Its innovative structure aggregates tools and methodologies that allow to guide the process of publication of an article without complications or extra tools.
DocLab manages the whole lifecycle of publishing scientific articles, from submission to publication. A great solution for publications of Medical, Engineering or Science specialties.
It offers an efficient article management system focused on editors and on improving reviewers' time management, which optimizes the whole process inherent to the publication.
The existence of different types profiles with different access conditions grants total confidentiality of reviewers and authors, securing the impartiality of publications.
Profiles
DocLab's structure allows the creation of four different types of profiles. The type of profile determines the actions to which the user has access to, for example, the possibility of submitting a review, read an article or comunicate with specific stakeholders along the revision process.
Author
The Author submits an article for review. He has access to the articles he submitted and all the inherent information of each one. He can view the article, submitted reviews and exchanged messages with the editor.
The dashboard includes the complete activity history of the Author, with the compilation of submitted articles, published articles, corrections and drafts, among others.
Editor
The Editor follows the review process and publication of all submitted articles.
This follow up is made through a dashboard developed to offer a simplified, organized and visually attractive display of the status of the articles. On top the dashboard is organized in coloured blocks. It allows to easily distinguish which articles need some kind of action from the Editor, for example, new articles, articles without reviewers or articles that have received feedback from reviewers.
Associated Editor
The Associated Editor is a profile that can only be given by the editor through an invitation. Accepting the invitation, the Associated Editor assumes the role of Editor for the specific article he was invited to.
The Associated Editor only has access to information about the article he was invited to manage. However, in the articles where he is Associated Editor he has access to all information and tools available, just like the Editor.
Reviewer
The Reviewer is the user invited by the Editor to review the article submitted. This profile has access to the articles he is reviewing at the moment and to the Summary, Article, Reviews and Messages sections.
The process of submission of a review was conceived to offer the maximum convenience to the Reviewer. The reading of the article can be made on the platform or in another writing tool by downloading the article.
Lifecycle of an article
After receiving a positive review by the reviewers and editor the article is published through the platform. It becomes available for reading on the digital archive of the website or in another publication from the respective scientific area (ex. Pubmed). The published article then integrates a list of articles that may be selected by the editor to a periodic publication. The construction of the publication is also conducted on DocLab, maximizing the set of tasks that can be performed on the platform for the editor's full advantage.
Other features
Dashboard
The dashboard of the user sumarizes the article management process and offers a simplified and comprehensive vision of the status of the work in progress.
The Editor's dashboard is also complemented with coloured blocks with quick access to the articles that require more attention. This section was developed with an intuitive and clean design in order to optimize the access to articles that are depending on any kind of action from the Editor.
Article display modes
The articles can be displayed in blocks or list, adapting to the Editor's preferences. The use of a colour scheme associated to a different status of an article is another key-element in information display, specially thought to improve the plataform usage experience.
Notifications
The process of submission and review of articles is complemented with a set of notifications with the goal of keeping everyone involved in the process informed during the different phases. The notifications include regular reminders of review invitations, review submissions, notification of article rejection, approval or publish, among others.
Publications
The platform contemplates the possibility of automatically publishing articles in specialized publications. For example in the medical field there is the PubMed portal. The information related to the article is compiled acording to PubMed standards and sent, recquiring only the confirmation.
Reviewers suggestion
During submission of an article, the Author is asked to suggest three Reviewers. This option gives the Author the opportunity to specifically indicate investigators in that field, which they believe may have the best profile to evaluate his job.
Featured project
The Portuguese Society of Rheumathology uses DocLab as a tool to manage scientific work conducted by health professionals published on the scientific publication “Acta Reumatológica Portuguesa”. The DocLab platform optimized proccesses, clarified information visualization and inovated in the potential of offered services.
