- 1. Get invite to EquinOCS
- 2. Get access to EquinOCS
- 3. Configure your Project
- 4. Overview
- 5. Initiate Call-for Papers
- 6. Invite Bidders (PC members, Reviewers)
- 7. Understanding the Automatic Screening Results
- 8. Assign reviewers to the submitted papers
- 9. Receive reviewers recommendation
- 10. Decide and Notify authors of decisions made on articles
- 11. Get final versions of accepted paper
- 12. Create the volume
1. Get invite to EquinOCS
When creating a new project in the EquinOCS system, Project Organizers will be invited to participate in the project.
Thus, all Project Organizers will receive corresponding invitations by email. Below you can see an example of an email.
In this case, confirmation or rejection is required.
After confirmation, the name of this Project Organizers will be displayed on the Project home page.
2. Get access to EquinOCS
Via following the link in your invitation mail, the EquinOCS Login page will be opened in your browser. Click on the button “Enter Service”.
Please note: The button “Submit now” is exclusive for submissions, and will guide you directly to the paper submission process. Click the button “Enter service”.
- If you already have an account at EquinOCS you will be asked to Login. After Login you will be guided to the start page where you can 3. Configure your Project
- If you do not yet have an account at EquinOCS, please follow the registration process. Once your Account has been created an email will be sent to the address you’ve stated in the registration process. Please follow the instructions in this mail to activate your account and start to 3. Configure your Project
3. Configure your Project
You can reach the Settings section of the Project by clicking on the navigation tab on the left side of you screen
The Settings window of the Project consists of the following items.
3.1 General data
In this section you can change the basic information about the Project, such as Acronym, Name, Public Service Page (URL), External Service Page (URL) and Description. Some fields are not editable by Project Organizers and are only available to the Admin.
3.2 Style
In this section you can define the Project logo as shown in the image below.
The logo is displayed on the Project list page.
3.3 Licensing
In this section you can view all the information related to the LTP associated to the project:
- Licence Groups (Open Access Paper or Standard Subscription)
- Licensee (Springer Nature Switzerland AG or Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd)
- Volume Editors names
- Link to Instructions for Authors
- Series
NB: The volume editors are the ones whose names are to appear on the cover of the proceedings and in the header of the Licence to publish agreement. It is essential that they are correct.
3.4 SubmissionIn the "Submission" section you can find all the settings related to the paper submission process. Here you can:
- enable or disable the papers submission (New Papers, New Versions of Submitted Papers (e.g. Revised Versions), Final Versions of Accepted Papers), abstract-only submission, complemental archive submission,
- define paper categories,
You can also find, but not edit, information about:
- Require Third Party Content Declaration on Final Submission
- Screening
3.5 Bidding
In the "Bidding" section, you can enable or disable the bidding process and decide whether to shuffle the papers for the bidding table or not.
3.6 AssignmentIn the "Assignment" section, you can set the minimum number of reviewers per paper.
3.7 Reviewing
In the "Reviewing" section, you can select the type of review (i.e. open, triple-blind, double-blind, or single-blind) and allow or block reviewing for papers where a decision has already been made.
3.8 Discussion
In the "Discussion" section, you can select one of the discussion modes, i. e. open to all members, open to deciders and reviewers, closed - visible for all members, closed - visible for deciders and determine who can participate in paper discussions.
4. Overview
This section helps project organizers to view various project related information such as Papers, Users, Notifications, Emails, etc.
4.1 Papers
In this section you can find all the information about all papers, with the exception of Withdrawn papers. Some actions are also available: move (Project Organizers can move papers from one project to another if they have the Organizer role in both projects) and withdraw (Project organizers can move papers from the list of ''normal'' papers to a special list of withdrawn papers).
Project Organizers can export paper metadata to an Excel file using one of the ''Export Papers'' options.
Project Organizers can also export PDF documents, including or without associated review reports, to a ZIP file using one of the ''Export Papers'' options.
4.2 Withdrawn papers
In this section you can find all the information about Withdrawn papers.
Only one action is available here: Restore. (Project organizers can restore papers from a special list of withdrawn papers to the “normal” papers list).
4.3 Users
This section lists all users grouped by roles. In addition to the default list of roles Project Organizers can create the custom ones.
The ''Roles & Members'' section contains roles that are created by default and can then be changed by Project Organizers.
The “Other Participants” section contains roles that the system automatically assigns to some users and this data cannot be changed (Authors - all users mentioned as authors for any article belonging to this project, Reviewers - all persons who reviewed at least one article).
Project Organizers can export user information to an Excel file using the ''Export Users'' option.
4.4 Technical Tracks
This section is only available for multi-track projects, when one main project contains several subtracks inside. Each subtrack can be treated as a separate project, with an independent review process. However, all subtracks are interconnected by a main project, which allows us to combine content from different subtracks into one volume if necessary. Project organizers can add new tracks and make changes to existing ones.
4.5 Email OutboxHere you can find all Emails that were triggered by you via specific actions (e.g. “8. Assign reviewers to the submitted papers" or “10. Decide and Notify authors of decisions made on articles”) and have been automatically sent by EquinOCS.
5. Initiate Call-for PapersOnce the Project is fully configured, you are ready for the paper submission. To do this, click on the button “Yes” on the item “Allow Submission of New Papers”.
The system automatically generates the link to the Project page. It is displayed in the Project configuration item “Public Service Page”. You can use this link to invite the authors to the paper submission process.
Using this link, authors can easily access the Project submission page and submit their papers.
6. Invite Bidders (PC members, Reviewers)
You can invite bidders (Project Members, Reviewers) or other Project participants in the "Overview"-" Users"-''Roles&Member'' section.
It contains a list of default roles such as PC Chair, PC Member and Reviewers. You can also add custom roles if needed.
Select the role you need and click the ''Invite'' button.
To invite the single user you should enter the first name, last name and email address, but only this last field is required.
When the invitation has been sent, the user is displayed in the list of invited users. You can cancel the invitation if need be.
To invite a group of uses you can use the tab “Invite multiple users”.
The system will show you a link to share with your colleagues: https://equinocs.springernature.com/serviceinvite/1000a758-e0a6-47df-a8ed-4b326798bcd2
By accepting this invitation, they will become users with a specific role.
7. Understanding the Automatic Screening Results
EquinOCS offers a CrossRef Similarity Check to PC Chairs and Volume Editors to check manuscript submissions against millions of other published scholarly articles, books, conference papers, dissertations, other academic content, and billions of web pages to ensure its originality. This tool can be used in the editorial process to identify matching text but it cannot, on its own, identify plagiarism. Manual examination of the matching text and judgment used are still required to identify if plagiarism has occurred or not.
Plagiarism detection at an early stage may be helpful to:educate authors who are less familiar with the ethics of publishing and our Authors Code-of-Conduct;
reduce the workload for PC Chairs/ Volume Editors and reviewers if ethical issues are captured at an early stage.
You can select to have each submission screened or to manually screen specific papers. If each submission is screened, once the manuscript is uploaded to EquinOCS, a Similarity Score is returned indicating the percentage of text in the uploaded paper that matches text in other published documents or websites.
Dashboard View Papers
The results of the Similarity Score are displayed in the ‘’View Papers’’, see the screenshot below:
The highlighted column in the dashboard of EquinOCS provides the recommendation icon for each manuscript submitted*:
Ok to proceed - no overlap that provides a concern
To investigate - overlap found providing a potential concern
Do not proceed - significant overlap found providing a potential concern
*The recommendation made is based on an Artificial Intelligence algorithm. You are advised to verify the results and use your discretion to take informed decisions on how to proceed when overlap is found.
The Similarity Check provides the following output:
Okay to Proceed
The paper does not show any overlap that is concerning and can proceed with the next steps.
Note: Even low percentages may contain plagiarism. We advise that you check the Crossref report even in the case of an ‘Okay to proceed’ recommendation.
To investigate
The paper provides a similarity score resulting in a potential concern. Via the similarity viewer, the overlap can be further investigated before making an informed decision on the final manuscript:
Do Not Proceed
The paper provides a similarity score resulting in a potential concern. This does not always mean the paper is plagiarized and via the similarity viewer, the overlap can be further investigated before making an informed decision on the final manuscript:
Overall Similarity → this value tells how much content of this manuscript is similar in other documents.
Highest matching source → this value tells us the number of % in the document is mapping with one single highest source.
Similarity Viewer → provides a link to access/download report to analyze the documentNote: The Similarity Checker is not a measure of the amount of plagiarism in a document. It simply provides the amount of overlap from other documents
If the similarity is flagged to the Author, do not share the link to the report or the complete report in any other form with the author(s) or other external parties. This is a requirement from CrossRef. Larger amount of overlap can be forwarded via screenshots, if needed.Similarity check results
Upon submission of a manuscript or if manually triggered, a Similarity Score is returned providing a recommendation on how to proceed. As this is a recommendation based on an Artificial Intelligence algorithm, you are advised to check the overlaps found.
Via Open Link, you are able to access the full report provided by the Similarity Check for further investigation. There is a walkthrough available in the Similarity Viewer to help understand and identify the overlap that was found:
The percent in the plagiarism score may not be relevant. What we consider to be risky is large text passages (more than 2 paragraphs that are directly copied from another publication without the correct reference to the source publication).In the overall similarity you can exclude sources and you can select specific overlaps for further investigation, linking to the publications where the overlap is matched to ensure its originality.
Training and guidance
Springer Nature has developed a training course which provides an overview of plagiarism, and several guides on how to interpret the results of the Crossref software.
Crossref Tips and tricks - first time usersThis is a two-page document that may be used as a quick reference guide for getting started.
Tips and tricks - how to interpret the results: This is a one-page document that may be used as a quick reference guide
Comprehensive CrossRef Guide: This longer document provides a full guide to using Crossref.
Plagiarism Course: This free four-module course provides a comprehensive overview of the plagiarism: what constitutes problematic overlap, how to investigate it, and how to deal with it
Final Decision
If you as PC Chair / Volume Editor decide if revisions are required from the Author based on the Similarity Score, you can go to the decision tab to request a revised manuscript, following these steps, accept or reject.
8. Assign reviewers to the submitted papers
The assignment of reviewers to the submitted papers is done via the ''Assign'' window.
You can choose between manual and automatic assignment.
Within manual assignment, you manually select the required number of reviewers for each paper. The bid results and the number of already assigned papers are displayed for each reviewer.
Within automatic assignment, the system will ask you for the preferences, and then it will show the result of automatic assignments.
You can see details, apply or re-run assignments for all or only some of the papers (using the lock function).
After that, you can see the result of your work and decide whether to notify all reviewers of all papers, all reviewers of only some papers, or only selected reviewers.
NB: Until users are notified about assignments, they will not be able to submit their reviews.
During the notification process, you can send additional comments or instructions to the reviewers.
After the assignment, you can still make changes, such as the cancellation of already assigned reviewers or adding additional reviewers.
9. Receive reviewers recommendationEach submitted review automatically triggers the notification email to Project Organizers.
The notification is displayed in the special ''Notifications'' window.
Moreover, all notifications are displayed in the window ''Received and Sent Emails''.
Decisions are made in the appropriate ''Decide'' section.
In this window, you can see all the articles and their details, see how many reviews have been submitted, and if necessary, remind reviewers of unsent reviews.
10. Decide and Notify authors of decisions made on articles
After reviewing the reports, you can proceed to making decisions on papers. You can make one of the following decisions: Accept, Revise or Reject. After making the decision, it is necessary to notify the authors. Until this is done, the decision can be changed.
You can notify the authors of one selected paper.
As an alternative, you can do the bulk notification.
After sending the notification to the authors, the result of actions is immediately displayed on the web page.
The decisions are displayed in the ''Overview'' - ''Papers'' window.
11. Get final versions of accepted paper
The note about the Final Version of the paper is visible in 2 different windows: ' ''Overview'' - ''Papers'' and ''Produce''.
In the ''Overview'' - ''Papers'' window, the padlock icons in the ''Status'' column depicts that the paper has been uploaded.
In the ‘’Produce’’ window contains the detailed information about accepted papers.
Here you can check whether the final version of the paper and the source archive have been uploaded and whether the Licence to Publish form has been accepted for the paper. If this has not been carried out, you can send a reminder.
12. Create the volume
You can create the export zip file in the ''Produce'' window.
To do this, select the ‘‘Proceedings’’ tab. The button “Start Proceedings Production” starts the generation.
Pay attention to the notification: If you proceed, all final versions of complete papers will be collected for the proceedings production. Complete papers are those for which a final upload including the source archive and signed Licence To Publish exists. Any changes to the papers in the previous stages of paper submission will then not be reflected in the upcoming proceedings volumes preparation. You would have to re-start from scratch in order to integrate such changes. Make sure that the final upload of the accepted papers is complete (including the source archive and Licence To Publish) before starting the proceedings production.
After the completion of the generation, you will see the following window.
To complete the proceedings volume preparation, you need to follow several steps: divide papers by volume (if there is more than one), organize table of contents,
- enter correct abbreviation, title, subtitle and volume number (if applicable)
- manage the program committee.
You can arrange papers by volume (if there are several of them), organize the table of contents in the "Organize Papers" section. To do this, you can create new volumes and topical parts and move articles between them by dragging them. You can also rename existing volumes and topical parts.
On the “Edit Volume” web page, you can:
- check and modify the volume parameters such as: abbreviation, title, subtitle and volume number (if VM is not needed, leave 0 in the corresponding tab),
- upload the preface (as a PDF file or as text in a text box) ,
- add the names of the volume editors by selecting them from already existing users (if volume editors are not registered in the system, they must be added in advance in the "Members" section).
In the "Manage Participants" section, you can organize information about Project committees. Information about some of the registered users (Project Organizers, Project Members and Reviewers) will already be in this section. If the user is not registered in the system, then first you need to add his or her data to the section "Members", after which you can add the name of this person to the appropriate group.
In the section "Members" you can check and change information about existing users, as well as add information about new, previously unregistered users.
Please note that the sequence of the steps described above is not important. They can be performed in any order. The user can return to any step at any moment by selection of the appropriate menu button.
After all the steps have been completed, a proceedings zip file can be generated using the "Generate Files" button you can also download it.
As a result of generation, we will have 2 files: PDF and Zip.
The proceedings may be downloaded in either of following two formats:
- PDF format: Typically used for intermediate checks only.
- Zip format: This contains all of the files as required for the publication of the proceedings.
Alternatively, you can copy the link and share it with interested parties, for example, the corresponding Springer Editor.
link examples:
https://equinocs.springernature.com/api/pps/proceedings/c30ad28878f18ecbc06248913dae4601/pdf
https://equinocs.springernature.com/api/pps/proceedings/c30ad28878f18ecbc06248913dae4601/sourcesAlternatively, all proceedings may be automatically transferred to Springer’s FTP server. However, this functionality is usually used for volumes to be published in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI), Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP), Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) and IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (IFIP AICT), formerly known as the IFIP Series. In this case, all the proceedings materials are automatically sent to the Springer server and a notification is sent to: lncs@springer.com.
In case any new documents have been accepted and need to be included in the volume, the system cannot add them to the already created volumes, as explained earlier. So, you need to delete the already existing volumes and start the procedure of creating anew.
To do this, select the "Delete volumes and restart" option. In this case, all information about the volumes will be lost, and you will need to repeat all the steps one more time. You will see a corresponding notification.
There is no other way to add new papers to existing volumes.