Legacy: Public Flag Function (removed in DEX.7.1)
As of DEX 7.1, the ‘Public Flag’ setting has been removed from Journal Settings. Everything it used to control is now handled automatically or by your existing Application Features, so there is nothing new to switch on.
This article is kept for reference for Super Users who used the Public Flag before DEX 7.1. The most noticeable change is that sitemaps are now generated daily for every journal website on JAMS, which helps your published articles get indexed by Google Scholar.
What the Public Flag did (before DEX 7.1)
The Public Flag was a tick-box in the journal management settings, unticked by default. It marked a journal as “public” and affected four areas of JAMS:
- Sitemaps: only journals with the Public Flag ticked had a sitemap generated, so journals left unticked could be missed by Google Scholar.
- English Office manuscript search: the journal filter only listed journals with the Public Flag ticked.
- Publishing workflow: ticked journals showed the normal ‘Submit’ publishing action, while unticked journals showed ‘Mark as published’.
- Journal content management: the ‘Export Journal Data’ button was shown only for journals with the Public Flag unticked.
What happens now
Each area the Public Flag controlled now works as follows.
| Area | Before DEX 7.1 | From DEX 7.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Sitemaps | Generated only for journals with the Public Flag ticked | Generated daily, at a fixed time, for every journal website, as long as ‘Journal Website Management’ is switched on in Application Features |
| English Office manuscript search | Journal filter listed public journals only | Journal filter lists all your journals |
| Publishing workflow (‘Submit’ or ‘Mark as published’) | Set by the Public Flag | Journals with their website enabled in Journal Website Management show ‘Submit’. All other journals show ‘Mark as published’ |
| Sending published manuscripts to a third-party website by FTP | Only manuscripts marked as published in journals without the Public Flag | Controlled only by ‘Export Published Manuscripts through FTP’ in Application Features, whichever publishing action is used |
| ‘Export Journal Data’ button | Shown for journals without the Public Flag | Removed. Use the Outbound Manuscript API instead |
Sitemaps and Google Scholar
If Journal Website Management is switched on, JAMS generates a sitemap for each of your journal websites every day. You no longer need to tick anything for your articles to be discoverable by Google Scholar and other search engines. Indexing is still up to the search engine and can take some time after the first sitemap is generated.
Publishing to JAMS and a third-party website
You can now publish on a JAMS-hosted journal website and send the same manuscripts to a third-party website at the same time. Switch on ‘Export Published Manuscripts through FTP’ in Application Features, and published manuscripts will be sent by FTP whether editors use ‘Submit’ or ‘Mark as published’.
Retrieving journal data
The ‘Export Journal Data’ button has been replaced by the Outbound Manuscript API, which was released in DEX 3.2. The API lets you fetch metadata for many manuscripts at once (filtered by journal, status, volume, issue or handling editor), or for a single manuscript by ID, hash key or DOI. It also supports downloading manuscript PDFs, XML, figures and supplementary files.
Do I need to do anything?
Most journals need no action. Super Users should check the following:
- Journal Website Management is switched on in Application Features if you host journal websites on JAMS. Sitemaps are only generated when it is on.
- Each journal’s website is enabled in Journal Website Management, so editors see ‘Submit’ rather than ‘Mark as published’.
- ‘Export Published Manuscripts through FTP’ is set the way you want if you send articles to a third-party website. This setting alone now decides whether manuscripts are sent.
- Any process that used ‘Export Journal Data’ is moved to the Outbound Manuscript API. Contact support@jams.pub if you need help setting it up.
Important: If you left the Public Flag unticked on purpose to keep a journal out of search engines, its sitemap will now be generated. Please contact support@jams.pub to discuss your options.
FAQs
Where has the Public Flag tick-box gone? It has been removed from Journal Settings in DEX 7.1. You don’t need to replace it with anything.
Does this change who can see my journal website? No. The Public Flag never restricted access to journal websites, and nothing about access has changed.
Does this affect submissions? No. Whether a journal accepts submissions is still controlled by its ‘Accepts Submissions’ setting.
My articles still aren’t on Google Scholar. What should I do? Check that Journal Website Management is switched on, then allow time for Google Scholar to crawl the new sitemap. If articles are still missing after a few weeks, contact support@jams.pub.