CC E-mail for Notify Reviewer Request

[vgabler]

Hi,

The CC and BCC fields in the e-mail used to notify a reviewer that a review has been requested are present but not editable. Our system administrator has looked into the code but cannot find the problem. I haven't been able to find it reported as a bug on the forum either. Any ideas? I've noticed this across multiple versions. I also know that this is not a problem across all e-mails. In particular, I know the cc and bcc fields in the "notify author" e-mail work properly.

Also, I noticed that the "to" field is not editable in the prepared e-mails either. I could foresee that journals might want to have that option.

All best,

Vanessa Gabler

[ramon]

Hello Vanessa,

The CC and BCC fields in the e-mail used to notify a reviewer that a review has been requested are present but not editable. Our system administrator has looked into the code but cannot find the problem. I haven't been able to find it reported as a bug on the forum either. Any ideas? I've noticed this across multiple versions. I also know that this is not a problem across all e-mails. In particular, I know the cc and bcc fields in the "notify author" e-mail work properly.

Have you enabled 1-click access to reviewers?
This will prevent adding recipients to messages due to security reasons.

Also, I noticed that the "to" field is not editable in the prepared e-mails either. I could foresee that journals might want to have that option.

The prepared e-mails section is for setting up the content of the message. The sender and recipient are predefined by design, according to the roles.
Whenever you'd need to send a message to anyone in the system, that is not available as a template, you always have the mail icon within specific pages in the editorial process, or the send email link within user listings (available for Journal Managers).
Although it seems like an interesting feature, it would be interesting if you could specify the type of message, the sender and recipients and where you'd like this to be available, so that the PKP team can understand better your needs and prioritize that feature, if other options are not available.

NOTE: There is a way to create your own email templates, but using them requires quite a bit of work. I myself have never been able to use it, and, quite frankly, have never used all available messages anyway...

[justingonder]

Hello Vanessa,
Have you enabled 1-click access to reviewers?
This will prevent adding recipients to messages due to security reasons.

I'm glad that this thread was here, as the inability to add CC and BCC to the notify reviewer email has been puzzling me. I can't understand why there isn't some inline help text present that explains this restriction. I'd like to request that a note (similar to the quote above) appear next to the CC and BCC fields when their functionality is restricted due to security settings. This would reduce user confusion and support requests.

-justin gonder
eScholarship Operations Coordinator
California Digital Library
University of California, Office of the President
510.987.9869
help@escholarship.org

[ramon]

Hello Justin,

If I remember correctly, there is a note when configuring 1-click access to reviewers.
There should be a message somewhere that tells you that if it's enabled, you won't be able to add CC or BCC to the messages, because of the security issue (direct link to the submission without the need to log in).

.... but I may be wrong...

[vgabler]

Hi, All,

No, you're right, that text is there in my test journal. I think I've gotten so used to just buzzing through the settings when setting up a journal I no longer read all the help text. Thanks for all of this!

Vanessa

[justingonder]

If I remember correctly, there is a note when configuring 1-click access to reviewers.

You're right, Ramon; it's there in the 5-step setup (and thanks for drawing my attention to it! I'd also totally overlooked it.). This isn't a sufficient warning, however, for journals that have many editors, but only one person with access to the configuration options; or (in our case) when a central system administrator is doing the setup, then handing the keys over to the journal editor. In such cases, there is absolutely no explanation to the user as to why those fields are non-functional.

On a more global scale, it seems to me that if a configuration option is going to disable functionality, then there's a need to either a) remove that functionality from the user interface altogether or b) place helpful information next to the disabled functionality that explains to the user why the function is disabled and what needs to be done / who to contact to re-enable it.

-justin gonder
eScholarship Operations Coordinator
California Digital Library
University of California, Office of the President
510.987.9869
help@escholarship.org