I’m using OJS 2 - it’s a historic record of our journal now that we have moved to a publisher with their own systems.
We have a large number of registered users with no role. As part of the transfer to the publisher, and to be GDPR compliant, I would like to permanently delete this user data, as I can’t see a business reason for us to keep it.
However, there doesn’t seem to be a way to do it. I don’t have the option to merge the accounts or delete them in the ‘Users with no role’ section. PKP have said they could do it for me for a fee, but it’s something I’l need to keep doing as time goes on.
How are other people managing this data, with regard to GDPR? I can’t be the only one wanting to get rid of data we no longer have a good reason to keep!
Any suggestions welcome!
Hi @Kitty44a,
OJS does not allow deleting users completely because of the need to maintain submission history. However, you should be able to merge user accounts. Instructions on how to do that in OJS 2 are here: Merge Users
If you’re running into specific issues when trying to do that, please provide more detailed information.
Thanks,
Amanda Stevens
Public Knowledge Project Team
Thanks Amanda. I don’t think I can use the merge accounts function for users with no role? It doesn’t seem to be an option if they aren’t registered with a role.
Hi @Kitty44a,
Yes, that’s true. You will have to assign a role to the users first and then you can merge them.
Best,
Amanda Stevens
Public Knowledge Project Team
Is there a way to add a new role to the old version of OJS, say something like ‘Inactives’? If I have to give them all a role, I’d like it to be separate from all the active roles, so it’s easier to merge them in larger groups. I’ve got a lot of people in the ‘users with no role’ category so if I have to do each one individually, it will take months!
Hi @Kitty44a,
It’s not possible to create a new role in OJS 2. But is there a role that you don’t use or that you have few active users in, that you could add all of the inactive users to and easily distinguish them?
Best,
Amanda Stevens
Public Knowledge Project Team