The Submission page

Where an author starts a submission and supplies its details.

Every submission begins here. What the author is asked for varies from group to group, because each group builds its own submission form — but the route in and the shape of the screen are the same everywhere.

Starting a submission

Choose Dashboard in the left menu and click + New submission, at the top right. The button is there whichever Dashboard tab you are on.

Two ways to begin

The New Submission screen offers a choice.

Upload Manuscript takes a file, by drag and drop or by clicking to browse. The accepted types are listed on screen: pdf, epub, zip, docx and latex.

Skip manuscript upload, and proceed to the submission form is for work that already exists somewhere else — a preprint, for example. It creates the submission straight away with no file attached and opens the form.

Where does the link go?

Nothing on this screen asks for one. Add it in whichever field your group’s form provides — often the DOI field.

The submission record

Either route opens the submission itself. A bar across the top shows the submission’s title and which version you are looking at. Below it are two tabs.

Edit submission info

This is your group’s submission form, and it is the part of the screen that differs most between groups. One group asks for a DOI and a publication date; another asks for funding statements and ethical declarations. Nothing on this tab is fixed by Kotahi.

To change what is asked for here, see Build your forms. Remember that form changes are not retroactive — they alter what is collected from that point on, not what has already been submitted.

The title is filled in for you when the submission is created, using the date and time. It is there so the submission has a name before anyone has typed one. Replace it with the real title.

Check the wording your form shows authors

The seeded submission forms carry text written for particular customers years ago. The prc seed still announces that Aperture is now accepting Research Object Submissions; the preprint1 and preprint2 seeds have their own equivalents. It is the first thing an author reads, and it names an organisation that is almost certainly not yours.

A future release replaces the seeded text with a neutral Please fill out the form below to complete your submission. Until that ships, change it yourself in the submission form settings when the group is set up.

Manuscript text

The manuscript itself — where the submission has one, and where Kotahi can display it. Of the types the upload screen accepts, only docx is converted into editable text. The others are stored and can be downloaded, but they do not open here.

A submission made without a file has no manuscript to show, and this tab reports Unsupported file uploaded, or editor has not been enabled. Neither of those is what actually happened — there is simply no file — so the message does not tell you which case you are in.

Submitting

The submit button sits at the end of the form. Its wording comes from the form, so it may not say “Submit” — on a group set up for research objects it reads Submit your research object.

Required fields are marked with an asterisk, and the submission cannot be sent until they are filled in.

Where it goes next

A submitted manuscript appears on the Manuscripts page for the people who manage the group, and on the author’s own My Submissions tab on the Dashboard. From there an editor picks it up on the Control page.