Latest Developments (19.06.1998) |
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To meet some potential users requests a
new version 1.2 of the PROS is developed. It is free
for noncommercial use, can be customized for any arbitrary journal and is accompanied
with WWW based setup and configuration files. From demo
pages you can see some basic elements of the system's interface.
This software was successfully tested under Windows NT 4.0 and Netscape
Enterprise Server 2.01, and under Windows 95 and WebSite Pro 2.0 Server.
In both cases Perl 5 interpreter (Perl5 for Win32) was used.
PROS - Peer-Review Online System
by Vitaly Nechitailenko
http://eos.wdcb.ru/gmai/peer/
Important part of scientific publication process is the peer-review system. The
Joint ICSU Press/UNESCO Expert Conference
on Electronic Publishing in Science issued a special recommendation, which
requests that "... strict peer review should be applied to all scientific materials
submitted for publication in electronic journals."
Among the tools which are being developed for
International Journal of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy
(IJGA) electronic journal there is a
special Peer-Review Online System (PROS), which has high enough level of security,
producing on-fly generation of all documents in the system, depending on confirmed
privileges of users (reviewers) and addresses of computers at user's end.
Only authorized access to the system is permitted. The system distinquish two types
of users: reviewers, those who are registered in the system and have valid
usernames and passwords, and managers, which are the registered users
accessing the system from the predefined computers (identified by IP addresses).
Papers prepared for the online review process are loaded into the system.
Structure of currently working version of the PROS for GMAI looks like:
WWW root
....
CGI-BIN-directory
....
....
GMAI-directory GMAI Root Page
Directories with published papers
PEER-directory PEER Root Page
Directories with reviewed papers
etc.
....
....
Each paper are put in the separate directory with the same name as paper's
identification code (GAInnmmm for GMAI, where nn - a year of acceptance for
consideration, and mmm - unique number of paper). Each directory contains initial
TeX version of the paper, HTML version, for which the same name is used
with .htm extension, Postscript version of paper in reviewer's format and
corresponding compressed Postscript and HPGL versions.
PROS has two main branches, Reviewer's Page and Manager's Page. After entering valid
username and password the system brings user to the Peer-Review Page which is composed
in different manner for reviewer and manager. Reviewer can see and work with papers
assigned to him by the manager and can go to the Reviewer's Page, while manager can see
and work with all papers loaded for review process and can go to the Reviewer's Page and
to the Manager's Page as well. Except the initial page with the authentification form
and Info page called from the latter, all other pages are generated on fly by the set of
Perl scripts depending on current scenario and user's privileges.
From this page reviewer can do the following:
- Change user's password.
User can change his password. By default after first login the system requests
changing password. This default option can be switched off by the Manager.
- Confirm acceptance of the selected paper for review.
For correct tracking of papers under review it is necessary to confirm acceptance
of the assigned paper for review. On the next step the system prevents reviewer from
editing new paper, if confirmation was not fixed. At the same time reviewer can continue
writing old review in online mode selecting paper number from the list composed
by the system.
- Write review in online mode.
The system compose two-frame window and loads the paper under review into the top
window and Review Form in the bottom window. Reviewer can copy and paste necessary
fragments from the paper's text in the top window.
Online version of the manuscript contains HTML 3.2 extensions and/or inline graphics
to display math and special characters. When cuttind and pasting such fragments
from the paper into the review reviewer may loose some characters. Necessary recommendations
on the matter are provided online.
After closing current session reviewer can continue editing during next session
(checking "Continue" radio button) of mark his review as final (checking "Final"
radio button). Then review is saved and sent to the Editor and GMAI Manager.
Within a short time the final review will still be accessible for changes.
To do this, reviewer may logon to the system, and go to the Reviewer's Page
without checking any paper in the list. The system will show him(she) all his(her)
reviews, postponed and finished ones, and suggest to make selection for
continuing review. Postponed reviews are saved and accessible to reviewer until
they are marked as final ones. Final reviews are removed from the base after
Editor/Manager marks them as accepted reviews.
- Go to the Peer-Review Page.
- Go to the GMAI Homepage.
From the Manager's Page the following operations can be made:
- Adding user's account to the List of Registered Users.
This operation adds new account to the List. The system checks entered data generates
error messages if input is not matching.
- Removing user's account from the List.
This operation removes one or more marked users from the List.
- Adding paper(s) to the Peer-Review Page.
This operation accepts filled in form, containing paper's code, title, and author's names.
Then it creates links to corresponding directories assuming that these directories are
already installed and loaded.
- Define reviewer(s) for the selected paper.
This option provides mechanism for assigning reviewers for selected paper. It is possible
to reassign reviewers. In a reviewer has postponed review in his personal list and at that
moment was reassigned from this paper, he still have an access to this postponed review
and can finalize writing his review.
- Removing paper(s) from the Peer-Review Page.
Manager can mark one or more papers in the total list of papers under review.
This operation is normally needed after receiving positive reviews and closing
review process over the particular paper.
- Reading new submitted reviews.
This is for reading submitted review by the Manager. After reading newly
submitted review it is moved to the final directory. It is possible to send review
to the final directory without reading it.
- Reading already accepted reviews.
This provides possibility to read already accepted reviews.
- View List of Registered Users.
This list contains names, e-mail addresses and affiliations of all registered users.
- View event log list.
The system writes some key elements of the processes like adding/deleting names, papers
and people who did these changes.
- Go to the Peer-Review Page.
- Back to GMAI Root Page.
© 1998 Vitaly Nechitailenko
Updated on June 19, 1998