After delivering some training in OJS 3, some of our editors have requested the possibility of adding a cc and bcc field when sending emails from OJS. For example when they send comments to authors (See screenshot)
I see a workaround may be to disabled One-Click Reviewer Access, but we wish to retain that feature while also being able to add CC/BCC to emails we send.
In 3.4 we are working on improvements to the email selection, draft and preview workflow, which would include the ability to add CC/BCC. However, we won’t be able to implement this for all emails in 3.4. We hope to support all email sending eventually, but 3.4 will probably only support discussions and maybe editor decisions.
Recenlly a colleague contacted me referring to this post and arguing that it is a “security issue involving the leaking of private user data” so I have the impulse of sharing some thoughts with you all, just in case somebody else arrives here with doubts.
Let’s see… I need to be crystal clear with this and I will challenge in a duel at the break of dawn, with anyone who defends that what I say is not true:
This is not against GDPR, as far authors accepted the “Privacy Note”.
This “is not a bug, it’s a feature”… because we like authors know the mail was sent to ALL authors (to coordinate their response to talk to Editorial staff with a single voice).
And… well… the authors know each other, right? They have written and presented the article together, right? For God’s sake, how could this be a personal data leak?
That said, if the feature request is “being able to choose whether the email is CC or BCC” (as Arley asked from the begining) that sounds as a nice addition for very specific contexts and I’m in, but let’s call a spade a spade or we’re going to generate FUD about the software we use and love.
And just a heads-up on the status of this feature request: we’ve added CC and BCC fields to a new email sending toolkit. That’s only been applied to the new editorial decision wizard so far (released in OJS/OMP/OPS 3.4.0), but as we revise older parts of the UI, we’ll be applying the same toolkit there. So you can expect to see CC/BCC fields roll out more broadly.
It’s up to privileged users to use these fields responsibly! We can code for good practice but we can’t force it.
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
Hi Dear @asmecher, I just wanted to kindly check if there have been any updates, suggestions, or ongoing work regarding adding a user search feature to the CC and BCC fields in OJS 3.4. I would appreciate any insights or guidance. Thanks again!
No, not yet, I’m afraid. We do plan to roll out the CC and BCC fields further as they currently stand, but adding a user search/lookup that is GDPR compliant would be tricky. Do you want to copy people who are active on the current submission, or e.g. an editor who is not assigned?
Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team
Thank you for the update. In some cases, I would like to search among active users involved in the current submission, but there are also times when I need to notify an editor who isn’t directly assigned to the submission. Both options would be quite useful for different scenarios.
