At this stage, the authors are required to review their copyedited manuscript (including the text, tables, figures, multimedia appendices, references and citations, and the PDF preview), address all queries raised by the copyeditor, and then move the paper forward to the next stage—Copyediting Final.
The following is a step-by-step guide to completing the Author Revision stage on the Kriyadocs platform:
1. Access your copyedited article via the link sent to your email account.
2. Review and confirm accuracy of the author metadata.
3. Review the changes made to the manuscript and address any pending queries.
4. Review tables, figures, multimedia appendices, and equations.
5. Review the reference list and in-text citations.
6. Approve the author-reviewed manuscript for the Copyediting Final stage.
Detailed step-by-step instructions for completing the Author Revisions stage are as follows:
1. Accessing the copyedited article
a. In Google Chrome, click the link emailed to the submitting user (ie, the “Corresponding Author for Proof”). This will take you to a page showing the following:
b. Click on “Send” so that a unique ID will be generated and sent to your email account.
c. Populate the “Paste code here…” field with the unique ID and click on “Verify” to access the editing page and PDF preview of your manuscript:
2. Review and confirm accuracy of the author metadata
a. Start by checking and confirming the metadata section of your manuscript (ie, author names and affiliations).
b. Clicking on an author’s name will pop up a new window, containing the respective author’s name, email, affiliation, and address.
c. Note on terminology: The “Corresponding Author for Proof” (as seen below the “Email” field in the previous screenshot) is the submitting user (who may or may not be an author), who can log into the manuscript homepage (JMIR Platform), see and respond to all communications, access the Kriyadocs platform for the Author Revisions stage, and is responsible to coordinate with coauthors. On the other hand, the “Corresponding Author” is the author whose name will be acknowledged as such in the publication. The corresponding author may or may not be identical with the author for correspondence (submitting user).
d. Querying the copyeditor for changes to metadata (names, affiliations, etc): During this stage, authors are unable to directly make changes to the metadata field. However, they have the option to raise queries to the copyeditor, requesting metadata-related changes. To add a query for this purpose, highlight the name of the author using your mouse cursor and click on “Insert Query”:
Alternatively, the speech bubble icon in the metadata window can be clicked to insert such a query:
Next, within the pop-up window, select “Copyeditor” from the dropdown menu and enter your request in the provided field. Once you have done so, click on “Add” to save your query:
The authors’ saved query to the copyeditor in the manuscript is shown with a “CQ” icon, as shown below:
3. Review the changes made to the manuscript and address any pending queries
a. Tracked changes: By clicking on the “eye” icon in the toolbar (the rightmost button), you can choose to hide or show tracked changes, allowing you to easily identify the sections of the manuscript that have been revised by the pre-editing team and the copyeditor. Please note that the Track Changes feature cannot be turned off/disabled.
To view the changes made by other users, navigate to the right panel and filter by “Role” as shown below:
b. Queries for authors (AQs): The journal staff may leave queries for authors in the file. Authors are required to respond to all open AQs. Depending on the query, you will have the option to “Accept” or “Reply” to queries and/or click on “Mark as resolved” or “Unable to resolve” options. Please note that you will be unable to complete the Author Revisions stage until all AQs are addressed. Any queries addressed to the authors are shown by an “AQ” icon. You may choose to respond to or resolve each query in the following two ways:
i. Clicking on the “AQ” icon.
ii. Navigating to the “Queries” section on the right-hand panel of the editing page (the bell icon). Here, you can conveniently view all open and resolved queries, which you can filter by role.
c. Queries for copyeditors (CQs): Although you can directly make changes to the manuscript text, you may also insert queries to the copyeditor (eg, to request extensive formatting and text changes). To insert a CQ, highlight the relevant portion of the text and click “Insert Query” (see Step 2d). Your copyeditor will review all CQs and integrate your suggestions into the manuscript in the Copyediting Final stage.
4. Reviewing tables, figures, multimedia appendices, and equations
a. Table review: Tables are ordered and formatted in accordance with the journal’s style during the initial Copyediting stage. During the Author Revisions stage, authors should not only confirm that the table data are accurate but also check that all tables are cited and appear in the manuscript.
On the left-hand side of the editing page, the table “Citation Count” (the number of times the table has been cited in the manuscript) appears at the top of the table, as does the editable table caption:
On the right-hand side of the editing page, under the “Tables” tab, a list of all tables will appear (clicking on a table here will take you to the table’s location on the editor). The “uncited” button will also flag any uncited tables:
If a table citation needs to be added to the text, you can click the “CITE NOW” button (on either side of the editing page) and follow the onscreen prompts to insert a new table citation:
If a new table citation would cause the tables to be out of order, you will be prompted on the editing page to automatically reorder the tables (all tables will move accordingly after reordering). When prompted, please click the “Reorder” button to reorder the tables:
For any further changes to tables, or if you have any issues with reviewing your tables, please leave a CQ for your copyeditor, detailing the requested change/issue, so that they may resolve the issue for you during the Copyediting Final stage.
b. Figure review: During the Author Revisions stage, please ensure that all figures are cited and appear in the manuscript.
As with tables, figures on the left-hand side display the citation count, and a list of all figures can be found in the right-hand side of the editing page, under the “Figures” tab.
Editable captions can be found at the bottom of figures.
The process for inserting a new figure citation is the same as that for inserting a new table citation—clicking the “CITE NOW” button. The same prompts for inserting a citation and reordering will also appear.
Of note, your copyeditor may have requested an updated figure (eg, to ensure that the figure aligns with our formatting and style guidelines). In such cases, you can replace an existing figure by clicking the “REPLACE” button:
This will open a new pop-up window, in which you can upload a revised figure by (1) clicking the “Or Select Files here to Upload” button to select the figure file, (2) providing a short description of the revisions, and (3) clicking the “Save” button at the top-right of the window:
It should also be noted that new figures cannot be uploaded by the authors at this stage. As such, if a new figure needs to be added, you can leave a CQ for your copyeditor. Ideally, the CQ should be inserted where the new figure should be added/cited and include further details (eg, the caption associated with the new figure). Click the “Upload file” button in the CQ to share the figure file with your copyeditor:
During the Copyediting Final stage, your copyeditor will review such CQs and add the figure to the manuscript for you.
c. Multimedia appendix review: Multimedia appendices appear near the bottom of both the editor the PDF preview (above the reference list), along with their captions, as download links:
To check your multimedia appendix files, you can click the links to download the files that we have in our system. Please note that copyeditors only make edits to the multimedia appendix captions and do not typically edit the appendix files themselves; it is the authors’ responsibility to ensure the accuracy of their multimedia appendices.
A list of the paper’s multimedia appendices, including other manuscript elements, can be found on the right-hand side, under the “Additional files” tab:
New multimedia appendices can be added by navigating to the “Insert” tab on the top-left side of the editing page and clicking “Supplementary”:
Next, choose the “Supplement Type” dropdown menu and select “Appendix”:
Then, you can (1) click the “Or Select a File to Upload” button to upload your appendix file, (2) enter the appendix caption in the “Caption” field, and (3) click the “Save” button at the top-right corner:
As with tables and figures, to insert a new multimedia appendix citation and renumber your appendices, click “CITE NOW” and follow the onscreen prompts. To replace an existing appendix file, click “REPLACE” and follow the steps above.
d. Equation review: As with multimedia appendices, a list of the paper’s equations can be found under the “Additional files” tab. Equations can be edited by clicking on the equation in the editor and then clicking “Edit”:
This will open the Equation Editor, which will allow you to edit your equation. To save your changes to equations, click “Ok.”
Please note that copyeditors only make changes to equations to adhere to our style guidelines (eg, adding spaces before and after a mathematical operator). As such, please ensure that your equations are presented accurately during this stage.
5. Review the reference list and in-text citations
a. Reference list: During the Pre-editing and initial Copyediting stages, references and their in-text citations are formatted in accordance with the journal’s style. At the Author Revisions stage, authors should check that the reference list is accurate (ie, contains the correct references and information) and that all references are cited in the manuscript. On the left side of the Editing page, the reference list can be found at the end of the manuscript, below the metadata, abbreviations list, and multimedia appendices:
A list of references can also be found on the right side of the Editing page, in the “References” tab, along with a button that flags any uncited references:
b. Uncited references: Your copyeditor may have flagged references that are uncited in the manuscript and requested that you cite these references in the manuscript. To do so, you can click the “CITE NOW” button for the relevant reference (above screenshot). The “CITE NOW” button also appears when you click on the relevant reference on the editor:
Then, as with Tables, Figures, and Multimedia Appendices, you will be prompted to click on the desired location in the text (left side of the Editing page) to insert your reference citation:
Once the reference citation has been inserted, you may receive a prompt indicating that the reference order has been altered and that your references will be renumbered. Please click the “Reorder” button to renumber your references:
c. Checking in-text citations: You can also check the references that in-text citations are linked to by clicking on the in-text citations in the editor:
d. Editing and adding references: Your copyeditor may have flagged missing information for references or requested the addition of new references via an AQ. To ensure correct formatting, we request that you please provide such information by replying to the AQ (eg, by providing DOIs/PMIDs, ISBNs, URLs, titles, author names, etc).
If you find that a new reference needs to be added, you may raise a CQ for your copyeditor, providing the information for the new reference. Your copyeditor can then update the reference list and in-text citations for you during the Copyediting Final stage.
e. Deleting a reference: To delete a reference from the manuscript, select the reference and click "Delete" as shown below:
This button also appears as a “trashcan” icon in the “References” tab on the right side of the Editing page:
When clicking either of these buttons, you will be asked to confirm whether the reference (and its associated citations) should indeed be deleted from the manuscript:
If you click “Yes,” the reference will be deleted from the manuscript, and you will be prompted to reorder the remaining references, as shown in step 5b. Of note, although such deletions are tracked by the editing page, we strongly recommend raising a CQ to inform your copyeditor about why any references were deleted.
6. Finalizing the Author Revisions stage
a. Reviewing the PDF preview: After completing the review of copyedits, queries, metadata, tables, figures, appendices, citations, and references, you have the option to generate a new PDF to get a tentative preview of the final document. To do this, navigate to the right-hand panel and select the PDF tab, which is the second tab from the left. Click on the “Update” button, and a new PDF will be generated based on the latest changes made. Please note that the PDF generation process may take approximately 1 minute. Of note, this is only a preview of the final PDF, offering an overview of the article at this stage.
b. Signing off: In order to mark the Author Revisions stage as complete, please click on the Approve button at the top of the editing page:
A pre-filled email template will appear in a new window. Edit the email if necessary, and click on “Sign-off” to move the paper forward to the next production stage (Copyediting Final).
c. Support: If you require any assistance with the Author Revisions stage and you believe that raising a CQ will not suffice, please feel free to contact your copyeditor by replying directly to the “Request to review copyedited manuscript” email or by emailing copyediting@jmir.org.