[OJS 3.1.2.1] Journal Manager/Editor Cannot Edit Submission Metadata

  • Application Version: 3.1.2.1
  • Description of issue:
    The editor of our journal, with the below permissions, is unable to edit the metadata for submissions (in particular, we’re looking at one submission that is in copyediting, and another that has been published but needs a correction. The top part of the metadata modal is editable (Section, Language, Prefix, Title, Subtitle, Abstract) but the lower part is greyed out and not editable.

The user has these roles

  • Journal Manager
  • Journal Editor
  • Production Editor
  • Copyeditor
  • Layout Editor
  • Author
  • Reviewer

Any suggestions as to what might be going on here? We had the problem on version 3.1.1.4 and upgraded to 3.1.2.1 but still see this issue. I can’t say if this used to work, but they’ve never complained about not being able to edit metadata. (we’ve upgraded through most versions starting with 2.4.6.0, so perhaps something changed at some point?)

In troubleshooting, my admin (Journal Manager only account) was NOT able to edit metadata. I created a test editor account, and it was able to edit, but removed the account before I took note of what roles I had given it. I went through and re-added roles, but could not get back to the point where I was able to edit the metadata. (Is there an audit log for user role modifications?)

Here’s what the editor sees when they try to edit the submission metadata:

greyed-out-metadata

Is there a setting? A specific role? Some other workflow reason that metadata is not editable?

Thanks!

Hi @the_reis,

Are all of the other Editors having this issue as well? As well,I wanted to confirm if you had upgraded from 2.4.6.0 to 3.1.1.4 followed by 3.1.2.1?

Kind Regards,
Patricia Mangahis
Public Knowledge Project Intern

I had checked multiple editors, and had the problem when I first reported it.

But just now, I clicked to log in as another editor and discovered they were able to edit it. I logged in as the editor who reported the problem, and see they are now able to edit the metadata.

I had cleared the caches when troubleshooting, but maybe I wasn’t patient enough afterwards?

For the record, we started with the 2.4.6.0 release and have upgraded as follows:
2.4.6.0
2.4.7.1
2.4.8.0
2.4.8.1
3.1.1.4
3.1.2.1

I will verify with the editor that they are able to modify the metadata and report back here, but I suspect we’ll be good.

Thanks for your response!

Hi the_reis,

Your post came to my attention because you reported being able to log in as other users, using OJS 3.1.2.1 (are you still using it?). I am not being able to do it in version 3.2.1-1. What is your role in your journal. Mine is Journal Manager, besides Editor, Section Editor and Layout Editor.

I posted a topic almost a month ago and did not get any reply. So, I am kind of embedding it here to see if someone interects with it.

There are three years we use OJS version 2.4.8.0 without problems. However, recently a few bugs have appeared. One of them is the following:

The Journal Manager profile is able to access, edit profile and even execute users duties, through the function “Login as” in the users list. I was always able to access any user profile. Recently, this chenged. I am now able to access like 10% of the users profile, and for all the others I get this message when trying to login as the user:

Sorry, you do not have administrative rights over this user. This may be because:

  • The user is a site administrator
  • The user is active in journals you do not manage

This task must be performed by a site administrator.

The two reasons for access denial to the user profile does not make sense. The users are authors, reviewers and section editors, not site administrators. And all users with access denied to their profile are active in the journal.

My first question: Does anyone know what may have caused this instability in the function and how to fix the problem?

Furthermore, we are trying the upgrade from version 2.4.8.0 to 3.2.1-2 and the DB was imported from the old version. The same problem is happening in the new version.

My second question: Will it be necessary to solve the problem in the the old version, thus updating the DB, and then importing the DB to an upgrade installation?

In the old version, the link to the function “Log in as” is displayed:
image

But in the version 3.2.1-2 it is not even displayed:
image

I will appreciate any help.

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