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OJS for EveryoneThe Practical GuidebookRSYN Research LLP

Editorial Workflow

Practical answers for editors, section editors, and reviewers working inside the OJS editorial pipeline.

Can a reviewer change a recommendation they already submitted?​

Not directly. Once a reviewer submits their review form, it is locked — they cannot re-open it and change their recommendation themselves.

An editor, however, can adjust the recorded recommendation on behalf of the reviewer. From the submission's Review stage, click the blue disclosure triangle next to the reviewer's name and choose Review Details. In the panel that opens, the recommendation field is editable via a dropdown. Change it and save. The reviewer will not receive an automatic notification of this change, so communicate with them out-of-band if needed.

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Editing a reviewer's recorded recommendation is an exceptional step. Use it only when there has been a genuine miscommunication or the reviewer explicitly asked for a correction — and document the reason in a submission note for audit purposes.

How can a reviewer upload an attachment after submitting their review?​

Once a review is submitted, the reviewer cannot re-open the form to add files. If a reviewer realises they forgot to attach a file, the practical solutions are:

  1. Reviewer emails the file to the editor — The editor can then attach it to the decision notification email sent to the author (via the attachment section of the email compose window when recording a decision).
  2. Editor uploads it as an editor file — In the Review stage, editors can upload their own files to the submission. The reviewer's late attachment can be added this way and referenced in correspondence.

There is no mechanism for a reviewer to independently append files to a submitted review in OJS 3.x.

How do I cancel a review round that was accidentally opened?​

There is no "undo" button for an accidentally opened review round in OJS. Once a new round is created, the previous round is archived and reviewers from that round lose direct access to it in their dashboard.

The recommended approach is to continue in the new round:

  • If reviewers from the previous round need to continue, re-invite them in the new round, noting in the invitation email that this is a continuation of their earlier assignment.
  • Add a submission note explaining the accidental round creation so that the editorial history remains clear to future editors on the submission.
warning

Do not attempt to fix this by editing the database directly. Manual database changes can corrupt the submission's editorial history and break the audit trail. OJS is designed to maintain an immutable record of editorial actions.

I'm an editor but I can't record an editorial decision — why?​

The most likely cause is that your assignment on this submission has the "Recommend Only" privilege enabled. When an editor is assigned with this option checked, they can submit a recommendation but not record a binding decision — that is reserved for a more senior editor.

To fix this:

  1. Go to the submission's Participants panel.
  2. Click the blue triangle next to your name and choose Edit Assignment.
  3. Uncheck "This participant can only recommend a decision".
  4. Save the change.

Alternatively, a Journal Manager or Editor with full privileges can re-assign you without the Recommend Only constraint. If you intentionally want a two-stage review (section editor recommends, editor decides), this is the designed mechanism — just ensure the right people are assigned with appropriate permissions.

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The Recommend Only setting is described in the Learning OJS — Editorial Workflow guide.

How can I change the wording of reviewer recommendation options?​

The recommendation options (Accept, Revisions Required, Resubmit for Review, Decline) are not configurable through the OJS settings interface. Their labels are stored as locale strings in the OJS translation files.

To change the wording, use the Custom Locale Plugin, available in the Plugin Gallery:

  1. Install and enable the Custom Locale Plugin from Settings → Website → Plugins → Plugin Gallery.
  2. In the plugin's interface, locate the locale key for the recommendation label you want to change (e.g. reviewer.article.decision.accept).
  3. Enter your preferred replacement text and save.

This overrides the default string for your journal without modifying the core OJS files, which means the change survives upgrades. Note that you cannot add or remove recommendation options this way — only rename the existing ones.

tip

See the PKP Translating Guide for a walkthrough of using the Custom Locale Plugin to override strings.

Why didn't a user receive a notification email?​

Start by checking whether OJS actually sent the email. Open the submission, go to the Activity Log tab, and look for an entry recording the email dispatch. If the log shows the email was sent, the problem lies outside OJS — typically in:

  • Spam/junk filtering — Ask the recipient to check their spam folder and whitelist your journal's sending address.
  • SMTP configuration — If OJS is using PHP mail() instead of a dedicated SMTP server, deliverability is often poor. Configure a proper SMTP relay in config.inc.php.
  • Domain reputation — Emails from shared hosting environments or unregistered sending domains are frequently rejected. Publishing SPF and DKIM records for your sending domain significantly improves deliverability.

If the Activity Log shows no record of the email being dispatched, the problem is likely a misconfigured email handler or a PHP error during sending. Check your PHP error logs and review the PKP Admin Guide on email for SMTP configuration steps.

Galleys must be uploaded under the Publication tab of the submission (not as revision files in the workflow stages). If files are already there but still not appearing in the table of contents, check the component type assigned to each galley file.

Component types control where files are displayed. If a galley is classified as Dependent or Supplementary, it will not appear in the article's ToC entry. To fix this:

  1. Go to Settings → Workflow → Components.
  2. Find the component type assigned to your galley.
  3. Ensure its "Show in ToC" setting is enabled (or change the component type to one that is, such as "Article Text").

You can also edit the component type assigned to an individual galley file from the Publication tab without changing the global setting.

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See the Production & Publication documentation for full details on component types and their display rules.

Why are HTML galley files not displaying properly?​

There are three common causes:

  1. HTML Article Galley plugin is not enabled — Navigate to Settings → Website → Plugins and confirm the HTML Article Galley plugin is active.
  2. MIME type detection issue — PHP must be able to correctly detect the text/html MIME type for the galley file. This relies on the fileinfo PHP extension being installed and enabled on your server. Confirm with your server administrator.
  3. Malformed HTML — OJS renders HTML galleys in an iframe. If your HTML has structural errors, browsers may display it incorrectly. Run the file through a validator like HTML-Tidy or the W3C Markup Validator to catch and fix issues before uploading.
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When preparing HTML galleys, ensure all image and CSS assets are uploaded as Dependent files on the same galley, using relative paths that OJS can resolve correctly.

How do I delete an article from OJS?​

Deleting a submission in OJS requires a few steps, particularly if the submission has progressed beyond the initial intake stage.

For in-progress submissions:

  1. Record a Decline decision on the submission (via Change Decision if it has already moved past the submission stage).
  2. Once declined, the submission appears in the Declined queue. From there, click the action arrow and select Delete.

For incomplete submissions (stuck in "Incomplete" state): You must first add a placeholder metadata field and upload a dummy file to complete the submission before you can decline and delete it.

warning

Be cautious when deleting published articles. Published items may already be indexed, cited, or assigned DOIs. Removing them without issuing a retraction notice or tombstone page damages the scholarly record. Prefer issuing a formal retraction over outright deletion for published content.

How do I disable submissions for my journal?​

In OJS 3.3 and later, there is a dedicated toggle for this:

  1. Go to Settings → Workflow → Submissions.
  2. Find the "Disable Submissions" option and enable it.
  3. Save the settings.

When disabled, the submission form is replaced with a notice informing authors that the journal is not currently accepting submissions. You can customise the message displayed to authors.

For journals still running OJS 3.0–3.2, there is no single toggle. The workaround is to edit every active section and remove the author-submittable role, which prevents new submissions from being initiated.

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The workflow settings page is documented in the Learning OJS — Settings: Workflow guide.

Further Reading​