[OJS 3] Send email to multiple recipiens

Hello all, @NateWr, @asmecher,

I have not found a way to send an e-mail to multiple recipients.
OJS 2 allowed us to add recipients to generic messages, especially when selecting a user from any list and contacting them through the interface.
This was VERY helpful especially when trying to test if messages were being sent.
Now, we can only send a message to a single recipient which is not enough, as we can’t test with multiple address (ramon@ibict.br and ramon.ibict@gmail.com and any other email service), without having to create a dummy account for such purposes…

HI @ramon,

As part of 3.3. we’re planning to introduce a feature that would allow journal managers to email all users in a particular role: Send an email to all users with a specific role · Issue #4017 · pkp/pkp-lib · GitHub.

Later work, possibly 3.4 or 3.5, is planned to support CC/BCC in all emails sent during the workflow: Improvements to email selection, draft, preview and send during workflow · Issue #5717 · pkp/pkp-lib · GitHub.

Hi PKP team! Following this development as I’ve been getting inquiries from my editors about why they can’t cc each other or others on email decisions since we’ve upgraded from OJS 2 to OJS 3.3. Is there any indication on whether this will be something we will see in OJS 3.4 by any chance? Or is the timing still indefinite? Thank you!!

Hi @hxo82, this feature is planned for 3.4. You can read more about what we’re working on in 3.4.

Fantastic, thank you!

Hello all, @NateWr ,

I’m a bit worried OJS is still dependent on e-mail, as it is becoming more and more of a problem instead of a communications solution, at least from our institution. We haven’t been able to configure our e-mail so that our messages don’t get identified as SPAM, and there’s no documentation on the matter anywhere to try to improve this.

For instance, we are a government institution, always having our systems and servers targeted for hijacking, invasion and misuse as spam machines, which has made our domain fall into most gray and black lists. Removing us from those lists is trying to dry ice, as we fall back anytime sooner than we can notice it.

Another great issue is that OJS is within a specific domain, while most users that receive and send messages are not (reviewers, authors).

Even messages from within our organization (Google Agenda notifications, Google Drive file updates, for example) are being captured as SPAM.

So, instead of being able to send e-mail to all users, I believe a better approach would be to make OJS the sender of the messages, as notifications, embedding the content in the notification. This means that OJS will ALWAYS be the sender of the message, to any recipient(s), in behalf of the original sender.

Would that make sending emails easier or not? Would they be more or less identified as SPAM?

We had to disable 1-click access to reviewers as messages were not even being received. They were blocked somewhere along the way and we have no tools to figure out a way to prevent this.

Also, in the communications area, instead of emails, an OJS ICS file could be used and invites could be made, so that users would get reminders in their agendas as well and editorial teams could have a visual timeframe. A single agenda would suffice.

Hi @ramon,

There is some advice in our admin guide on how to address email deliverability problems. In particular, you’ll want to look at the information on an envelope_sender, which lets you configure the FROM header, as well as information on how to configure SPF and DMARC properly.

If you are unable to resolve your deliverability issues, it may be a good idea to take the email sending off of your server stack and contract with a third-party mailing service, such as Postmark, Sendgun, Mandrill, etc.