Can't upload revised papers

[KirstyC]

Hi
Some of our authors are having trouble uploading their full papers - I can't see what's causing it.

Since OCS allows only 1 round of reviews, and we required all abstracts to be reviewed before being invited for full paper, we have used the Revisions Required director decision for all abstracts invited for full paper. We have told authors to click on their submission title, and then click on the "review" link near the top of the page. At the bottom of the review page they can upload an updated Author Version of the file.
Firstly, is this the best way for authors to do it?
Secondly in 2 cases that I've found so far, the file simply isn't uploading. It just goes back to the same screen. I've checked that all the usual steps have been completed - director decision, email notification etc. I've checked that the files don't exceed our max file size. I've tried logging in as the author to upload the file. Have also tried uploading the files as a director. Still no luck.

Our full paper deadline is tomorrow, so I need to sort it out quick in case anyone else has the same trouble.

Couple of ongoing problems that seem to be related to email / security etc:
Some of the email notifications seem to get blocked in people's spam filters, I guess because it's from an automated system. This means some authors didn't know that their abstract had been accepted for full paper and are likely to miss our deadline. Have other people found the same problem?
We have also had trouble with authors who are unable to login, despite having the correct login details. I've reset passwords, suggested clearing the cache, trying different computers etc. No problem when I log in as them. Anything else I can try?

thanks
Kirsty

[jmacgreg]

Hi Kirsty,

With OCS, you can set it up so that the submission process has two rounds: abstract and then paper submission. This is available from the Conference Manager's User Home --> Conference Setup --> Step 2. Submissions. Under Submission Materials, you can choose Abstract followed by Presentation; the original submission process will only require an abstract, and the user will be prompted at the end of abstract review to submit their full paper. Of course, if you're already mostly through the submission process, I wouldn't worry about changing; the steps you are currently using should also work.

In regards to the files not uploading: you mentioned you had checked your max filesize; what is it? Are the problem files big in relation to the others? Have you also checked PHP's memory_limit (a quick search on the forum will provide some relevant discussion)? Sometimes that can interfere with uploading larger files.

I would also suggest looking at OJS' FAQ, as some of the points might be relevant here, specifically permissions, and the advice on error-checking. Please get back to us if you do find errors. The FAQ: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2481

I haven't personally heard of any problems with spam filters, but I all ask the team. I'm guessing that there's probably nothing you can do on your end though.

And can you provide any more detail on your user login problem? If you can't replicate it yourself, it may be a user-specific issue.

Cheers,
James

[KirstyC]

Hi and thank you very much for your reply.

The reason we couldn't use the abstract and paper process is that the abstract can only be added as a short text abstracts. For this conference, our authors were invited to submit an extended abstract including images. It would have been too complex to have to get authors to submit images as seperate files.
So once authors have uploaded their full paper as another author version (seems to be the only way they can upload it), I have to download it and then upload a revised file to serve as a review version. Is this the only way we can do this? Is there a quicker way of moving the author version directly to an updated review version?

The upload problem for one author is that we cannot upload a revised file to serve as review version. We've tried everything we can think of - trying to upload different files etc. It isn't a huge file. We cannot even make a new submission as we can't alter the submission date in the conference timeline. Any idea why we can't do this? We are a bit stuck.

Many thanks
Kirsty

[jmacgreg]

Hi Kirsty,

Regarding your question about assigning a new author's version as a review version: I'm afraid that your current work pattern is the only way to do it, although certainly not the most expedient.

Can you provide me with a bit more detail on the uploading problem -- can you log in as the user and attempt an upload? At what point does the upload fail? What kind of file is the upload? Are there other authors who are having no problems uploading their revisions, and if so, are there any differences between the files (filetype, filesize, etc.)?

Thanks,
James

[KirstyC]

Thanks for your reply.
Shame about uploading new authors' versions - it does make things even more time consuming.

re. the problem file, I've tried uploading it myself, tried logging in as the user, tried logging in as other conference managers / track directors / directors. It's just a Word file and not particularly big. After you click upload, it tries for a while and then goes back to the same as it was before - no file uploaded. We wonder whether the file is corrupted so have asked the author to send again. However, I tried to upload a different, test paper and that wouldn't upload either and now the original uploaded abstract has gone too. Has something locked?

We solved all the other upload problems, so this is now an isolated problem with this particular person / paper / submission.

http://www.drsconferences.org/ocs/index ... rs08/index
Submission #457

Kirsty

[jmacgreg]

Hi Kirsty,

Are you comfortable giving me temporary administrative access to check? You can let me know via PM.

James