Manuscript Production
The production process consists of steps that the manuscript goes through after a paper has been accepted (gone through peer review and all editorial decisions). JAMS supports three stages of production processes - article layout, language editing and XML conversion.
Two methods of Production Processes:
The Publisher can choose to have these services done by their editorial office
Clients can opt into JAMS Production Services meaning that JAMS Production Editors will complete these stages for the publisher
Clients may choose to outsource production to third-party editors.
This article covers both scenarios. Some production tasks are actioned back-to-back whereas the editorial office’s action is required in-between certain parts.
1. Standard Production Workflow
After a paper has been accepted, the system will prompt the editor to send the manuscript to layout editing. When sending a paper to layout, an email notification is send out to the Layout mailbox entered in the platform’s website settings. By clicking the link provided in the email, the Layout manager is able to access the paper and assign it to a layout editor for editing.
Once the layout editing is completed and the editor reuploads the files to JAMS, the manuscript will be automatically sent to Language editing. This will also trigger an email notification to the English email address set in the website settings. English managers can then assign a paper to the editor, who will reupload edited files to JAMS. Once this step is completed, the manuscript status will be automatically updated to Pending Author Proofreading.
In order for email notifications to reach production team members, configurating notification mailbox settings is needed. More details on this process are provided below.
At this stage, a user from the editorial office of the journal needs to send the paper to author proofreading. After the proofreading has been completed, the member of the editorial office can confirm the final files and send the paper to manuscript conversion. This step triggers a notification to the Conversion mailbox after which the conversion manager can assign the paper to a conversion editor.
Once the conversion editor completes preparation of final manuscript files (XML and PDF), they reupload the files to JAMS and the status of the paper automatically changes to Pending Online. At this stage, the Publisher can go ahead and publish a paper or request a re-conversion of the paper in case updates are needed.
Production Workflow Process
2. JAMS Provided Production Services
In case the publisher has opted for using production services provided by JAMS, the following settings need to be configured in the system:
Application Features
In the Application Features section, the publisher needs to enable features for the services they choose to get from the JAMS team.
Email Mailboxes
Email addresses of corresponding teams need to be entered in the website settings page, as described in this Knowledge Base article. Corresponding email addresses for production services provided by JAMS are as follows:
Layout Editing / Typesetting - jamsproduction@mdpi.com
Language Editing - english@mdpi.com
Conversion Editing - jamsproduction@mdpi.com
Layout Editing
Basic Tier
In case the Publisher has opted for the basic tier of JAMS production services, their papers will be formatted according to the template shown below. In order for the production team to finalize the layout format, the publisher needs to provide the logo for their journals which will be included in every article.
Premium Tier
Publishers that choose the premium tier of production services can set custom formatting rules for our layout team to follow when editing the manuscripts. In order to determine the layout rules, the publisher needs to provide the JAMS team with journal logos and a filled out article layout form which can be found below.
JAMS article layout template setup request.docx
3. Editorial Office's/Third-Party Provided Production Services
In case the Publisher has opted to carry out manuscript production themselves or to have it done by a third-party provider, they can still use JAMS to track the production work by applying the following system settings.
Email Mailboxes
In order for your designated teams to receive production notifications, it is necessary to add their contact email addresses in in the corresponding website settings as described in this Knowledge Base article.
Roles Assignment
To get access to papers, production editors need to have appropriate roles assigned. Roles such as layout manager, English manager and conversion manager have permissions to assign papers to editors whereas layout, English and conversion editors can access and edit papers assigned to them and reupload them into the system. To learn more about this process, please see this article on user registration and roles assignment.