Known and expected problems with the new version
Character errors due to character set mismatches
In the early stages
of the life of the journal a number of character errors crept into information in the database and HTML versions of papers.
These result in blocks of 'nonsense' text, such as –. These are generally associated with unusual characters
inserted automatically by word processing programs, with common examples being left and right single and double quotes,
long dashes and accented characters. We may be able to translate the nonsense characters into the intended value, but
this will take time ...
I was registered on the previous version of the web site, but I can't login
The new version of the site stores passwords in an encrypted form to minimize the risk of hackers gaining
access to passwords in a form they can use. As far as possible we have transferred the old passwords to the new site
in an encrypted form, but we have been unable to do this in some cases. If you are unable to login, use the 'Forgot
your password' link on the Login page. This will send an email to your registered address with a link to set a new password.
I was registered on the previous version of the web site, but after I login I get the message
'Verify Your Email Address' when viewing some pages
This happens because the old version of the web site did not record reliably whether or not
the email address had been verified. We now check for the verification on some critical pages, and you will need to
ask for the verification email to be resent and then respond to it. This should only happen once.
I tried to reset my password, but I get the message 'We can't find a user with that e-mail
address'
If you are sure that the e-mail address is correcct, then this implies
that your account has been deleted from JCSE. If this is your first attempt to login to the new version, then this
has probably happened during the transfer of the user database from the old site. We had a large number of flawed
and questionable entries in the database. Sending quantities of emails to non-existent addresses can lead to 'black-listing'
of a mail sender, which would be a serious problem for JCSE. Consequently we removed many questionable addresses
from the database. We are very sorry if one of these addresses was yours; you are free to re-register with the same
address.
Questions that were raised in respect of the old version
What does it cost to publish in JCSE? ... What does it cost to buy JCSE?
JCSE is free to both authors and readers. We get a very small income from the Google-provided
advertisements, but in essence this is a 'spare-time' activity of the Editor. Unfortunately, this does mean that
things don't always get done as quickly as we would like!
I would like to purchase a copy of (a paper in) JCSE for my customer
JCSE is free to readers, and copies of papers in JCSE may not be sold commercially, although
printed copies may be supplied, but only for a reasonable printing charge.
I can't register - what should I do?
The registration process is fully-automated, and should be relatively straightforward.
When you complete and submit a registration form, an email will be sent to you, and this email includes a link that
you must click in order to verify that we have got a working email address. Very occasionally this link is split
across two lines by email reading programs, and in this case it may not work correctly because only the first line
is passed to the browser. To solve this problem, you should copy and paste the second part of the link into the
browser address box, ensuring that there are no spaces between the first and second parts of the address, then press
Go to submit the verification message. If you still can't get this to work, please forward the email asking you to confirm
your registration to admin@jcse.org.
If you don't get the verification email then there are a number of possibilities:
- The email address that you entered is incorrect
- Check the email address and try again.
- The confirmation email has been deleted by a spam blocking program or diverted to a Junk Mail folder
- If you have access to blocked spam, then check this for messages from journal administration (address admin@jcse.org).
To avoid problems with spam blockers, add admin@jcse.org and no-reply@jcse.org to your address book. If the verification
email fails to arrive, you can resend it on the login page. The resend page will also tell you if the address that you
have entered has not been registered, which suggests either that you entered it incorrectly when registering or that
it has been deleted owing to failure to verify the address after a long delay, or we have deleted the address during
a clear-out of unconfirmed or dubious registration requests, especially during the transfer to the new system in June
2020. In this case, just re-register.
- There is a problem with your email, such as a full inbox.
- We aim in the future to record email addresses
that have 'bounced', and when this is working you will be able to check for your address and possibly get an
indication of why the message bounced. Otherwise, to check whether this is a problem, try sending yourself a message.
Please contact the editor if you are unable to login and you are a paper author, so that we can update our author
database
I haven't received an email that should have been sent
If you don't receive an email when we say that you should have, this suggests either that
the email address that we are sending to is not working, or that messages from JCSE are being blocked as spam. In
this situation, go through the steps indicated above.
Is my paper suitable for publication
Potential authors often send abstracts of
their proposed paper and ask if we would be able to publish it in JCSE. Providing there is at least some link with
corrosion, the answer is always yes, but authors need to understand that this is qualified by the way JCSE works,
which is not like a conventional paper-based journal. All reputable scientific journals undertake to test the papers
that they publish against standards of 'scientific correctness'. Conventional Journals do this at the submission
stage. At JCSE we publish the submitted paper without any review as a preprint. This is subsequently subject to
conventional peer review, following which it is published as a full paper.
It is important for authors to realise that their paper will be exposed to the general public in exactly the
form that it is submitted. It is, therefore, in authors' interests to ensure themselves that their paper
is suitable for publication.
Why are so many papers still in preprint form?
JCSE is produced without any financial support, except for a small income from the adverts
that appear on many pages (this is currently so small that it has not been worth withdrawing it from our account).
Consequently, the management of the paper editing and review process is a 'spare-time' activity, and sadly we have
very little spare time, so this has got very much behind our intended timescale.
We are working on a new implementation (now this one) of the Journal software that will automate many of these
processes, and make it possible for us to appoint associate editors who will be able to assist with the management
of the paper review process (this is not currently feasible because if the need for much of the management
to operate by way of direct access to the database). It is hoped that this system will come online shortly. There
will still be a large backlog of papers to complete, but we shall then be able to concentrate on doing this.
Why haven't I heard from you?
If you are waiting for a response from us, then there are several possible explanations:
- We have mislaid your message - this is not impossible, although it does not happen very often. It is less
likely to happen if you include the acronym 'JCSE' in your subject line, since this makes it easy for us to locate
messages relating to JCSE.
- The message has been discarded by our spam filtering system. Unfortunately this is now a significant possibility
thanks to the sheer volume of spam that we receive. It is very likely to happen if you send us messages without a
subject, or if you use 'spam-like' subjects such as "Why haven't you contacted me".
- Your message has got lost in transmission. This is relatively rare, although it is more likely for large messages,
such as messages with attached documents. While you should get a message to say that the delivery has failed, this
does not always happen.
- We have replied, but the message has failed to be delivered. We find that it is quite common for authors' email
addresses to fail, especially for 'open access' addresses such as Hotmail, Yahoo and the like (possibly because some
of these addresses are revoked if not used regularly). We aim to set up a check for 'undelivered email' so that
you can check whether this has happened to you.
- If you write asking why your paper has not yet been published, then we sometimes tend to feel that it is better to
spend our limited time trying to get papers published, rather than explaining why papers have not yet been published,
and the email can slip down the inbox and be forgotten. Hopefully the new software system will reduce the need for
such questions in the future.
Can I post a copy of my paper/preprint on my personal or institution web site?
We permit this, but we would very much prefer if you put up a link to the paper (which
you can get by copy and paste from the address bar when you are viewing the paper or preprint) rather than a copy
of the paper for a number of reasons:
- It allows readers to view and add comments on the paper.
- It will automatically change to the fully published paper as soon as the review process is completed.
- It allows us to add readers to our database, and thereby helps promote the journal.
- It allows us to present an advert that goes a small way to providing financial support for the Journal.