Key features
Kotahi is open source, and nearly everything below is a setting rather than a code change.
Configure it to your process
Section titled “Configure it to your process”- Build your own forms. Submission, review and decision forms are assembled in one builder — add, remove and reorder fields, and attach the metadata tags your domain needs to each one. See Build your forms.
- Choose a review model. Open, single-anonymous or double-anonymous. Reviewers can work on a shared review or submit individually, and you decide how much of it the author sees. See Review models.
- Set the tasks. Task templates give every submission the same checklist, and it can be adjusted for an individual manuscript. See Set up task templates.
- Write the emails. Every notification Kotahi sends is an editable template. See Customise email templates.
- Keep the history. Each new submission round creates a new version of both the manuscript and its metadata, so the trail from first draft to published article stays intact.
Produce the files
Section titled “Produce the files”- JATS XML — tag content visually in the production editor and Kotahi converts it to validated JATS. Nobody needs to write XML.
- Print-ready PDFs — typeset in the browser with Paged.js, one at a time or in batches. See Produce a PDF.
Publish
Section titled “Publish”Manuscripts, evaluations and data, in any combination, to your public website and to Crossref or DataCite, Hypothesis, COAR Notify or a webhook of your own. See What Kotahi publishes.
The public website is generated as static files rather than assembled from a database on each request, so it stays fast however much you publish.
Run more than one group
Section titled “Run more than one group”A single Kotahi deployment can host several groups — journals, preprint servers, review communities — each with its own forms, workflow, appearance and publishing endpoints, and each with its data kept separate from the others. That is how you pilot a new process alongside a live one without disturbing it.
Creating a group is a developer task rather than a setting. See Technology supporting people for where the lines fall between what your team changes, what an administrator changes, and what needs a developer.