Guidelines for the Editorial Team
Getting Started as an Editor
As OpenMethods Editor, you have received an invitation from WordPress for logging in. You can get to the login page by clicking the button above, or choosing “Login” on the homepage.
If you have forgotten your username or password, just follow the prompts on the login page. In case of other technical problems related to OpenMethods, please contact us.
After logging in, you see directly the OpenMethods Dashboard: you can see the OpenMethods homepage by clicking on OpenMethods > visit the site.
Nominating Content
Reminder:
– OpenMethods highlights already published content: you cannot publish an original contribution on OpenMethods. All selected content has to be already published elsewhere. It can be blog posts, reports, presentations, working papers, data papers, articles or book chapters. It is not a problem if a content is already highlighted on another platform. Content with persistent identifiers (uri, handle, doi) are of course more than welcome.
– You have to select only Open Access content/data.
Once you have logged in, you can use your dashboard to select the PressForward menu in the WordPress left sidebar.
Instructions for nominating, editing and publishing Content
You can download this video which explains step by step how to work with content (update: a couple of minor details had been changed in the new WordPress version since then – a new video will follow).
1. For editing and working on draft posts, first you have to put the tool “Nominate this” on your toolbar:
– go to the Dashboard (on the top left of your screen, click on OpenMethods > Dashboard), on the left column go to PressForward > Tools.
– click on “Nominate this”, hold it and move it to your toolbar
– you have your tool for nominating !
2. Now, you have to go to the blog/website from which you want to publish a post.
3. Don’t click on “Nominate this” immediately. Select a paragraph you think is very interesting to appear on the OpenMethods homepage in order to induce OpenMethods users to click on the source link afterwards.
So select and click on “Nominate this”. A new page opens: to work on your post, click on “Send to draft”. After closing that page as required, you can go back to OpenMethods dashboard in order to work on your selection.
4. Go to PressForward > Nominated. If you can not see your selection, then it means this content has already been published on OpenMethods. You can see your selection: Click on the icon “Draft” on the right.
5. Then go to Posts > All Posts: now you can click on “edit” under the title post and work on your draft for publication.
6. You have to manage many sections:
– Title: it is automatically generated when you “nominate” the post but you can change it if necessary. For a better readability:
- keep only the title of the content.
- cancel the site/journal name at the end of the title: do not worry, it appears in the source link below the post.
– Text (tab “Visual”, not “Text”):
- Write an introduction in English for presenting every post. This introduction must begin with “Introduction by OpenMethods Editor (your name): (text of introduction)”. Be short and concise and as much as possible, use plain language that is inclusive with a broader readership.
- Select a quote from the original content to be highlighted in the post. For this, you need to use the Blockquote function.
For a better readability:
- cancel any footnote references in the text because the links do not exist in the post on OpenMethods.
- respect initial paragraph form.
– Source link. If you wish to change the title of your source link, for example because it is too generic, it is simple, contra-intuitive maybe, but simple. There are of course other ways to do this, that’s just one way. You would need to go to the end of the link title and type your own text, you will see that the text is being written in orange, that’s because it means it will also contain the link. Once you finish adding your own text, you can simply delete the beginning of the sentence (the old source title). You can now save your post.
– Select Categories for your post.
- Go to the ‘Document’ block on the right.
- First the language(s) of the post and also the one(s) of the attached podcast or video.
- Then, DH categories: TaDiRAH document or website can help you. You have to categorize your post reading it at the same time and, after reading it, take a look on TaDiRAH document to verify your categorization.
- First, please do not uncheck the parent category “languages”.
- Second, do not forget to choose several TADIRAH categories, particularly when they match important words in the content you selected. For example, if the word “encoding” is in the text, you can choose the category “encoding” in the Research Techniques.
- When you choose a category, you have to choose also its parent category. It is not a problem if a post seems to have too many categories: you have to think how the users will do their researches on OpenMethods. For example, if you only categorize your post with the category “data recognition”, the user who will search some post on the Research Activity parent category “capture” could not find it.
- Don’t worry, the OpenMethods Chief Editor will recheck your categorization.
-HomePage introduction. In order to propose to users a first shorter introduction than the post one, you have to paste your full introduction in the “excerpt” field that you can also find under the Document block on the right side of the page with this form: “Introduction: (text of your introduction)”. Again, don’t worry if you will not have time for this step, the Chief Editor will take care of it. In this case, just save your draft and she will double-check and publish it.
–Add a featured image. This can be a thumbnail imagine related to the content to be highlighted. Just like the introduction excerpt, this is also optional, the Chief Editor can take care of it. In this case, just save your draft and she will double-check and publish it.
7. Finally, click on “Publish”. Your post is published on OpenMethods and you must check it on the homepage and on its main page: if you forgot something or made a mistake, you can go back to your post in Posts > All Posts > Edit your post and update it.
FAQs
1. Scope. We understand that we focus on methods. For instance, do we include a post which reports research undertaken with certain method, but does not exactly focus on the method itself? What kind of content we’re NOT including?
=> Only if it includes an extensive description of the methods and/or tools itself. If the methods and/or tools are only mentioned but not described, this should not be included on OpenMethods.
2. Types. Do we accept all types of content (providing it is relevant) or exclude some types or genres, for instance reviews (though they actually are helpful), conference reports, PPT/Prezi presentations, video lectures, databases (e.g. NeDiMAH directory of projects)?
=> Providing it is relevant, we definitely can accept any (or almost) types of content. But not databases because OpenMethods is not aiming at being a registry, however a description, review, … of said databases would be welcome.
3. Older content. Do we set any time-boundaries concerning the content we want to feature?
=> We believe that having “old” content is not an issue for OpenMethods. We wouldn’t like to put a limit or a ratio on the number of old/recent content neither. If the content is still relevant today, it is welcome on OpenMethods.
4. Self-nomination. Since we are a group of experts we also produce content of relevance for OpenMethods, esp. in our national languages. What is the policy on featuring editors’ own content?
=> We asked editors to join as experts so it is normal they already published on the topic. It is ok to use OpenMethods to republish their own content in a “fair” limit.
Publishing Volunteers’ contributions (see picture)
– Publication depends on three positive comments by Editors.
– Who publishes Volunteers’ content: the Chief Editor chooses an Editor if there is no volunteer in the Editorial Team.
– Veto power: you can oppose your veto for an inappropriate content. It is an extreme action that every editor must explain in a comment (PressForward > Nominated). All the Editorial Team must approve your veto: if there is not a consensus, the Chief Editor will refer to the Management Team for decision.