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Automated Email Notifications for Repository SubmissionsAutomated Email Notifications for Repository Submissions

Overview

In Digital Commons, automated emails keep authors and administrators informed at each step of the submission and publication process. Every repository has a range of email notifications built in to support common publishing needs as well as more complex workflows.

The most typical notifications work immediately out of the box, with standard text to help you start accepting and managing submissions. However, if you want to tailor these emails, most notifications are customizable. This guide provides a summary of available emails and steps to request adjustments from Consulting Services.

If you are interested in notifications for a journal, please see Journal Email Notifications for additional details. Some journal email settings and typical workflows differ slightly from other publication structures.

For information about account or report emails, please see the bottom of this page.

Getting Started with Default Emails

Most email notifications are enabled by default and come with standard text that applies to many situations. Messages that are ready to send include submission and revision confirmations, decision letters, and publication notices. These are designed to cover the typical workflow and keep everyone up to date. For example:

When an author submits a work, an email is automatically sent to confirm receipt, and administrators of the given publication are also notified.
If registering a decision is part of your workflow, authors are notified when decisions are made and if revisions are requested.
When items are published, everyone involved is informed and provided a link to the published page.

If you wish to include specific information or notes in certain emails, most boilerplate text can be modified by contacting Consulting Services. Refer to the list of emails below for more details and see the “Customizing Email Notifications” section for how to submit requests.

List of Common Emails and Recipients

Below are the most common submission-related emails in a Digital Commons repository along with who receives each email. The notifications listed are ready to send with typical repository settings and permissions.

Key considerations:

For works uploaded by administrators: The default is to not send most emails related to the submission/publication process to authors. This can be changed by request so authors receive more updates.
Author email addresses: These need to be included with a submission for authors to receive notifications. The email address from an author’s account is automatically included when they submit their own work.
Administrator/editor mail permission: The “Receive email notifications” permission needs to be in place to get most notifications. This is typically assigned to administrators in the setup process. For some emails, if a publication structure has no administrator with the mail permission, emails will go to the site-level default contact instead. See Managing Administrator Permissions or contact Consulting Services if you would like to double-check or adjust permissions.

For a complete list of all submission/publication email text and customization options, please request a full mail compendium from Consulting Services.

Email	Recipients	Can be customized by request?
New submission uploaded	When author uploads: Authors; Admins with full permissions. When admin uploads: None (not sent by default). Not sent for batch upload.	Yes
Word or RTF file converted to PDF	When author uploaded the submission: Authors; Admins with mail permission. When admin uploaded: Submitting admin; Admins with mail permission.	Yes
Revision submitted	When author revises: Assigned admin (if any); if no assigned admin, all admins with mail permission. When admin revises: No recipients (not sent by default in most structures; in journals, some editor roles receive revision updates). Not sent for batch revise.	Yes
Unpublished submission withdrawn by author	When author uploaded the submission: Authors; Assigned admin (if any); Admins with mail permission; Reviewers with status of "committed" or "reviewed". When admin uploaded the submission: Withdrawing author; Assigned admin (if any); Admins with mail permission.	Yes
Unpublished submission withdrawn by administrator/editor	When author uploaded the submission: Authors (optional); Withdrawing admin; Assigned admin (if any); Admins with mail permission. When admin uploaded: Withdrawing admin; Assigned admin (if any); Admins with mail permission.	Yes
Submission published	Authors; Assigned admin (if any); Admins with mail permission; Reviewers.	Yes
Published submission removed by administrator/editor	Authors; Admin removing submission; Assigned admin (if any).	Yes (can also edit before sending)

Customizing Email Notifications

While Digital Commons notifications do not require customization, your institution may have specific needs for tailoring emails, either for the whole repository or for individual publications. For most emails described above, you can:

Request changes to the boilerplate text
Specify whether notifications should be enabled or disabled
Adjust who receives the email

To request customization, contact Consulting Services. They can provide a full compendium of all email text and assist you in making requested adjustments.

How to Submit a Request to Consulting Services

Steps for requesting changes:

Request a mail compendium from Consulting Services.
The compendium is a Word document, so you may use the track changes feature in Word to record the specific changes you want to request. This will help to communicate your exact edits to Consulting Services.
Be sure to keep variables in place in the email text. Digital Commons emails use variables for elements like author name, manuscript numbers, and anonymized email addresses. These appear in brackets in the compendium. Leaving them in place ensures all mail components are preserved.
Indicate the specific publication contexts where you’d like the requested changes applied. You may choose to apply changes to an email across the entire repository, only in specific publication types (e.g., for all series), or in individual structures (e.g., an honors theses ETD series).
Reply to Consulting Services and attach your modified Word document. It’s helpful to include a brief list of which emails you have modified as well as any emails that you would like to enable or disable (that aren’t set that way by default).

If you would like additional details for any notification type, or if you have any questions about the above process, please contact Consulting Services as described on our Contact Us page.

Special Workflows: Peer Review and Other Options

The optional workflows described below have additional email notifications associated with them. Please let Consulting Services know if you have questions or are interested in utilizing any of the following.

Optional Workflow or Setting	Description
Peer Review notifications	Peer review settings are enabled by default in journals, and they can be enabled for other publications as well. See Peer Review Tools or contact Consulting Services for more information. Peer review emails include: Review requests and reminders Reviewer guidelines Notifications when reviews are uploaded or received
Administrator Assignment	The option to assign submissions to specific administrators or editors is available in journals by default, and it can be enabled for other publication types by contacting Consulting Services. When this feature is enabled, it generates an email notification to the assigned administrator or editor. In addition, an email confirmation is sent to the administrator who makes the assignment.
Decision letters	The “Register Decision” option is present in each publication type in Digital Commons. It is an optional step for all publication structures besides journals. Decision letters include: Acceptance letter Acceptance with minor revisions Major revisions required for acceptance Rejection letter An additional decision letter for “Minor Revisions Required for Acceptance,” if the corresponding setting is enabled for a publication
Author Approval	This option can be enabled by Consulting Services upon request. When utilized, this setting requires author approval before publishing a work and sends the following emails: Email to author(s) requesting approval for publication Confirmation of author approval to administrator/editor and any co-authors
Miscellaneous Correspondence	Particularly in journals, it may be helpful to enable communication between multiple parties involved with a submission. Digital Commons offers the following options to facilitate direct communication about a submission: Miscellaneous editor-author correspondence Miscellaneous editor-reviewer correspondence Anonymous author-reviewer correspondence These can be enabled by Consulting Services upon request.

Emails Unrelated to the Submission Process

Account Emails

In addition to submission-related emails, Digital Commons also sends notifications when users create accounts. Account emails and login pages on your site can both be customized. See Accounts and Authentication for more information. If you are interested in making any adjustments, please contact Consulting Services.

Report Emails

The Digital Commons Dashboard delivers some usage reports to administrators and authors via email. Text in report emails is not customizable. However, for the automatic Monthly Author Readership Report, a free text field on the site Configuration page allows administrators to include custom text for authors within the standard email. See Overview of Digital Commons Reports for more information.