10th SIERA Intl. Conference

Issue workshop: user manual

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For the announcement on Thursday 5 November 2026.

The issue workshop is the private desk where one journal issue, or one conference proceeding, is prepared. The live example is https://issueworkshop.org/.

Reviewer names, reports, and the confidential history stay in the workshop. They are not published on the public journal. When the issue is finished, the page-numbered article PDFs can be uploaded to the public journal by hand. The history record stays with the society.

The heading

The line at the top is the name of the journal or proceeding, plus volume and issue when they are used. Examples:

  • JoSIER · Volume 3 · Issue 2
  • 10th SIERA Intl. Conference

Volume and issue can be left blank for a proceeding that has a name only. The chief editor can change the heading later.

The first visit creates the chief editor and that heading. After that, everyone signs in with an email and a password.

Three roles

Chief editor. This person runs the issue.

  • Edits the heading.
  • Creates a member account when an author is ready to submit. Member accounts are for this issue only.
  • Creates reviewer accounts. Those sign-ins are kept for the next issue.
  • Assigns two or three reviewers to a paper.
  • Sees each reviewer’s name and decision: Accept, Revise, or Reject. The author does not see those names. A reviewer does not see the other reviewers’ decisions.
  • Records the decision on the paper.
  • Produces the issue.
  • Starts the next issue when this one is finished.

Member. This person uploads the paper.

  • The submitted PDF must not show the author names. The names, affiliation, title, abstract, and keywords are typed in the form.
  • If the chief asks for a revision, the member uploads a revised anonymous PDF.
  • After acceptance, the member uploads the final PDF with the author names on the pages and without page numbers. The workshop adds the page numbers.

Reviewer. This person reads the anonymous PDF and does not see the author names.

  • Agrees or declines the assignment.
  • Sends a report without attaching a file, or with an optional PDF.
  • Writes comments for the author, and a separate note for the chief editor. The author never sees the note to the chief.
  • Sees only their own decision, labeled Decision: Accept, Revise, or Reject.

Paper numbers

Each paper receives a permanent number when it is submitted. With a volume and an issue, the first paper is JoSIER-3-2-001. With a name only, it is Name-001. The number stays with that paper. If the heading is edited later, the prefix changes and 001 remains the first paper. Lists are shown in number order.

The chief’s home

The page is in this order: Dashboard, Papers, People, Produce the issue, Start a new issue.

The dashboard counts the papers and lists those still moving, with each reviewer’s decision. Papers is the full list. People is where member and reviewer accounts are created.

Produce the issue

The chief enters only the starting page of the first article. Papers stay in number order, and later articles continue the page count. Each PDF receives the journal heading and the page number on the same line at the top, with the page number at the right.

Producing the issue writes two things:

  • Page-numbered article PDFs, which can be placed on the public journal.
  • A confidential history record for the society. Keep that record. It is not part of the public issue.

PDFs already produced keep the heading and page numbers they were made with. Produce the issue again if the heading or the starting page should change.

Start a new issue

When the issue is finished, the chief opens Start a new issue, sets the next name, volume, and issue, and confirms.

This removes the papers, the comments, the decisions, the produced files, and the member accounts. Reviewer sign-ins stay, including their passwords. The next paper is number 001.

Save a copy of the history record and the page-numbered PDFs before starting the new issue. Those files are removed from the workshop.

A short demonstration

  1. Open https://issueworkshop.org/ and sign in as the chief editor.
  2. Show the heading and the numbered paper list.
  3. Show a reviewer’s decision on the dashboard.
  4. Open Produce the issue, and say that only the page-numbered PDFs move to the public site.
  5. Show Start a new issue, and say that reviewer sign-ins remain.