editor | Review |
| OFR_NEW_RESERVATION | This email template is used to notify the editor for a reserved OFR item. | Reviewer | Editor | Review |
| OPEN_ACCESS_NOTIFY | This email is sent to registered readers who have requested to receive a notification email when an issue becomes open access. | Registered Reviewer | System | Publish |
| ORCID_COLLECT_AUTHOR_ID | This email template is used to collect the ORCID id’s from authors. | Journals Manager/System | Author | Submission |
| ORCID_REQUEST_AUTHOR_AUTHORIZATION | This email template is used to request ORCID record access from authors. | Journals Manager/System | Author | Submission |
| PASSWORD_RESET | This email is sent to a registered user when they have successfully reset their password following the process described in the PASSWORD_RESET_CONFIRM email. | System | Registered User | |
| PASSWORD_RESET_CONFIRM | This email is sent to a registered user when they indicate that they have forgotten their password or are unable to login. It provides a URL they can follow to reset their password. | System | Registered User | |
| New Issue Published | This email is sent to registered readers via the “Notify Users” link in the Editor’s User Home. It notifies readers of a new issue and invites them to visit the journal at a supplied URL. | System | Registered Users | Publish |
| REVIEWER_REGISTER | This email is sent to a newly registered reviewer to welcome them to the system and provide them with a record of their username and password. | System | Reviewer | |
| REVIEW_ACK | This email is sent by a Section Editor to confirm receipt of a completed review and thank the reviewer for their contributions. | Section Editor/Editor | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_CANCEL | This email is sent by the Section Editor to a Reviewer who has a submission review in progress to notify them that the review has been cancelled. | Reviewer | Editor/Section Editor | Review |
| REVIEW_CONFIRM | This email is sent by a Reviewer to the Section Editor in response to a review request to notify the Section Editor that the review request has been accepted and will be completed by the specified date. | Reviewer | Editor/Section Editor | Review |
| REVIEW_DECLINE | This email is sent by a Reviewer to the Section Editor in response to a review request to notify the Section Editor that the review request has been declined. | Reviewer | Editor/Section Editor | Review |
| REVIEW_REINSTATE | This email is sent by the Section Editor to a Reviewer who has a submission review in progress to notify them that a cancelled review has been reinstated. | Editor/Section Editor | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REMIND | This email is sent by a Section Editor to remind a reviewer that their review is due. | Editor/Section Editor | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REMIND_AUTO | This email is automatically sent when a reviewer’s due date elapses (see Review Options under Settings > Workflow > Review) and one-click reviewer access is disabled. Scheduled tasks must be enabled and configured (see the site configuration file). | System | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REMIND_AUTO_ONECLICK | This email is automatically sent when a reviewer’s due date elapses (see Review Options under Settings > Workflow > Review) and one-click reviewer access is enabled. Scheduled tasks must be enabled and configured (see the site configuration file). | System | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REMIND_ONECLICK | This email is sent by a Section Editor to remind a reviewer that their review is due. | Editor/Section Editor | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REQUEST | This email from the Section Editor to a Reviewer requests that the reviewer accept or decline the task of reviewing a submission. It provides information about the submission such as the title and abstract, a review due date, and how to access the submission itself. This message is used when the Standard Review Process is selected in Management > Settings > Workflow > Review. (Otherwise see REVIEW_REQUEST_ATTACHED.) | Editor/Section Editor | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REQUEST_ATTACHED | This email is sent by the Section Editor to a Reviewer to request that they accept or decline the task of reviewing a submission. It includes the submission as an attachment. This message is used when the Email-Attachment Review Process is selected in Management > Settings > Workflow > Review. (Otherwise see REVIEW_REQUEST.) | Editor/Section Editor | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REQUEST_ATTACHED_SUBSEQUENT | This email is sent by the Section Editor to a Reviewer to request that they accept or decline the task of reviewing a submission for a second or greater round of review. It includes the submission as an attachment. This message is used when the Email-Attachment Review Process is selected in Management > Settings > Workflow > Review. (Otherwise see REVIEW_REQUEST_SUBSEQUENT.) | Editor/Section Editor | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REQUEST_ONECLICK | This email from the Section Editor to a Reviewer requests that the reviewer accept or decline the task of reviewing a submission. It provides information about the submission such as the title and abstract, a review due date, and how to access the submission itself. This message is used when the Standard Review Process is selected in Management > Settings > Workflow > Review, and one-click reviewer access is enabled. | Editor/Section Editor | Reviewer | |
| REVIEW_REQUEST_ONECLICK_SUBSEQUENT | This email from the Section Editor to a Reviewer requests that the reviewer accept or decline the task of reviewing a submission for a second or greater round of review. It provides information about the submission such as the title and abstract, a review due date, and how to access the submission itself. This message is used when the Standard Review Process is selected in Management > Settings > Workflow > Review, and one-click reviewer access is enabled. | Editor/Section Editor | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REQUEST_REMIND_AUTO | This email is automatically sent when a reviewer’s confirmation due date elapses (see Review Options under Settings > Workflow > Review) and one-click reviewer access is disabled. Scheduled tasks must be enabled and configured (see the site configuration file). | System | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REQUEST_REMIND_AUTO_ONECLICK | This email is automatically sent when a reviewer’s confirmation due date elapses (see Review Options under Settings > Workflow > Review) and one-click reviewer access is enabled. Scheduled tasks must be enabled and configured (see the site configuration file). | System | Reviewer | Review |
| REVIEW_REQUEST_SUBSEQUENT | This email from the Section Editor to a Reviewer requests that the reviewer accept or decline the task of reviewing a submission for a second or greater round of review. It provides information about the submission such as the title and abstract, a review due date, and how to access the submission itself. This message is used when the Standard Review Process is selected in Management > Settings > Workflow > Review. (Otherwise see REVIEW_REQUEST_ATTACHED_SUBSEQUENT.) | Editor/Section Editor | Reviewer | Review |
| REVISED_VERSION_NOTIFY | This email is automatically sent to the assigned editor when author uploads a revised version of an article. | System | Editor/Section Editor | Review |
| STATISTICS_REPORT_NOTIFICATION | This email is automatically sent monthly to editors and journal managers to provide them a system health overview. | System | Editor/Journals Manager | |
| SUBMISSION_ACK | This email, when enabled, is automatically sent to an author when he or she completes the process of submitting a manuscript to the journal. It provides information about tracking the submission through the process and thanks the author for the submission. | System | Author | Submission |
| SUBMISSION_ACK_NOT_USER | This email, when enabled, is automatically sent to the other authors who are not users within OJS specified during the submission process. | System | Author (not registered in OJS) | Submission |
| SUBSCRIPTION_AFTER_EXPIRY | This email notifies a subscriber that their subscription has expired. It provides the journal’s URL along with instructions for access. | System | Subscriber | |
| SUBSCRIPTION_AFTER_EXPIRY_LAST | This email notifies a subscriber that their subscription has expired. It provides the journal’s URL along with instructions for access. | System | Subscriber | |
| SUBSCRIPTION_BEFORE_EXPIRY | This email notifies a subscriber that their subscription will soon expire. It provides the journal’s URL along with instructions for access. | System | Subscriber | |
| SUBSCRIPTION_NOTIFY | This email notifies a registered reader that the Manager has created a subscription for them. It provides the journal’s URL along with instructions for access. | System | Subscriber | |
| SUBSCRIPTION_PURCHASE_INDL | This email notifies the Subscription Manager that an individual subscription has been purchased online. It provides summary information about the subscription and a quick access link to the purchased subscription. | System | Subscription Manager | |
| SUBSCRIPTION_PURCHASE_INSTL | This email notifies the Subscription Manager that an institutional subscription has been purchased online. It provides summary information about the subscription and a quick access link to the purchased subscription. | System | Subscription Manager | |
| SUBSCRIPTION_RENEW_INDL | This email notifies the Subscription Manager that an individual subscription has been renewed online. It provides summary information about the subscription and a quick access link to the renewed subscription. | System | Subscription Manager | |
| SUBSCRIPTION_RENEW_INSTL | This email notifies the Subscription Manager that an institutional subscription has been renewed online. It provides summary information about the subscription and a quick access link to the renewed subscription. | System | Subscription Manager | |
| USER_REGISTER | This email is sent to a newly registered user to welcome them to the system and provide them with a record of their username and password. | System | User | |
| USER_VALIDATE | This email is sent to a newly registered user to validate their email account. | System | User |