November 2023 - January 2024

Submission Improvements

  • The Cover letter / Comments file designation has been renamed to match the corresponding additional information question, and the file designation's instruction text was updated to state that most document types are accepted.
  • The text This version has been withdrawn and is no longer under review displays for withdrawn submissions on the My Submissions and Submission overview pages.
  • The Powered by AtyponReX header has been removed from pages displayed during the submission process.

Co-Author Improvements

  • For journals with ORCID iD collection and the Co-Author Dashboard enabled, Super Users, Tenant Super Users, and Journal Admins can enable or disable the Notify all Co-Authors to provide their ORCIDs option from the Edit journal > Basic information > ORCID policy tab.
  • On the My Submissions page, authors can now filter submissions by Author Role. Authors can select one of:
    • All Author Roles
    • Submitting Author Only (default)
    • Co-Author Only
  • When a co-author filters submissions on the My Submissions page with the Author Role set to All Author Roles or Co-Author Only, the following text is now displayed, depending the Status they select:
    • If they select a status of Open Submission Statuses, the text displayed for manuscripts in revision and unsubmitted manuscripts is This submission has been sent back to the submitting author.
    • If they select a status of Accepted (Final Files), the text displayed for manuscripts in that state is This submission has been sent back to the submitting author.
    • If the select a status of Awaiting Decision Statuses, the text displayed for submitted manuscripts is This submission has been sent to the editorial office and cannot be edited. For manuscripts under review, it is This submission is under consideration and cannot be edited. For rescinded manuscripts, no text is displayed.
    • If they select a status of Accepted or Rejected, no text is displayed.
    • If they select a status of Withdrawn, the text displayed is This version has been withdrawn and is no longer under review.

    This text is also displayed for the co-author when they view a manuscript's Submission overview page.

    For failed submissions, the text displayed for co-authors is This submission was removed from consideration. The Submitting Author must resolve the failure for peer review to occur.

  • When co-authors attempt to view a submission they do not have access to, for example, a submission from which they have been removed as a co-author in the submission's latest version, a Submission not found page is displayed.
  • Co-authors receive an email notification when a manuscript is submitted or resubmitted in Author Portal. Previously, co-authors received such notifications when the manuscript was submitted in the peer review system, such as ScholarOne.

Admin Improvements

  • A new user role was added, the External Submissions Admin, with similar permissions to the Submissions Admin role, but also key differences, which are described here: Administrative User Levels
  • When admins proxy as an author and then return to the administrator view, they are redirected to the Submissions tab. Any submission filters applied prior to the proxy session are retained. A new card, Most Recently Proxied Submission, is displayed above the list of submissions. The card displays the submission details for the submission the administrator just finished proxying as the author for. To close the card, administrators can click Dismiss.
  • Super Users and Tenant Super Users can activate or deactivate additional features such as Reviewer PDF and Co-Author Dashboard from the Publisher Settings > Additional Features tab. Super Users can optionally activate features for all journals, or only for certain journals, whereas Tenant Super Users can only enable features for all journals.
  • When editing a journal configuration that uses the configurable multiple choice additional information question, admins can deactivate list items (possible answers). Deactivated list items are not displayed for authors creating new submissions. For submissions that have been returned to the author (revisions, unsubmitted manuscripts, and resubmissions), selections of deactivated list items are retained. In such cases, if the author selects a different list item when revising their manuscript, they cannot reselect the deactivated item. Additionally, the question has been renamed from Question title (multiple-choice) to Configurable multiple choice question.

ScholarOne Integration Improvements

  • Admins can now use the Change ownership action for submissions where the Author Details submission step has not been completed. This can be done for a submission in any state except Accepted, Rejected, Deleted, or Withdrawn.
  • When a submission fails with a ScholarOne error that is not mapped to a corresponding Author Portal error, the error message is added to the Failure type filter on the Submissions tab, and admins can search for other submissions that have failed with the same error. The error message is also displayed when admins hover over the red flag icon in the Submission Failed field of a failed submission's record on the Submissions tab.
  • Author Portal now displays the Under Review submission status for submissions that have the Revised or Resubmitted status in ScholarOne.

Accessibility Improvements

  • Improved Journal header rendering at small viewport sizes.
  • Improved keyboard navigation on confirmation popovers.
  • Improved labels, descriptive text for Author Contributions.
  • Notifications now meet WCAG color contrast guidelines.
  • Improved Final Review / Submission overview rendering at small viewport sizes.
  • Text line spacing now meet WCAG AA guidelines.