How to Upload your Submission
If you are submitting to EXCLI Journal for the first time, you need to create a user account as specified in the tutorial on creating an account.
After logging in to your account, you will be directed to the EXCLI Journal homepage. A new tab with your username will appear, providing options to review your submissions through the “Work Desk” (NOTE: this feature is available only after your first submission), update your personal information via “My Account Profile,” or log out using the “Logout”-button.
To create a submission, you can click on the “Make a Submission”-button on the right side:
This will lead you to an overview of submission guidelines and additional information. By clicking on “Make a new submission,” you start the submission process:
In the first step (“Start”), choose the type of article you would like to submit under Section:
Afterwards, you can choose the Categories that best describe your submission. Then, take your time to read the Submission Requirements and check all the boxes:
Further down the form, you can add an optional Comment for the Editor. Before you can proceed, you must confirm to abide by the copyright statement. With the “Save and continue”-button, you move to the next tab:
The second step (“Upload Submission”) requires you to upload the files associated with your article. You can add your first file by clicking either “Upload File” or the “Add File”-button. Both options allow you to select a file from your computer. You cannot proceed until at least one file has been uploaded.
After uploading your first file, you will be asked to specify the type of file you just uploaded. You can either click on one of the suggestions accompanying the question, or, if the correct answer is not included, click on the “Edit”-button:
With the “Edit”-button, an extended form opens where you can choose the correct option to describe your uploaded file and confirm your choice with the “Save”-button:
If your submission contains multiple files, you can add any number of them via the “Add File”-button. For each of them, you will be asked to specify the type via clicking on a suggestion or the “Edit”-button. If you accidentally added a file that does not belong to your submission, you can remove it from the selection with the “Remove”-button:
Once all necessary files are added and labeled, you can move on with “Save and Continue”:
In the third step (“Enter Metadata”) you provide the Title of your manuscript. For most submission types (all except Letters to the editor), the Abstract is a required field as well:
The next item is the List of Contributors. Initially, it will only include you as a contributing author and primary contact. If you are submitting a work that has been created by multiple authors, you must add them here via the “Add Contributor”-button until the list is complete:
NOTE: All contributing authors must be added at the time of submission, as additions cannot be made afterward. If you have forgotten to add one or more contributing authors, you have two options available:
- The missing authors can write an E-mail to Excli@ifado.de, confirming that they are part of the submission and providing all the information required in the “Add Contributor”-form. This way, our admins can manually add the authors to the submission (this option works best for a small team of authors or if you only forgot a single person).
- You will have to start a new submission where you go through all the required steps again and add the authors via the List of Contributors. In this case, please let the EXCLI Editorial Team know that there is a duplicate of your submission, stating both submission numbers and letting us know which one is the old version that can be deleted. This option is recommended if a large number of authors is missing from the List of Contributors.
Whenever you add a new author via the “Add Contributor”-button, a form will open where you can add all the necessary information. You start with the Given Name and Family Name of the author, followed by their Email address and the Country they are currently working in. The next important detail is their ORCID ID (if they don’t have one already, please encourage them to register via https://orcid.org/):
In the second part of the form, please specify the Contributor’s role, which is almost always “Author”. The option to include them in browse lists is already active and doesn’t have to be changed. After adding all the information, you can add the author with the “Save”-button:
Below the list of contributing authors, you have a field where you can add any number of self-chosen Keywords to describe your submission. We recommend choosing between 1 and 6. Keywords, which will be used for indexing purposes and will help users with finding the articles that are relevant to their field. After providing the keywords, you can proceed with the “Save and continue”-button:
After adding the metadata, your submission contains all information required to process it, but it has not yet been forwarded to the EXCLI Editorial Team. To complete the process, click the “Finish Submission”-button, which uploads your submission to the system and makes it available to the editors. Before doing so, you are advised to review all details of your submission by navigating through the previous tabs and making any necessary changes.
NOTE: After finishing the submission, you will not be able to change the details of it, like the metadata, by yourself anymore. However, if you discover anything that needs to be changed after already having submitted, you can still reach us via Excli@ifado.de – we are happy to help you with updating your submission if anything is missing or needs to be changed.
After finishing your submission, there is nothing else you need to do – the Editorial Team will process your submission as soon as possible. At this point, you might want to take another look at your submission and review its current process, create a new submission, or return to your dashboard:
The dashboard gives you an overview of all your active submissions and the status they are currently in. You can check the details of a submission via the “View”-button or start a new one via the “New Submission”-button:
