How we work
Registries, credentials, and what we refuse to do
Written for editors, reviewers and the registries we work with.
Audit
We read the journal as an indexer would: website, policies, OAI-PMH, article pages, ISSN Portal, Crossref, DOAJ, Keepers.
Fix
A fix list per finding — policy text, metadata, DOIs, archiving — for the editor, the OJS host and the Crossref depositor.
Apply & register
Applications filed in the right order; DOIs and metadata deposited with the journal's credentials or via its sponsor, after approval.
Maintain
Weekly monitoring, alerts on new failures, re-checks after every change; metrics that stay verifiable.
Metadata practice
Crossref deposits
- Journal schema 5.5.0: title, contributors with given/surname, affiliations and ROR IDs, ORCID iDs; publication date; volume/issue/pages; JATS abstract; funding (Funder Registry IDs, award numbers); licence URL (AccessIndicators); Crossmark where enabled; resource URL plus a full-text link (multiple resolution) and a Similarity Check crawler URL.
- Resource-only and bulk URL updates for migrated sites; references as citation lists.
- DOIs displayed as full
https://doi.org/…links per Crossref display guidelines; non-compliant display is flagged to the member. - Duplicate registrations detected and resolved by alias through the depositor; DOIs are never deleted.
- Every deposit path exercised against test.crossref.org before live use.
Credentials and security
- Each journal is a separate client with its own prefix and credentials, used only for that journal.
- Crossref, OJS, mailbox and archive credentials are encrypted at rest; passwords are never displayed after saving.
- Nothing is deposited, sent or registered until the publisher presses Approve; every action is logged with a timestamp.
- Sponsored members receive Crossref XML or spreadsheets for their sponsor instead of sharing a login.
What we do not do
- No author services. We do not write, rewrite or "modify" papers, and we do not "remove plagiarism". Our clients are journals, not authors.
- No guaranteed acceptance. Indexes decide; we prepare, file, follow up and say honestly when a journal is not ready.
- No citation manipulation. No paid citations, citation rings or coercive citation. Author emails we send state facts (a new citation, the DOI link) and offer opt-out.
- No invented metrics. No impact factor claims; OpenAlex counts are labelled as OpenAlex counts, dated, and linked to source.
- No hidden relationships. Journals are clients; we hold no editorial role in any journal we serve.
