Introducing Your New Landing Page

This guide is for administrators and editors of Digital Commons Journals that have a Modern Journal Design. The modern design offers an easy-to-manage, customizable interface that seamlessly displays content from your DC classic journal.

Only the landing page will display the Modern Journal Design during this preliminary design phase, with links leading to pages in the DC classic journal.

Using editor controls on your new landing page, you can edit several aspects of how page sections appear to visitors. The tools covered in this guide are available anytime you would like to adjust navigation menus, section preferences, or featured content.

How to Enable Edit Mode

The Edit mode toggle described below is visible to administrators and editors who are logged in and viewing their Modern Journal landing page.

How to reach your landing page:

You can reach the landing page at the URL provided by your consultant or by including “/fe-journals” in the URL of your DC classic journal, as shown in this example:

To log in, if needed, you can click your profile avatar to go to the DC classic login page.

To start customizing your journal interface:

Click the Edit mode toggle button at the top of the page. This will display Edit section links for the navigation bar and various sections on the page.

Consulting Services will have already configured the banner, footer, document types, and basic navigation bar links when setting up your Modern Journal Design.

Below are steps to control additional page settings and menu links.

Navigation Bar Overview

The top navigation bar contains About and Publish menus along with a Browse Issues link. You can control menu contents and, if desired, you can also add an extra menu and a Submit link.

Summary of navigation bar options:

• About menu: Links can be added or changed. This menu typically includes pages describing the journal, for example: About, Aims and Scope, Editorial Board, Contact, Indexing. This menu will already be populated by Consulting Services, though you may revise or add to it.
• Publish menu: Links can be added or changed. This menu typically includes anything an author or reviewer needs to know to publish an article, for example: Author Guidelines, Reviewer Guidelines, Policies, Submission Guidelines, Publication Ethics. This menu will already be populated by Consulting Services, though you may revise or add to it.
• Additional menu: You may add a custom menu that might be relevant to the journal such as Announcements, Resources, Awards.
• Browse Issues: This link goes to the All Issues page in the DC classic journal. This link is not adjustable.
• Submit link: You can enable a Submit link with your choice of URL (typically the submission form URL in your classic journal). 
• Profile avatar: Has a link to the DC classic login or account page, depending on whether you are currently logged in. Also has a link to log out.

About and Publish Menus

Menus in the navigation bar contain customizable links that visitors can view by hovering over the menu name.

You can add or adjust items in both the About and Publish menus. To customize a menu:

1. Click Edit Section in the top navigation bar.        
   
2. In the box that opens, click the name of the menu that you’d like to edit.        
   
3. Click Add Submenu within the menu’s expanded options.       
   
4. A new row with two fields will appear. Enter text for the link label in the first field and a corresponding URL in the Enter URL field.      
   
5. You can click Add Submenu again to add more submenu items, up to five total. You can delete an item using the trash can icon for a row. You can move items by clicking the 6 dots drag-and-drop icon to the left of a row.
6. Click Save Changes when done.

Add a Custom Menu

One extra menu may be added (with more options planned for future releases). For instance, if your journal publishes special issues, you may wish to add a “Special Issues” menu and link to the special issues in your classic journal. To add a custom menu:

1. Click Edit Section in the top navigation bar.        
   
2. In the box that opens, click New menu label to expand the options.     
   
3. Enter a label for the menu in the text field (the expand section label will change to match the label you've entered).   
   
4. Click Add Submenu to add a row for a menu item.   
   
5. A new row with two fields will appear. Enter text for the link label in the first field and a corresponding URL in the Enter URL field.  
   
6. You can click Add Submenu again to add more menu items, up to five items total. You can delete an item using the trash can icon for a row. You can move items by clicking the 6 dots drag-and-drop icon to the left of a row.
7. Click the Show this Menu button to make the menu visible in the journal’s navigation bar. 
   
8. Click Save Changes when done.

Enable a Submit Link

1. Click Edit Section in the top navigation bar.
2. In the box that opens, click Submit to expand the options.
   
3. Enter the URL for the Submit link.
   
4. Click the Show this menu toggle to enable the link.
5. Click Save changes to display the link in the navigation bar. The link will appear to the right of the other navigation bar contents.

Landing Page Sections

The landing page features the following sections: Current Issue; Featured Content; Current Articles; and Most Popular Articles.

Each landing page section has an Edit Section link that appears when you are logged in and have Edit mode enabled.

Edit Section links allow for several adjustments to page sections, including the ability to:

• Turn each section on/off
• Change section titles
• Add a cover image in the Current Issue section
• Curate content and image cards in the Featured Content section

If a section is turned off, a placeholder and status message will appear for administrators and editors on the landing page. Visitors will not see these.

Below are descriptions of each landing page section and the available settings for that section.

Current Issue

The Current Issue section appears first and provides a link to the DC classic journal landing page where the current issue displays. An optional cover image will display if one is uploaded.

Click Edit Section to open the Current Issue settings, pictured here:

In the Current Issue settings, you can do the following:

• Use the Show this section toggle to enable or disable the section.
• Replace the Section heading text if you wish to customize the section title.
• Upload Current Issue Cover art by dragging or browsing for a file on your computer.

Click Save Changes when done adjusting Current Issue settings.

Featured Content

This section displays article cards for the two most recently published articles by default. You can customize which articles appear here as well as add image cards, if desired. Visitors can click the article titles or the Read More links to view the articles in the DC classic journal.

Default display with article cards:

Populated with image cards and custom article choices:

Click Edit Section to open the Featured Content settings, pictured below:

In the Featured Content settings, you can do the following:

• Click the Show this section toggle to enable or disable the section.
• Replace the text in the Section heading field to customize the section title.
• Use the Card 1 and Card 2 options to display image cards behind the article cards. Upload both image cards to ensure proper display.
• Change the article shown in a card by including a different article’s URL in the Enter article URL field. Enter an article URL from your DC classic journal and click Validate to confirm the article is successfully linked.

Click Save Changes when done adjusting Featured Content settings.

Current Articles

This section features articles from the most recent issue published in your DC classic journal. Clicking an article title goes to the article in the DC classic journal.

Articles appear in descending chronological order by default. If issues in your classic journal display document type headings, these will be pre-populated by Consulting Services when setting up your Modern Journal landing page. Visitors can click the arrows to expand or collapse each document type and its associated articles.

Click Edit Section to open the Current Articles settings, shown here:

In the Current Articles settings, you can do the following: 

• Use the Show this section toggle to enable or disable the section.
• Replace the text in the Section heading field to customize the section title.

Click Save Changes when done adjusting settings for the Current Articles section.

Most Popular Articles

The final section of the landing page is Most Popular Articles. It displays a card grid with the top six most downloaded articles, based on total downloads. Visitors can click the article titles or the Read More links to view the articles in the DC classic journal.

Click Edit Section to open the Most Popular Articles settings, shown here:

In the Most Popular Articles settings, you can do the following:

• Use the Show this section toggle to enable or disable the section.
• Replace the text in the Section heading field to customize the section title.

Click Save Changes when done.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Consulting Services.