Issues with assigned role in OMP

[alexandraFO]

In our installation of OMP (version 3.4.0.7), we have an issue with the roles of users.

When we create a new publisher on our platform, the default settings for roles with permission level of author is:

• Author: Users are allowed self-registration
• Chapter Author: Users are allowed self-registration
• Volume Editor: Users are not allowed self-registration

When a new user signs up for the publisher, even though they are allowed to sign up as an Author or Chapter Author, they are not presented with this option at sign-up. Therefore, they will just sign up with the role Reader.

If a user then begins a submission, they will automatically get added an author-level-role. However, for some reason, they get the Chapter Author role, which as a default do not have access to the submission-step. Therefore, they then get an error during one of the steps in the submission process (often during step 2: Upload files) and are not able to continue/complete the submission.

If we then remove the possibility of self-sign-up for the Chapter Author role, then the user will instead get the Author role by default, if they begin a submission, and everything is good. But this is not optimal.

We also have some cases, where a user will submit an edited volume, and therefore we need the users to be able to self-sign-up for the Volume Editor role. However, if we allow this, then this is the role, that a non-author-user will get, when they begin a new submission, instead of getting the Author role. Since it is not very often that a user needs to be Volume Editor, it is the most user-friendly option, if the Author–role is always preferred by the system.

So to sum up: I wish that a user, who do not have a role on the author permission level, and who begins a submission, will get assigned the role of Author - not Chapter Author or Volume Editor. Only if the Author role for some reason is not available, then one of the other two roles should be assigned to the user, but Author should always be the preferred one/default.

[rcgillis]

@alexandraFO

When a new user signs up for the publisher, even though they are allowed to sign up as an Author or Chapter Author, they are not presented with this option at sign-up. Therefore, they will just sign up with the role Reader.

Do you have self-registration allowed for each of these roles in your settings: https://docs.pkp.sfu.ca/learning-omp/3.4/user-accounts#creating-new-roles ?

@alexandraFO

If a user then begins a submission, they will automatically get added an author-level-role. However, for some reason, they get the Chapter Author role, which as a default do not have access to the submission-step.

In the User settings, do you have the submission stage selected for settings for this Role ?

@alexandraFO

We also have some cases, where a user will submit an edited volume, and therefore we need the users to be able to self-sign-up for the Volume Editor role. However, if we allow this, then this is the role, that a non-author-user will get, when they begin a new submission, instead of getting the Author role. Since it is not very often that a user needs to be Volume Editor, it is the most user-friendly option, if the Author–role is always preferred by the system.

If this is the case, perhaps it is best to not allow self-registration for this role, and only assign in cases where this is necessary, at an Editor or Journal Manager’s discretion?

@alexandraFO

So to sum up: I wish that a user, who do not have a role on the author permission level, and who begins a submission, will get assigned the role of Author - not Chapter Author or Volume Editor. Only if the Author role for some reason is not available, then one of the other two roles should be assigned to the user, but Author should always be the preferred one/default.

I don’t know enough about the operation of your press and your specific workflows to know if this would work, but perhaps the best option is to only allow self-registration for the Author role and assign the other roles when deemed necessary. I don’t think OMP has other ways to accommodate this, because roles can either be open to self-registration or not. If a user mistakenly enrolls for a role that they should not have, it is best to let Editors/Press managers assign that role manually (more work on their part, I know, but perhaps the only way to address this within OMP’s current functionality).

-Roger
PKP Team

[alexandraFO]

Dear Roger,

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, our initial settings regarding self-registration was not altered from the default settings, meaning that initially users were allowed to self-register for the role of author and chapter author.

We have done as you suggested and disabled self-registration for the role of chapter author and author to work around the problems.

But I do not think this is very optimal, so my post was not a request for a quick-fix with the current functionality of OMP, because we already found that (by altering the default settings by preventing users self-registering as Chapter Authors as you also suggested). My post was a request to change the default settings in a future OMP version, because these default settings are not very logical or helpful. Sorry I was not more clear.

When you create a new press in OMP, the roles of Author and Chapter Author both have self-registration enabled (other roles with self-registration enabled by default is Reader and External Reviewer). However, the Chapter Author role do not have access to the Submission stage by default.

If I do not make any changes, then when a new user is created, they cannot sign up as Author or Chapter Author - they are not presented with this option at the sign-up form. They are only presented with the option of signing up as External Reviewer or Reader.

If this user, who have signed up with either the External Reviewer or Reader role and who do not have a role at the Author-level (which can be Author, Chapter Author, Translater or Volume Editor), begins a submission, they will automatically get added a role at the Author-level. But for some reason, they will get the role of Chapter Author, not Author. This is not something, we have decided, to my best knowledge, it must be the way OMP is built - That the role of Chapter Author is the role, the user will get when beginning a submission without having an Author-level-role. When the most logical option would be that they would get the role of Author. So I hope you could change this in the future, so the role of Author will be the preferred one over Chapter Author and Volume Editor, since we would very much like the option of having users be able to self-register as these two roles as well, but at the moment, this is not possible.