Although each process and each PubPub community may be completely different from what we propose as a consultation process, there are certain sections in the platform that we believe are essential to be able to carry out a successful and well-informed consultation.
Types of pages
Homepage: This is your most important page on the platform, since it provides the first point of contact with the information of the consultation.
The following subsections are recommended:
Title, referring to the topic of the consultation or name of the consultation.
Quick access instructions so that the steps to participate are understood.
Summary description of the consultation process (background, justification, etc.).
Any other extra section that is considered relevant.
Private pages: This is exactly the same as any public page, but must be configured differently in terms of permissions.
When creating the page, you must choose the option "Private".
Once the page is private, the page has to be linked to a corresponding collection. For this, a Table of Contents block linked to this collection (“Filter by Collection”) is created.
The linked collection also has to undergo privacy changes in its settings. You have to check the Private box in the settings of that collection.
This combination of permissions and privacy will allow only members who were added to the collection manually to access this page.
Upload documents pages: This process is very different from the previous two.
It is recommended to have the following subsections:
The same sections as the previous pages plus:
A special block that is a Submission Button Banner.
In this block, the page must be linked to a collection that will host the file uploads.
Depending on the required process, the collection must be configured as private or open.
In case of being private, the steps of the previous explanation (private pages) must be followed.
Guides: This is one of the most important sections of all, since without this section, users are very likely to get lost and there could be a lot of confusion about the process.
It is recommended to have the following subsections:
A brief description of the page and its importance
An index of the Pubs where the guides are housed
It is important to add the Rules of Coexistence here (see section).
Contact: This page is simply a section where social networks, emails and other communication channels are presented with the administrators of the page and the corresponding institution.
Note: Any member who has Admin permissions can create and delete pages. There is no such thing as giving specific permissions to certain members for certain pages.
Templates
Now that we know what this type of page is for, let’s examine how we can create each page in the best possible way.
We recommend that all the content and design ideas for each of these pages should be created and organized in a document outside the PubPub platform, so that the information can be modified and managed there without complications. However, it can be collaboratively drafted natively on PubPub as well.
The following example tries to demonstrate the process that was carried out to design the contents of the plan. After drafting and formatting this document, we tried to recreate it in PubPub.
Considerations about Pubs in a consultation process
As we know, Pubs are the basic unit of the platform: without them, no consultation process can be launched. Due to this situation, we must take some aspects into consideration.
Permissions
Pub permissions are linked to the permissions and members of the collections. Therefore, it is extremely important that when creating a Pub and linking it to a collection, we take into account which collection is being uploaded.
Pubs can also be created without collections. This is for simple processes, without the need for indexes or complex organization within the page. However, all Pubs have their own dashboard and in this section you can access a Members tab where users can be added manually, exactly the same as Collections.
Pre-reading instructions
We believe that it is imperative for each Pub to have a series of pre-reading instructions so that the contribution process is reinforced. An example of these instructions can be found in the User Guides section.
General recommendations
Each Pub has Settings, which can be accessed by entering the desired Pub and selecting the Pub Settings option at the top right of the screen where the document is displayed.
Once inside the settings section, we recommend changing certain things:
Link: you can create a custom link, which is very good for when you share the Pub between people.
Design: you can change the background and type of letters.
Authors: users with authoring attributions of the publication can be inserted.
Download: the platform makes it possible to automatically generate a file to download from the Pub, but administrators can also upload a custom file if they want to give the user a PDF with custom design, or another file type.
Collections: in this section, you can also link directly to one or more sections.
Delete Pub: the last option in the Pub settings is to delete it. Keep in mind that once it is deleted, it can no longer be recovered.
Reviews
The Reviews section in the dashboard or in certain collections will only be used if it is decided to carry out a consultation process with the document uploading scenario. In this case, administrators will have to use the review tool to accept that the documents uploaded by the user can be viewed by the public (in the specified collection).
To accept or reject a Pub that seeks confirmation, it is necessary to go to the Review tab in the general Dashboard of the Community.
All Pubs that are seeking or have sought approval will appear.
OPEN: Pubs that are still awaiting review and publication
COMPLETED: Pubs that have already been approved and published
CLOSED: Pubs that were not approved or published
When selecting one that says OPEN, three options will appear:
Accept and publish using “Create Release from Draft”
Publish comments to the author, on why the Pub can be published or not.
Failing that, close review, which serves as a choice to not publish that version.
We recommend that the administrator first go to see the Pub and review it from head to toe. This can be done in the upper right, where it says "Go to Pub".
This process can be done directly in the dashboard of each collection and not necessarily in the general one.
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