Deleting or renaming journal sections - implications across multiple issues

Publishing Practices
1

Hello! I am working with a journal that has four different sections. For various reasons, the editorial team wants to rename one of the sections from “Research Articles” to “Articles” and reassign all of the articles in a specific issue from the other sections to the newly renamed “Articles” section. However, after the issue is published, they want to change the name of the “Articles” section back to “Research Articles,” so that the journal’s submission and publishing workflows will return to their original configuration (i.e., future authors will be able to submit to the “Research Articles” section, and future issues will include a “Research Articles” section).

So, my question: is this possible to do in OJS 3.3.0.5? I know that I can rename the section (under Settings > Journal > Sections), and I also suspect that it would be straightforward to reassign the articles to the renamed section (under Publication > Issue > Section). That said, I don’t know what implications that would have for future issues. Once the issue with the “Articles” section is published, can I then go back to the journal settings, change the name of that section to “Research Articles”, and have that change only affect future submissions and issues (and not affect the issue that was published with the “Articles” section)?

Apologies if this question is convoluted - I did my best to describe it but would be happy to provide more information if that’s helpful. I’d also greatly appreciate any advice you all might have for me. I searched the OJS documentation and also this forum but couldn’t seem to find this use case mentioned anywhere.

2

Hi @devsoper,

Am I understanding correctly that the “Articles” section will not be used at all for the public website, and is just intended more or less for the behind-the-scenes? What is the name of the section that you intend to have on your public site - “Articles”? And, then is the intention that “Research Articles” not be used at all on your public site?

-Roger
PKP Team

4

Hi Roger,

The intention is for “Articles” to be a section heading on the public website for one issue, and then to rename the section so that it appears on the public website as “Research Articles” for future issues.

5

Thanks for clarifying. If you were looking to just make it called “Research Articles” going forward, you could make the “Articles” section inactive and then just create a new section called “Articles” going forward. A potential pitfall that you might run into is that people may submit to a particular section that you know longer use, so you could adjust the settings to make it inactive.

-Roger
PKP Team

6

Thanks, Roger. Is it the case, then, that when you change the name of a section, that change cascades across all published issues of the journal?

7

Hi @devsoper,

That’s correct. If an article was published under a given section under an issue and changes made to that section would take place across all issues.

-Roger
PKP Team

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