Single click URL actions; workflow via email messages

[rmichael]

Has there been any discussion of single click actions in OJS generated emails?

For example, when an editor sends an email to a reviewer requesting a review, reviewer received email indicates the submission URL. However, because the reviewer must first log in to OJS, they hit the login page when clicking on the review. After logging in, the reviewer is taken to the page listing current reviews ("../index.php/<JOURNAL>/reviewer"), instead of directly to the submission which they were asked to review. At this point, it's faster to select the article from the displayed list, as opposed to cutting and pasting the full submission URL (which was originally clicked on) from the email body.

It would be great if, as in this example, a reviewer could click on the link, be prompted for their login and then redirected straight to the submission (as a savvy user would likely expect, given the URL, "../submission/XXX").

It would be even better if the outgoing email contained enough information for the reviewer, such that they could decide whether or not to accept, then click a link in the email body indicating their decision, without ever having to login to OJS directly.

In general, since so much of the editorial process revolves around email notifications, it would be nice of some of the workflow could actually take place by email, rather than only asking people to login, then do their work.

Products such as Editorial Manager do provide "deep links", which I presume is a feature similar to what I've described, although I have not tested it personally.

[asmecher]

Hi Richard,

OJS 2.1.1 includes support for "one-click reviewer access". When enabled, it means that reviewers can click directly into the submission review page as you describe, without having to log in. See the journal setup pages to enable this option.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Open Journal Systems Team
---
Don't miss the First International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference
July 11 - 13, 2007, Vancouver, BC, Canada
http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/

[rmichael]

Thanks Alec, I missed that option in the setup.

[rmichael]

I've now turned on the option and it's very helpful.

However, as the setup indicates, it's only for reviewers. Is there a mechanism to enable this feature for all email correspondence wherein the messages contain an action to be taken (i.e. single click access in emails to editors)? Is this feature being generalized for OJS 2.2?

Thanks.

[asmecher]

Hi Richard,

The feature is generalized in the code, but it's only implemented at the moment for Reviewers. What other roles and tasks do you have in mind?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Open Journal Systems Team
---
Don't miss the First International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference
July 11 - 13, 2007, Vancouver, BC, Canada
http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/

[rmichael]

A single click submission URL in the editorial assignment email received by an editor would be helpful.

Unless I've incorrectly configured OJS, it seems the URL in the email body really isn't helpful. Although it points to the submission (e.g. http://..../submission/5), access is interceded by the login prompt, and afterward the editor is not forward directly to the submission. Instead, they are taken to "User Home" and then must select the editor role, and navigate through "In Review" to their assigned submission (possibly searching if there are many submissions in review).

Moreover, it confuses the editor because the intent, given the URL in the email body, appears to be that they *should* be taken the the submission, but are not.. they worry something is broken.

This process would be slightly less involved if the submissions listed under "In Review" were only those corresponding to the editor who is logged on; as with the constrained list of "Active Submissions" seen by a reviewer (i.e. only those submissions to which they have been assigned).

Perhaps I've missed settings which would address both these issues?

[asmecher]

Hi Richard,

It sounds like you've run into a broken link -- in cases where a URL requires a user to be logged in, the user should be redirected back to the starting point after entering valid login credentials. However, I can't find this in the Editor assignment email. Are you assigning some other type of editor (e.g. copy editor or layout editor)?

Full-fledged Editors have all submissions in their submission lists; Section Editors only see assigned submissions. Perhaps you'd be better off using Section Editors for cases where users should be restricted only to assigned submissions.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Open Journal Systems Team
---
Don't miss the First International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference
July 11 - 13, 2007, Vancouver, BC, Canada
http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/

[rmichael]

I have not been using section editors at all. After investigating your broken link idea, I've found the problem.

There is a bug in OJS; after selecting "Assign Editor", the editor assignment email template link points to a sectionEditor action, instead of an editor action:

For example, this link:
https://testhost/tj/sectionEditor/submissionReview/9

should be this instead:
https://testhost/tj/editor/submissionReview/9

Then, the URL at the login page is correct:
https://testhost/index.php/tj/login?sou ... Review%2F9

I'm fairly certain this isn't my mistake, by clicking "Assign Section Editor" by accident, because I don't have any section editor roles defined. (When I do select "Assign Section Editor", the list is empty.)

Regarding the list of assigned submissions displayed to editors upon login, I guess I'll switch to using section editor roles. I have been creating only editor roles because we only have one section to our journal. (Aside, in the case where there is only one section, the author submission form should default to that section. I've noticed other drop down forms in OJS do default to the only available option in cases where only one option exists.)

Testing all this, I've just noticed an unexpected issue: it appears that editors are permitted to record an editorial decision on articles to which they are not assigned. Is it a design decision not to enforce the permissions associated with editorial assignment?

In general, my workflow is:

i) setup OJS to send an email to user@domain upon receipt of a new submission.
ii) user@domain points to my journal manager, who logs in and assigns an editor
iii) editor clicks on link in editor assignment email, and assigns reviewer
iv) reviewer uses one click access to begin review

(Though, I should probably go back and disable one click access and check if my problems there weren't also due to a broken link.)

Thanks Alec.

[asmecher]

Hi Richard,

Good catch -- there's a fix for the editor URLs problem at http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2858. Because most journals either have a single active editor (who won't be emailing himself submission editing links) or use Section Editors in cases where actual editorial tasks are being performed, we hadn't run into this problem before.

Editors are allowed to perform editorial tasks on any assignment, regardless of whether or not they've been assigned -- that's the major difference between Editors and Section Editors. If assignment is a strict requirement, I'd suggest using Section Editors instead.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Open Journal Systems Team
---
Don't miss the First International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference
July 11 - 13, 2007, Vancouver, BC, Canada
http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/