Release notes

Each Nestor version will be documented in a page here, listing new features and fixes

7.40 - CRediT

21 April 2026

Submission: implementation of the contributor role taxonomy

Nestor now allows authors to indicate the roles of co-authors for a given paper. This follows the CRediT specification. as defined here. This must be activated in the article type configuration:

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Once activated, the author will be required to provide a role for each of his co-author:

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Submission: mandatory ORCID

You may now require any author to link an ORCID before submitting. This is configured in the author profile:

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Configuring this will result in a warning in the author interface:

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7.30 - Coauthors Cc, LaTeX addresses extraction, lax ORCID account linking

4 March 2026

E-mail: more copies to coauthors

The new version of Nestor allows you to put coauthors in cc of some messages sent to the corresponding author. This way, coauthors are better informed about the evaluation process. For this to work, you will need to activate the option in the template configuration:

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By default the option is disabled, you need to activate it on any template you deem necessary.

Once this option activated, a check box will automatically appear when editing the message:

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Technical notes:

LaTeX addresses extraction

NB For A&A authors: please consider downloading our new classes, they include a LaTeX example for the feature below.

When extracting information from the LaTeX source files, Nestor will now fetch co-authors' mail addresses. To make this work, the author must specify one address for each coauthor with the following commands: \corrauth or \email, e.g:

\author{Albert Einstein \inst{1} \corrauth{albert@edpsciences.org}\and
        Lev Landau \inst{2} \email{lev@edpsciences.org}\and
        Paul Dirac \inst{3} \email{paul@edp.org}}

Resulting in:

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This prevents the corresponding author to manually search/add each co-authors, which saves a lot of time for long authors list.

Lax ORCID linking

Originally, we limited the mapping of ONE orcid to ONE unique Nestor account. This security was designed to prevent duplicate users and maintain a coherent database. However, this proved impractical on a daily basis, and we drop this today.

To mitigate the effect:

7.20 - Duplicate submission warning, relaxed reverts

12 January 2026

Duplicate submission warning

Before creating a new submission, Nestor will check if the author already has a paper ongoing. The idea is to prevent unintended duplicates at revision.

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Relaxed reverts

In order to simplify workflow corrections, status reverts are no longer tied to a mail event. Executing a revert will just raise a warning to the editor.

Miscellenaous

7.10 - Search criteria, system events, referee form, warnings

13 November 2025

New criteria for advanced searches

Two cool date criteria are now available to create dynamic searches:

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New system events

Two system events are now implemented properly:

For these two events, no default template has been provided. We will definitely provide them shortly for "Resubmission after technical check".


System events: modify the Reply-To header!

In e-mail addressing, the Reply-To header is the address that should be used to reply to a message. Typically in Nestor, this mechanism is used in this scenario:

This mechanism has been extended to specific system events, with the possibility of using Reply-To --> the current editor. Specifically:

By default, none of these events have been configured to reply to the current editor, we invite you to configure this if relevant to your workflow, this is defined in the template config:

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Referee report form

A long awaited ergonomy update to prevent referees from forgetting to complete their report.

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User warnings (availability, conflict of interest etc)

Following this update, several improvements have been made to user warnings behaviour:

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7.00 - Metadata & questionnaire configuration

8 September 2025

Metadata configuration

Following 6.60, metadata benefit from a series of updates:

By default, the following standard metadata will be displayed to authors and referees:

Questionnaire configuration

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Editorial Board management

For editorial offices: on the profile page, two fields appear to track beginning and end of activity.

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This data can be exported as well as other relevant editorial data:

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Authors management: new activity button

On a user page, activity as co-author is now distinct from the activity as corresponding author:

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Referee invitation: new warning

When inviting a referee on a given paper, Nestor now checks if the potential referee has submitted with co-authors in the past. If so, a warning will be raised:

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Rights management

The code handling users' rights has been significantly overhauled to improve maintainability. Please let us know if you see something unusual: support@nestor-edp.org

6.70 - Prophy referee suggestions

15 July 2025

Prophy integration summary: https://doc.nestor-edp.org/books/editor-guide/page/referee-ai-search-with-prophy

6.60 - Metadata configuration, unfolded articles flag, LaTeX extractions

16 June 2025

Standard, special and custom fields now all benefit from a unified configuration:

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For each metadata field, the label/description is now configurable, as well as joins with editor profiles and submission.

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This paves the way to 7.00, linking questionnaires and metadata fields.


Flags can now be unfolded by default in article pages:

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LaTeX extractions are now handled better, particularly regarding diacritics and uncommon math characters. This will improve the submission workflow for authors, upon extraction of the manuscript title and co-authors' names.



6.50 - new user exports, referee invitation, stop production

14 May 2025

Authors and editors exports

Following the referees' activity last year, we release two new data exports:
- one concerning the author/co-author status on each article,
- the other concerning editors

These exports are available on any given list of articles. For each user, they include the default institute and contact information. For editors, we also include the assignement and first decision dates, as well as their responsibility tags. This allows for easier tracking of the editorial board activity.

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Referee invitation

The referee invitation now benefits from a revamped interface and does not redirect to another page. When inviting a referee, the editor now stays on the article page, which is updated automatically when necessary.

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Stop the production of an article

On accepted articles, a new action is now available to cancel the production. The "Stop production" will allow you to reopen the peer review. NB To prevent questions related to status history, any proofs and production status stored in Nestor will be deleted.

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6.40 - Document counters, automatic computations based on metadata

1 April 2025

File types: pages and words counting

This nice feature allows editorial offices to configure automatic counters. Typically, counting the number of pages of a manuscript when the author submits. You can set up the configuration at the file type level:

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To use this, you must use custom fields in parallel to store the computed values.


Auto-computation

Nestor can now perform an automatic computation on a given article, taking different metadata as input. For now, the computation is executed when the article is first submitted. If you are interested, please get in touch with us.

For example, you need to send an invoice to your author taking into account the following fees and discount:
- 100€ /page 
- The article has 50 pages (can be counted with the feature above)
- The author is affiliated to a sponsoring institute and thus will benefit from a 30% discount.

When the article is first submitted, Nestor can now compute the following automatically:
(50 x 100) x30%.

The returned value (1500€ in the example) can be stored in a "Page charges" metadata field.


Metadata drawer

If your journal uses a lot of custom fields, the metadata module can take up a lot of space. To prevent this, we have implemented a small drawer to mask some metadata fields:

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If you want to mask specific fields, this is done at the custom field level:

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6.30 - Automatic renaming and stand as

17 March 2025

File types: automatic renaming

This feature used to apply only during the author's submission.
Automatic renamings will now be also applied in the back office, when an editor uploads a file via the file module, thus saving a few clicks to Editorial Offices.

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Locking of the stand as feature

The feature is now locked by a new condition. All locks are defined in the editor's profile:

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6.20 - Improved files management, linking existing accounts

30 January 2025

File transfers

The way we handle file transfers and storage has received a much awaited update!  If you identify any hiccup when downloading/uploading a file from Nestor, please let us know at support@nestor-edp.org


Improvement of the file module

The file module has received the following updates:

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Co-author validation: linking an existing account

The corresponding author sometimes uses an alternate address (for example a gmail) to register a co-author. If the co-author is already registered in Nestor with another address, this will result in a duplicate account.

This update addresses the issue by proposing the coauthor to discard the alternate address and link his/her historic account:

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6.10 - Editors' hierarchy, referee history, better account merges, new variables

19 December 2024 🌟🎄❄


Article workflow/user management

When an EIC/EO unassigns someone:

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Nestor will now check if this editor is the (assigning) parent of someone else. If so, you will have to select a substitute parent to complete the action and maintain an editors' hierarchy:

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Referee history

On a user page, the referee article history will now be displayed as in referee invitations, references will now properly link to the article page.

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User management: account creation date

On a user page, a few important dates will now be displayed as such:

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User management: better merges

When merging two accounts, one of the account is deleted. The article history is transferred to the preserved account. We now also check other information to preserve, namely the ORCID account and any expertise fields:

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Production workflow: first/intermediate proofs

Nestor now makes the difference between the first proofs and any subsequent ones. This change allows production teams to customize the "first proofs" mail template, which is especially important during production. Please check carefully the note below the picture.

By default, two templates are provided

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NB The default event was called "Proof request from production to author".

Any mail triggered by this event has been transformed to "First proof request to author". Additionally, we have provided a new default template to handle this workflow: Intermediate proof request, you do not need to do anything.



New mail variables

A lot of new variables out of the oven. The first ones are related to articles:

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The other new variables are related to co-authors . They are designed especially to customize the mail body according to the co-author status: did they already click the link? Did they link their ORCID etc. By default, we did not include them in the mail templates yet and they must be inserted manually. The most relevant template to use these variables is:

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The three variables are booleans and can serve as a basis to condition the e-mail texts:

recipient.isPending

recipient.hasValidated

recipient.validOrcid

A text example is provided below:

{% if recipient.isPending %} Please follow this link to connect your ORCID:
{{coAuthor.contribution.deeplink}}

{% elseif not recipient.validOrcid %}Please follow this link to connect your ORCID:
{{coAuthor.contribution.deeplink}}{% endif %}


6.00 - Refreshed articles, sorting expertise fields, referee exports

2 October 2024

Refreshed articles

In Nestor lists, delayed articles are tagged in red:

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This color is solely based on the article due date, whether it has passed or not.

In some journals, this proved confusing for editors, who expects the color 'red' to reflect if an editorial action is needed or not. In particular, they expect the paper to revert to a normal color when they execute an action (based on last action date):

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This new behaviour is configurable by article type. When activated, this option will temporarily 'refresh' the paper where an editorial action has just been taken.


Sorting expertise fields

At long last, expertise fields can be sorted in the configuration pages. The order will be reflected in user pages (account creation and consultation) and article pages (submission and edition).

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Referee exports

List of referees can now be exported, based on specific search results. For example, one can look at all reports submitted in 2024. The data is complete but still in raw format, we are working on providing an Excel template to get usable statistics.

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Article-related features


Terminate or close the article before technical check!

We have disabled this workflow security. Beforehand, a paper could not be rejected directly when registration was pending. This simple feature is available to editorial offices straight out of the box.

Fix the editors' list at any given time

Yet another workflow simplification. This simple feature is available to all EIC/EO, no configuration is needed.

Reset referee reports (be careful!)

Referee reports can now be deleted altogether. This should be used carefully, to correct specific referee cases/mistakes. The action can only be executed when the following conditions are met:
 - a report can be reset only on a current version
 - the article is being evaluated (status)

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5.90 LaTeX diff, workflow updates, automatic mail recipients

27 August 2024

LaTeX diff

This feature is available for journals using the LaTeX compilation feature. Using this, Nestor compares two LaTeX source files and generates a comparison PDF. This is useful to track changes from one version to another.

 

Even more workflow updates

Following this release, all referee events have been identified as update triggers for the  'last action date'. This will help editors to distinguish  'active articles' (with a recent action date) from 'delayed' articles.


Automatic mails recipients


The following events can now trigger a notification to a specific profile, such as editorial assistants:
- receipt of referee report 
- decline of referee invitation
- acceptance of referee invitation

This is not activated by default and must be configured in templates settings.

Last version article files

On published articles, article files and metadata of the accepted version will always be displayed.

5.80 - Editorial assignment tool, correcting co-authors addresses, workflow dates

29 July 2024

More information on the assignment tool

Editors-in-Chief will now benefit from a revamped interface to assign papers, where all the necessary information is summarized:

This will be activated by default and can be disabled in the profile configuration. Ensure to inform your EICs in advance!

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To disable:

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Correcting co-authors addresses

Pending co-authors (with a question mark) sometimes need their addresses to be corrected, especially their invitation to be sent back again. This is now possible:

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Workflow dates more up-to-date


2 subtle changes to the due date and the last action date.

In article lists, editors can identify relevant papers to work on thanks to these dates:

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5.75 - The return of the classic referee search, roomier mail edits

26 June 2024

Classic referee search

The classic search makes a come back, allowing editors to perform exact searches on referee names. In addition, wild cards are also available to get even more customization.

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You can switch between the two types of search with this button:

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Roomier mail edits

Mail edit boxes have received a long overdue interface update.

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5.70 - File renaming, author view on article history

10 June 2024

Automatic file renaming

Note: a very cool feature, which must be first activated in the file type configuration.

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This new feature allows you to automatically rename author-submitted files according to their file types. This will be extremely useful for editors and referees, to identify author files downloaded from Nestor at a glance!

For instance: let us assume a journal named 'geo', requiring the following files at submission. In 2024, an author submits the 33th paper of the year. His files can be automatically renamed as so:

File type
 Original file name (by author)
 Automatic Nestor renaming ♥
PDF manuscript
mypaper.pdf
 geo240033_ms.pdf
DOC source file
manuscript.doc
 geo240033_source.doc
Cover letter
 editor.doc
 geo240033_cover.doc

You can totally use variables to rename files according your specific criteria! (reference, version, author name etc).


Author access to the article history

Following 5.50, authors now have a wider access to the article history, seeing more statuses and even some actions related to referees (whose identities always remain undisclosed). The display of the page below is still simple and will be improved shortly.

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Referees reminder counter

The reminder counters and the last reminder date will now be reset when referees switch status,

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from 'Answer pending' to 'Report expected'

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Template variables

The code of template variables underwent a thorough cleaning. This impact email templates and XML generation, making them easier to maintain.  


QoL updates

User creation


In the back office, creating a new user will redirect you to the newly created user page (finally!!!).

Erratum/comment creation


In the back office, when creating a child article: the metadata from the parent article will not be copied extensively (especially custom fields). Only the following fields will be copied:
- Title
- Section
- Text authors list
- Country
- Expertise fields
- Keywords

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5.60 - Referees reinvitations, submission files extension locks

15 May 2024


Referee reinvitations


When the editor receives a revision, it is now easier to check the referee activity on previous versions

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and to reinvite the referee easily:

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Submission files: media type locking (file extensions)


The configuration of file types has been improved: each custom file type for your journal may now be restricted to specific media types.

For example, let us consider that your journal requests a cover letter at submission.

Thanks to this update, this cover letter may now be restricted to PDF of DOC formats: this is up to you!

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In the submission tunnel, this will translate like so:

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E-mail templates: improvements on variables


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Furthermore, date variables now provide a very convenient tool to set up date formats:

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Production interface for authors


The production interface has been slightly improved for authors: removing duplicate buttons, and setting up proper warnings.

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5.50 - Landing pages, secure deep links, article history for authors, production workflow

21 March 2024 🌻🌼🌹


Landing page behaviour

The behaviour of Nestor at login has been refined according to your profile and activity. Depending on the following priorities, you will either land on the author, referee or editor dashboard:

This behaviour will help people to easily identify actions they have to undertake.


Referees and co-authors are the people likely to receive invitations via Nestor deep links. When using those, users will now be restricted to the action page they are invited to. If they want to check their whole Nestor activity, those users will be prompted to log in, using their credentials.


Disconnection warnings, autosaved referee reports


Nestor will now warn you if you have been disconnected while performing an action. This will help prevent data loss.

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In the same vein, referee reports are now saved automatically during the course of the drafting.

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Referee contact form

Referees can now contact the editor directly from the report page:

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Article history now available to authors

Authors now have access to a summary of the article history. For the moment, only statuses relevant to authors are displayed.

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New production statuses

The production workflow has been refined again with three new statuses, triggered by specific actions. This will help authors and editors to get a better understanding of the article history during the production process.

Action
 Old status
 New status
Author sends corrections on proof
 --> In production
 Proof correction
EO sends corrections on proof --> In production EO proof correction
EO validates proof --> In production EO proof validation



5.40 - Improvements of the production and referee workflows

29 January 2024


Improvements of the production workflow

Screenshot 2024-01-26 at 17-38-57 EDP NESTOR Article JEOS-RP20220055.png


Article files of the last version remain available even when the article is in production:

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A new status appear: publication scheduled. This status allows authors and editors to be informed of the publication a bit sooner.

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Improvements on the referee workflow

The search field has been simplified, and the number of results is no longer limited:

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The referee status icons now distinguish clearly pending invitations from expected reports;

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5.30 - Article lists: update on viewable / exportable columns

11 January 2024


Article lists: the referee column

By default, articles lists now display a column dedicated to active referees:

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The column is designed to provide relevant information (status and reminders) on referees currently working on the paper, thus helping editors to quickly scan urgent manuscripts.

If your editors contact several referees on each article, they may want to disable this option in the column configuration:

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Article lists: status date / last action date columns


The former 'last update' column has been replaced by two different columns:

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Complete mail history on the article page

The complete mail history is now available as soon as the article is loaded.

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5.20 - arXiv identifier, friendlier editing behaviours on the article page


6 December 2023


Adding the arXiv identifier

Authors may now submit their arXiv identifier when submitting their article.

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To unlock this form, activate it in the article type configuration.

If the author provides the arXiv identifier, this allows us to notify arXiv once the article is published, arXiv updates the preprint page with the publication information:

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Editing information on the article page

Clicking outside of fields being edited does not lose information any more. Those include metadata fields, and also mail pop-up windows.  Those windows are now minimized, and the edited data is conserved:

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Hiding referee reports and the editorial decision

The author profile configuration now provides an option to mask the decision module to the author.




5.10 - Quality of life updates

10 – 22 November 2023


General


- Submission: major upgrade of the unzip/LaTeX compilation utility (and more to come)
- Various language and typos corrections


Editor interface: view on articles


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- Referees and authors' deep links are now masked in the interface, and visible only by the recipient.


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Editor interface: view on article lists

- Update of the data table library: sorting/ordering/displaying
- Security has been tightened depending on the profile right "Global access": without this right, editors cannot find articles where they are not assigned.

5.00 - Saved searches display, revert actions, mail enclosures

7 November 2023


Customised display on search results


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The improvements on article lists (which rolled out in 4.70) have been extended to saved searches. That means:

    - displayed columns
    - columns order
    - preferred sorting criteria
    - number of results displayed

are now saved independently for each saved search. For example if you search for a specific special issue, you can mask the column 'special issue' in the results, while keeping it in your regular dashboards.


Improvement on revert actions

The scope of revert actions has been extended to all non-critical statuses. This allows easier management/corrections of article workflows, specifically for technical checks and such.

Furthermore, revert actions are labelled more explicitely, and the status of arrival is displayed when clicking on revert buttons.

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Mail enclosures

In mail pop-up windows, editors can now enclose files. Size is limited to 10MB, and files are visible in mail history.

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Adding co-authors at submission

For the corresponding author, the different functions to add co-authors have been streamlined in one convenient button:

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LaTeX compilation: fixes on compressed files

We benefited from a lot of feedback from authors submitting compressed files. We consequently improved our decompression methods, which accordingly fixed several compilation errors.

This change is visible only if you require LaTeX compilation at submission.

4.80 - Submission instructions, long answers, referee similarity check

12 October 2023


Improvement on submission instructions


The journal configuration already allows to provide a thorough description of your file types and custom fields:

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This information is now displayed properly to the authors. When the description is too long, it will be inserted in a tool tip like so:

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Similarity check for the referees


Referees may now have access to Similarity Check results.
To do so: 
    - Similarity check must have been triggered on some files
    - The referee profile must have this new right activated:

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Small questions? Long answers!

At long last, answers to author/referee questionnaires may now be configured as long text:

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Improved view on published articles


Some authors reported some confusion between the proof/publication thumbnails. This has been clarified in the author interface: when an article is published and Nestor receives the publication file, the authors have access to a distinct thumbnail, different from the proofs.

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4.70 - Quick search, sorting lists, security

21 September 2023

Improvement of the quick search

Besides looking up the reference, quick search has been expanded to corresponding authors names and article titles.
When the editor inputs several items, these are combined with the AND operator.

So for example the following request:
martin proton

will yield all articles
- with 'proton' in the title
- and the following corresponding authors:
    Nicolas Martin
    Martin Schlumberger
    Martine Alaplage


Improvement of article lists: better sorting, saved preferences

The display of article lists has been improved:

- display preferences are now saved in your account! When you modify any list-related setting, it will not be reset when you reset your browser cookies! This affects:
    - displayed columns
    - columns order
    - preferred sorting criteria
    - number of results displayed

- clicking on a column title will sort articles according to this column. If the same value is found on several articles, articles will now be sorted by most recent (according to the reference):

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Numerous performance improvements in the back office: several elements are now stored in the server cache, which improves overall responsiveness.


Numerous fixes to control resources access according to user rights.

4.60 - Conflict of interest checks, improved flags

31 August 2023


Improved checks for conflicts of interest

Sometimes, editors submit their own articles, and should be prevented from handling peer review. When that happens, prominent warnings / blocks have been implemented.

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Flags configuration: no value / any value

Flags on closed lists are now easier to configure.

For example, if you want to flag special issue articles, regardless of the special issue, you can do so by selecting "Any value" in the configuration:

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Conversely, "No value selected" will flag articles where no special issue has been specified.


Fixing flags according to profiles

By default, configured flags were always visible, to all editors. This proved clumsy, because editors could see a flag without seeing the flagged data (more information on article visibility here).

For example, let us take a custom field used for administrative purposes: 'Page charges', which is masked to scientific editors.


In this case, any flag related to "page charges" will be also masked to scientific editors. It will be visible only by editorial assistants.
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Searching editors with advanced search

It is now easier to look for editors with the advanced search. Instead of having to write names, Nestor will now propose the closed list of editors relevant to the selected criteria. This will prevent typos and missed searches.

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Easier configuration of file types / custom fields

When configuring these, articles types and profiles are now directly visible and can be linked properly.

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4.50 - Editor dashboard refactoring, minor graphic updates

27 July 2023


Editor interface: improvement of the personal dashboard


The personal dashboard received a major update regarding editorial responsibility. Beforehand, all articles were filtered according to the profile configuration:

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Now, the to-do list will be treated distinctly, to display only articles where the editor is tagged as "current". Details are documented here.

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Editor interface: introduction of technical editors


The "technical editor" is a new notion to handle editorial responsibility regarding an article. It works similarly as the "editor in charge" tag, and is used to filter articles more precisely. It will be useful for any editor with a copyediting / proofreading profile. This new feature is configured in the profile.

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Expertise fields configuration


The interface used to link EFs to articles/authors was not super friendly. It has been made clearer:

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Datatables display configuration

Columns display choice is now much more intuitive, and column order is now saved properly:

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4.40 - Automatic Similarity Check, automatic referee notifications, mandatory expertise fields

22 June 2023

 

Similarity Check: makeover and automation

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If the feature interests you, make sure to activate it in your file type configuration. File types relevant for SC are usually manuscript files, which have the "Main file" code.

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Please note that automatic SC is triggered only on first versions! Manual SC remains available at any time (provided you have the relevant rights).


Automatic notifications to referees with a report

A new type of recipient appears in the e-mail configuration: referees with a report:

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This can be used to automatically thank referees, typically when a final decision is reached on the article. This new type of recipient will be available for the following events:
- acceptance
- rejection
- withdraw
- send to production


Mandatory Expertise fields

During user registration, authors may now be required to fill in their expertise fields. To do so, two conditions are necessary:
- some expertise fields must be configured for the journal
- this option must be activated in the author profile

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Redesigning action buttons

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These two shortcut actions have proved too effective: some editors sent e-mails unbeknownst to them, or on the contrary did not send the intended e-mail.

Consequently, these actions are now conditioned by a new profile right. As a rule of thumb, we advise to disable this right for scientific editors, and reserve it to "editorial office" profiles:

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4.30 - Ajax, configuration pages, improved proof workflow

04 May 2023

Ajax everywhere

Thanks to Ajax, Nestor quits refreshing whole pages each time you edit an article!
Now, Nestor refreshes only necessary parts, in the background. On the whole, response times and user experience feels much faster.

Editor interface: small improvements in configuration pages

With an editorial office account, you probably noticed that the left menu is getting more crowded with each version.

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Editor interface: adding co-authors is now easier

The co-author search tool described in version 4.10 has been extended to the co-author module in the back office. It is now easier to find co-authors and add them to an article.

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Author interface: Improved proof correction workflow


The author interface benefits from two updates:

Dashboard page
 Article page
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4.20 - Editor reminders, notifications

15 March 2023


Automated editor reminders

Editors may now receive automated reminders by e-mail!
The idea is to send, on a regular basis, the to-do list summary to each editor. The formatted e-mail will look like this:

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This will save time to editors and editorial offices:
* For editors, so they have an overview of their workload without needing to logging into Nestor.
* For editorial offices, as this will help to alleviate the need for manual reminders.

Editor reminders are easily configured in the reminder configuration.
Please ensure to configure a linked template, which must include the all-important variable: {{ editorReminderList }}


Internal notifications improvements

The notification page has received a major update. Indeed, for any given article:

- the list now displays all notified e-mails (with the notification bell)
- the content of each e-mail is now readable directly (no need to check the article)
- notification bells can now be disabled from this page (no need to check the article)

The end result looks like this:

notifications.png

Internal Notifications are used for important e-mails, when editors' attention is required on a specific point, outside the usual article workflow. As such, internal notifications serve as a complement to the editor dashboard, to handle special cases.


Author's suggestions

If suggestions for referees are requested to the author during submission, they will be displayed much more prominently on the article page:

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Unstuck articles in production: "Set published" action

When an article is in production, the status may now be switched to to "Published", provided you have the relevant editor right.

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4.10 - Co-author search, revert actions

31 January 2023


New documentation pages

We are happy to announce the opening of our new documentation website.
Help links will now direct to this website, where all users may retrieve help articles and release notes.


Editorial board page improvements

This page is aimed at editorial offices and EICs, to get a quick overview of the current editorial board information:

    - the list has been divided into active/inactive editors in the journal
    - those two lists are sorted by profile for better readability
    - they are exportable in csv/xls/pdf (just like articles list)
    - they now display editor's expertise fields
    

Screenshot 2023-01-26 at 13-31-03 EDP NESTOR Editorial Board.png


    
Quick search filter on expertise fields

The expertise field filter has been improved. Instead of searching with full text, the filter now proposes the journal's active expertise field. This filter can be applied to the following tables:

    - articles datatables
    - board datatables
    - referees searches
    - user searches

Capture1.PNG


Co-author search tool

During the submission process, the corresponding author may now use a new tool, allowing him to:
    - search colleagues in the journal user database
    - easily add them to the co-authors list

Co-authors added with this method will undergo the same validation workflow as co-authors added manually or with LaTeX extraction.

Screenshot 2023-01-26 at 13-49-41 NESTOR Submission for Astronomy & Astrophysics.png                    123456.png


Revert actions have been merged

Reopen / revert / send back: these 3 similar actions have been merged into a single action, allowing an editor to:
    - rewind and correct the article history
    - warn the author if necessary

This is especially useful to cancel editorial decisions and handle appeals. Hopefully, having a single action will clarify your interface. The "revert" action is straightforward, it will:
    - erase the last status on an article
    - null any final decision data

"Revert" is available according to your profile's rights and the article status.
For example:
    - you may revert a revision request if you have the right to request revisions
    - but you cannot revert a revision if you cannot request revisions.

Screenshot 2023-01-26 at 13-53-22 EDP NESTOR Editor dashboard.png

4.00 - Author and referee dashboards, mail template filters

6 December 2022


Major updates

- Author/referee dashboards
Thanks to your feedback, dashboard information has been lightened and clarified, relevant actions are now easier to find.

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- Referee interface
At long last, referees now have access to their completed reports.

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- Mail configuration: user events can now trigger automatic messages in parallel.
At the moment, the feature is limited to editor assignment:
    - the EIC assigns and contact an editor to handle an article
    - in parallel, the author receives an automatic warning, so that he knows the article is being handled.
    
We intend to generalize this feature to other events.
For example, acceptance/rejection could trigger automatic thank you mails to referees.
Please do not hesitate to share your ideas by replying to this message.

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- Mail configuration: filter available messages according to editor profile.

Nestor was designed so that editors have only access to mail templates relevant to their profile rights. 
However, we realized access to a template is sometimes linked to the profile, not to any right in particular.

This is particularly relevant for templates with no direct impact on workflow, such as free letters.
For this reason, some events now offer the possibility to restrict access of the template according to the profile.

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- Performance optimization
Page loading times have been improved in the whole system.
This will be felt especially when your dashboard is heavily crowded, or if your journal has a lot of articles.

    

Minor updates

- Pending submissions
Pending submissions are now accessible via advanced search. They will appear with a "pending" reference. Those submissions are being edited by the author, be careful when you access them!

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- Inactive editors rights
As of 4.00, inactive editors will not benefit from administration rights attached to their profile. They will keep the benefit of article-related rights.
This is useful when an EIC steps down, but needs to finish working on his last articles.

- Mail configuration: HTML deeplinks
We have prepared new variables to insert in mail templates.
When used, these variables will generate a *clickable* article link to the recipient of the message. This will save a few copy/pastes.

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- Co-author validation workflow
Co-authors now must click on a single link to acknowledge/decline their contribution.
This change was necessary to circumvent technical issues related to recipient mail servers.

3.80 - Author and referee rights

21 October 2022


Major updates

- You may now configure specific rights for authors and referees.
In the profile configuration, please have a look at these new pages and ensure they match your journal needs:

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- In particular, settings related to peer review confidentiality have been transferred here:

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- When uploading a report, referees may now indicate if they want to check revisions :

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In case the referee refuses, the editor will be informed accordingly when handling the revised version:

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Minor updates

- On the Nestor home page, user registration has been secured to prevent registration by robots.

- When using quick search on a single reference, you will be redirected automatically to this reference.

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- Template configuration and advanced search: Lists of events / statuses have been streamlined.

- The account merging feature has been secured by an editor right:

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3.70 - Instructions to authors, account merging, LaTeX extraction

8 September 2022


Major updates: relevant to administrators only!

- Submission tunnel configuration: instructions to authors
An oft-requested feature, each step of the submission tunnel is now editable to display specific instructions. These instructions are configured in HTML, and can display links, tables or any relevant information to accompany authors during the submission process.

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- Author revision deadlines
Deadlines are now even more configurable according to the the article AND the decision type.
For example, the deadline for a minor revision may be scheduled earlier on a letter than on a regular paper. 

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- Profiles configuration
The profiles configuration has been improved:
    - For more clarity, available configurations have been sorted and divided into three thumbnails.
    - One thumbnail is new and allow to configure the profile view on the article information.
For example, copy editors do not need to have access to custom fields or keywords on an article. Therefore, this information may now be masked specifically to copy editors.

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- Account merging
User accounts may now be merged, please be super careful when merging accounts!
This will result in the following:     
    - author, editor and referee activity of the deleted account will be transferred onto the preserved account
    - the personal information of the deleted account will be discarded (saved institutes, expertise fields, ORCID, availability, saved searches and profile)


- LaTeX data extraction
If your journal uses the LaTeX format for submission, information is now automatically extracted from the submission files to feed the Nestor database:
    - title
    - abstract
    - authors list
This saves a few minutes to authors during the submission process.


Minor updates: relevant for everyone!

- The "Edit" button has been made more obvious on e-mail pop-ups.
Hopefully, this will prevent accidental e-mail sending by editors.

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- Author interface: pop-ups, fonts and classes have been standardized!

- Editor interface: editor responsibility (in charge/current) is now easier to correct.

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3.60 - Action bar, simplified workflow actions

3 August 2022


- Behold the shiny quick actions bar: on the article page, critical actions and mails are now conveniently gathered at the top. Available actions are sorted by user, and will be relevant to your profile's rights and to the article status.

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- Several minor improvements on the article page:
    - the upper module has been compressed to save screen space
    - the style of pop-up windows has been uniformized
    - decision and mail history modules have received a long overdue makeover

 

- The sending of an e-mail is no longer mandatory to trigger critical actions such as:
    - editor assignments
    - referee invitations
    - proposals and decisions
This simplifies technical support, by allowing you to correct the article workflow unbeknownst to other users.

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- Article type switch and lock: as for custom fields in v3.30, the article type may now be updated automatically when sending an e-mail, by creating a rule in the mail template configuration. 
Furthermore, authors may now been prevented from modifying the article type on revisions. These two changes allow a tighter editorial control on the type of an article.

3.50 - Workflow refinements

4 July 2022

 

- Workflow refinements: recommendation/decision rights are now totally customizable depending on the profile:
Example 1: some editors needs both the right to request a revision, and the right to recommend the revision to their parent.
Example 2: in some workflows, editors sometimes do not have the rights to reject or even to recommend rejection.

- New actions and rights: in addition to being rejected/withdrawn, articles may now be closed and deleted.

- Update of the advanced search: search criteria may now be combined using groups, AND/OR operators.
This dramatically improves the usefulness of advanced searches (which can be saved and displayed on the dashboard).

- New visibility rights: status and mail history may now be hidden depending on the editor profile.
Typically, this is useful to hide referees' information from copy editors.

3.40 - File and co-author module improvements

17 June 2022


- The file upload tool for editors has been simplified and mirrors what the author sees during the submission process.
        
- Improvement of co-authors management:
    - The possibility to resend the confirmation letter to a co-author who has declined by error.
    - It is now possible to contact a co-author even if he/she is not registered in the system.
 
- Up to now, there was an expected number of reports (to take a decision) set by default for each article type.
For editors, this threshold determines warnings and status' transitions.
With this new version, editors may now change this threshold on the fly on each article.

- Cancelling pending referees
When an editor has received enough reports, he/she must cancel the pending referees to unlock the decision buttons.
With several pending referees, a lot of clicks were necessary to cancel all referees and unlock the decision.
With this new version, editors may now cancel all pending referees in one go.
This action can trigger an automatic message to cancelled referees. To do so, please ensure to create a mail template using the mail event:
 CANCEL_PENDING_REFEREES.

- Article datatables
    New columns are now available for display in datatables.
    Here are some examples:
    Country of the article
    Submission date
    Technical check date
    First referee report date
    Final decision group
    Final decision
    Final decision date
    Production date
    First proofs receipt date
    First proofs validation date

3.30 - ORCID fixes, field update when triggering e-mail (rules)

15 April 2022


- User account pages:
    - Account pages may now be modified on the fly. No more need to use clumsy save buttons =)

- Numerous fixes regarding ORCID:
    - Nestor accounts cannot be created via ORCID any more. ORCID authorization policy proved too confusing )=
    - Authors, co-authors and referees are now invited to link their ORCID accounts when completing a critical action (paper submission, report upload...)
    - Editors cannot edit ORCID ids on other users any more, this complies with ORCID policies and simplify ORCID management.

- Custom fields
    - Select custom fields may now be updated automatically when sending an e-mail, by creating a rule in the mail template configuration.
    - Custom fields may now be searched with the advanced search feature
    
- Nestor mail system address
    - Nestor now correctly fills the sender name when sending e-mails
    - The "reply-to" address is no longer generic, and may now be configured for each journal

3.20 - Article flags

18 March 2022

- Custom fields and flags:
    - custom fields are now displayable in articles lists
    - select fields (both standard and custom) can now trigger flags on article lists and article pages
These two features are very useful to identify specific workflows / critical articles

- Mail history: users may now mask automatic mails in mail history.
We realised mail history could get very crowded when several co-authors/editors are involved in an article.
Masking automatic mails to show only "human" messages helps editors to identify important messages in the article history.

- Referee invitations:
    - when inviting a referee, a warning is displayed to the editor if the referee is currently working on another paper
    - referee activity page: information is now more relevant

3.10 - Article configuration improvement, lists ordering

11 February 2022

- Author & referee forms: unified style guide

- Improvement of the editor assignment tool.
It is now possible to completely reset the editor list on a given article.

- Improvement and simplification of the article type configuration.
Standard fields/custom fields/file types configuration is now standardized.

- The drag and drop ordering feature has been improved and extended to the following lists:
   - editor profiles
   - saved searches
   - article types
   - file types
   - sections
   - special issues
   - custom fields
   - recommendations

This helps to present information in a more structured way. By ordering important items first, users will be able to identify them more easily in their interfaces.

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3.00 - Data exports

16 December 2021

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2.90 - Post-it, unique file and production sending

16 December 2021

- Release of the "post-it" tool
This tool provides a simple way for editors to share important information on an article, by displaying an "editorial note" on the article page.

- Improvement of the file types and production configuration
This allow editors to handle special files, typically used for typesetting purposes.
This includes:
    - copyediting files
    - forthcoming pdfs

2.80 - Responsive design, editor in charge

10 November 2021

- Release of responsive design for the editor interface: aticle pages are now displayed properly on mobiles.

- Release of the "Editor in charge" feature, and refinement of the article workflow (two new article statuses).
These allow better filters to display personal dashboards.

2.70 - Article page: information correction

27 September 2021

- Improvement of the article page: 
    - Information display is clearer.
    - Information modification is easier, and does not require page reload anymore.

2.60 - Advanced search

9 August 2021

- Release of the advanced search tool:
    - combine multiple criteria to refine your article searches
    - saved searches
    - display saved searches on dashboard

- Improvement of the referee decline tool: provide a fixed list of common decline reasons

- Restrict editors rights to search/access their own authored articles

2.50 - Internal notifications

18 June 2021

- Release of the internal notification tool

Important mails sent by Nestor are now emphasized in the recipient interface:

Screenshot 2023-01-25 at 11-39-07 EDP NESTOR Editor dashboard.png


Mail alerts are now displayed in the editors' left bar.

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- Improvement of the editor dashboard
Global and personal dashboards have been merged into a unique page.

2.40 - Stand as user

29 May 2021

- Improvement of the user bar

The previous user bar was confusing for some users, especially to editors who had to juggle between author/editor interfaces. The user bar has been redesigned, and is now unified across all interfaces.

Screenshot 2023-01-25 at 16-12-35 EDP NESTOR Editor dashboard.png

 

- Release of the "Stand as" tool

A much-requested feature, this allows you to connect to Nestor with another user account. This comes in handy to handle user support and help editors/authors. The feature is available if your profile has the associated right (cf profile administration), and a button will appear in users' information page:

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