Reviewer Report - Questionnaire

[k_popper]

We are using not only text-based reviewer feedback, but also questionnaire-based evaluation. E.g. reviewers are asked to respond on 5-point Likert-type questions such as "Importance of the topic for International Business" by ticking either 5=excellent, 4=... 1=poor.

As far as I understand OJS, a questionnaire/quantitative feedback feature is not implemented, right?

We are currently using a reviewer request email template within OJS, which is amended such that it points to another, external URL from which reviewers can download the MS-word-based review form.

It would be nice to offer the review form within OJS. Is this possible? After all, reviewers have to login to download the paper, so it would be more convenient to offer reviewers the download of the reviewer report form at the same time.

What is the recommended procedure for such instances?

Thanks for any feedback. k-

[k_popper]

Another question here is whether it is possible to change the drop-down boxes, "Reviewer recommendation" and "Editor decision" into something different? (e.g. ACCEPT as submitted, ACCEPT with modifications, REJECT as competitive paper, but accept as discussion paper, ...)
Thanks

[ramon]

For version 1.x you can do a few things.

1 - Place a link for the reviewer to download the form somewhere in your server

2 - Place the form within the original document so that the reviewer can upload his version with the form

3 - Add the form as a Supplementary File available to reviewers.

As for the values, you can change the text in the locale files (if my memory is not failing, ojs/locale/language/admin.inc.php...). You should change this for all the languages used...

I believe this ideas can fit version 2.x in some way.

I hope that for version 2.x a web evaluation form (such as the polls in PHPBB ) can be implemented, so that the editor can configure his own evaluation system.

[asmecher]

Hello k_popper,

For OJS 2.x, there was a Custom Review Forms patch contributed by an OJS user; it should at some point be incorporated into the OJS 2.x codebase, but it is in need of considerable work and we may not get to it before the next release of OJS.

You're welcome to investigate it for yourself: See http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1760 for more information. If you'd like to try it, I'd suggest trying to apply the most recent patch against the most recent release of OJS. Note that this is largely untested code and I'd suggest a thorough review before using it in a production environment.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Open Journal Systems Team

[k_popper]

Hi Alec,

Thanks for your response. Does this "custom review form" append a file to the review form I inquired earlier or does it do something else?
The reason I am asking, I have to talk to a programmer at my institution, I am not doing the implementation (not capable to do), I have to rely on clever IT people to do that for me, but I will have to tell them what this patch should practically do.

Thanks

[asmecher]

Hello k_popper,

I haven't completed a review of the patch, so I can't be certain that it meets your requirements; however, the patch does appear to support attachments to reviews. Be warned that preparing this for a production environment is a non-trivial amount of work..

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Open Journal Systems Team

[k_popper]

Hello k_popper,

I haven't completed a review of the patch, so I can't be certain that it meets your requirements; however, the patch does appear to support attachments to reviews. Be warned that preparing this for a production environment is a non-trivial amount of work..

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Open Journal Systems Team

Dear Alec,

thanks for this information. This encourages me not to change anything now and opt for the (less preferred) email review process, because there we can append custom review forms. I would like to point out that the custom review form would be a great addition for my discipline (management). Thus I can only hope you find the time to include it in an upcoming version of your phantastic software. Obviously the option to link up with an online questionnaire system (php has been mentioned) would be another step-chage to the system.

Finally, I would like to add, that being able to change the "reviewer decision" options (drop-down list) from within the 'setup' configuration would be a nice feature.

At any rate, I don't want to go on and on with additional wishes. After all this software is great and does more that one could hope for.

Thanks!!