Notification of Revision Upload

We’re using OJS 3.0.2. Recently an author uploaded a revised manuscript, but the editor-in-chief (who is automatically assigned all manuscripts) did not receive a notification that this had happened. Is there a setting we can change so that assigned editors receive notification of uploaded files? Or is this a new feature we need to request?

Thank you!

Hi,

OJS3 will send a notification if the author selects that she is uploading a revision of an existing file. There is a pull down menu in the upload modal where the default option is “This is not a revision of a existing file” and the other options are the names of the existing files.

What has probably happened is that the author has chosen the default option. You will still see an uploaded file in the revisions but the new file is not regarded as an revision of the earlier file. Everything will work out this way as well, but I think there will be no notification.

A good question is that should there always be a notification if a new file is uploaded by the author? @asmecher?

Hi @akoehler,

Can you confirm whether @ajnyga’s suspicion is correct?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Yes, @ajnyga is correct: it would be helpful if we had email notification whenever the author uploads a new file.

Hi all,

Agreed. I’ve filed this at Extend "revisions uploaded" notification to include new files · Issue #2618 · pkp/pkp-lib · GitHub for implementation.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

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for me, we try ojs3 master, there is no notification or mail to editor when a new revision is available.

thank you

It should, unless your in your user settings you have turned of the “A revised file has been uploaded for your editorial consideration in {$stage}.” notifications and/or emails.

ps. I think that it is not recommended to use the master branch in a production site?

Thank you for reply

We use ojs master for development (3.0.2 in production) .
So for our problem of notification, it seems to be the same as Notification when author uploads revisions
Can you point me in the code the place where the mail notification is triggered ?

thank you
(i also post a issue for revision upload : see Upload Revision canceled but still in revision list · Issue #2794 · pkp/pkp-lib · GitHub )

We are using version 3.0.2.0 and were not receiving notifications regardless of if the author submitted a revision or a non-revision file.

Confirmed that the editor had all email notifications enabled, including “A revised file has been uploaded for your editorial consideration in {$stage}.”

There is also no new ‘task’ notification, nor any change in the submissions listing, so there is basically no way for an editor to know if a file has been uploaded without manually checking the history on a submission.

Other notifications are being received as expected.

To replicate:

  • Author creates a submission, requests reviewer
  • Add reviewer to participant list
  • Reviewer clicks ‘send to review’
  • Author uploads a new revision: no notification is sent

We discovered that notifications will be received only if the reviewer requested revisions prior to the revisions being submitted, and will continue to receive revision notifications until the status of the submission is changed to the next phase. Once a request for revisions has been made, then all uploads will generate a notification, including those where the option “This is not a revision of an existing file” is selected.

Ideally we would like to receive notifications of revisions/file uploads regardless of whether the reviewer requested them or not - is this something that is possible?

Hi @freeform-sg,

Have a look at this thread and the linked issue entry, and feel free to add feedback to the proposal there.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Hi @asmecher, thank you for sharing that thread. Unfortunately, no, that solution would not offer any benefit whatsoever to this issue. That solution provides the AUTHOR with reassurance that their submission was received, this issue is that the REVIEWERS do not receive any notifications of new revisions if the revisions were submitted without a reviewer having first requested revisions.

An author is permitted to upload revisions, but no one will ever know about them unless someone first asked for them, that’s a problem, there should, ideally, be a notification to reviewers after any new document upload.

Hi @freeform-sg,

I see that I assumed you were talking about author/editor communication. For author/reviewer communication, it’s important that the editor mediate it – for scholarly integrity, and to ensure double-blindness, if that’s important to you. Once a review round is started, the editor has designated a version for review, and the author shouldn’t be able to interfere. Once the round is finished, the editor will record a decision; if author revisions are needed, and the reviewers need to vet them, then the editor should start a second round.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

I believe what happened is that the editor made the request outside of the system due to not having 100% understanding of how the system worked, they are now aware that they must initiate the review via the system rather than verbal so I think they are OK for now.

Hi @asmecher,

I think feeform-sg must have actually been talking about the author/editor communication. In OJS 3, someone with the Reviewer role cannot send a submission to review. Maybe his journal uses the Reviewer label for someone with an editorial role?

In any case, what’s the current status of the issue in question? Here’s the deal for the journal I’m an admin for: We are using OJS 3.1.0.1. There is an enabled email template REVISED_VERSION_NOTIFY, which used to get used in OJS 2. It has never been used since the upgrade to OJS 3 and those with an Editor role have not gotten ANY email notification when a revision has been uploaded for any submission at any stage in the workflow. I did a test, with me assigned the Editor role for a new submission that I sent to review and then did Request Revisions, checking the box for there to be a review of the revision. I logged in as the bogus author and used Upload File under Revisions to upload a new file, selecting the option for it to be a revision of the original submission. Under my Notifications tab (as Editor), boxes were checked to allow all notifications. Reviewing the activity log for the submission, I can see that a revision was uploaded. But, I did NOT get any email notification concerning the submission of the revision. My editorial team would really like to receive email notifications about this kind of event.

Hi @pmfarrell,

The REVISED_VERSION_NOTIFY email template is used in OJS 3.1.1, but not OJS 3.1.0. I’d suggest upgrading to the latest release. (FYI, I expect to release a new 3.1.1 build in the next few days.)

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

Hi @asmecher. Thanks for your response. I will do the upgrade.