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

15 June 2023

Similarity Check: makeover and automation

• On article files, SC buttons and results are now much more visible and understandable:
  

• At last, SC can be triggered automatically as soon as the author submits the paper!

If the feature interests you, make sure to activate it in your file type configuration. Relevant file types are manuscript files, usually with a "Main file" code.

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 mail configuration: referees with a report:

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

Redesigning action buttons

The unlock action "Cancel pending referees" has been moved from the referee module to the decision module, where it is more intuitive.

Shortcut actions in e-mail popups

These two shortcut actions have proved too powerful: 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.