From the articles submission to the evaluation of the reviewers, the system was designed prioritizing simplicity and clarity, they are simple and easy to use screens, compatible with modern browsers that support current animation technology.

Besides that, it is responsive, that is, its layout adapts to the size of the user's screen, being able to be used on iPad, iPhone or any device with Android.

GNPapers manages the entire editorial flow of scientific journals, the submission to scientific review and the article improvement, provides important information to the editorial team so they can make the decision to approve or reject in a transparent manner and without hesitation.

There are also tools to request more speed from reviewers and authors who are in arrears.

• Modern, simple and practical design;
• Open registry of authors;
• Interface in Portuguese and English;
• Submission of articles in accordance with the SciELO and PMC standard;
• Validation of the quality of the images;
• Real-time consultation in the descriptors database of the DECS (for journals in the health area);
• Allows the author to report conflict of interest, funding, approval number of the Ethics Committee or number of the clinical trial record (for journals in the health area);

The system keeps the editorial team in control of the process by allowing to visualize the complete text of the articles in different formats (HTML, PDF and DOC); to audit the entire process of an article; to accompany and alter the deadlines of all the processes of the involved in the editorial process; edit the model of e-mails sent by the system for notification; to extract advanced reports on the status of the articles, such as the region of the articles and the reviewers, average time of revision, versions for approval, average of rejected items, etc.

Developed with help for new users, reporting in speech bubbles that detail and simplify the process.

GNPapers helps the author during the submission showing the best practices that should be adopted at each point.

In case the user does not understand the process there are pages that explain the various processes of the system with tutorials that guide step by step how to proceed.

GNPapers helps

• Configuration of different submission categories with specific fields and validations;
• Different restrictions for authors at the time of submission without making the flow complex, for example, word limit in the summary, limit of number of authors, limit on the quantity and quality of the images, mandatory filling of fields for language alternative, etc.;
• Sending notification e-mails to everyone involved in the process in each article advance in the evaluation flow;

• Complete registration of the procedure of an article allowing to audit its evaluation at any time;
• Double-blind review, that is, the authors do not know who the reviewers are and vice versa;
• Possibility for reviewers and editors to comment on all the paragraphs of the article;
• Personalization of the evaluation forms of the articles;

Personalization of the messages of the notification e-mails to the users in the languages in which the system is enabled.

Redefine the model of the rejection message of the article and also preview the message that will be sent to the author, for example at the moment of rejecting the article, with the option to edit the specific message of an article.

Simplicity of communication between authors and reviewers by allowing the author to answer each evaluation criterion of his article.

Submission of GNPapers articles offers a self-explanatory interface by providing contextualized information to the user. It is enough for the user to position the mouse cursor over an icon, button or link so that an informative ball can guide him or her about the desired procedure. In addition to this, in other stages of submission the system presents good and bad examples to the authors.

The fields of the submission stages are configured by category of submission, for example, Original Article, Review Article, Case Report, and others. Each section has configured restrictions for number of characters, words and even the possibility of displaying or requiring specific fields depending on the language used by the author during the submission of the work. In other words, a native speaker of the English language can submit the article without having to fill out the fields in Portuguese of the submission, while the Portuguese language native will have the field in Portuguese to fill out.

During the submission process, the fields are automatically saved every certain period, which allows the author to interrupt and resume sending the article later without losing data.

The author can prepare the content of his article in the format of Microsoft Word © and send by uploading the file to the system. The document will be converted to another format, in order to be completely visible in the browser without needing to download the source file sent (.doc or .docx). In the same way, the document will be converted to PDF format immediately after the shipment. In both formats, the respective results will be exactly as formatted as the document, including preserving graphic elements, images, formulas and schemes.

Articles sent by upload will allow reviewers and editors to comment directly on the paragraphs of the article normally.

See Demonstration of submission

Each article submitted may have an attributed editor that will be responsible for distributing the reviewers and accompanying the peer evaluation process, with the possibility of attributing, changing, sending claim messages and even removing the reviewers.

The responsible editor can be a user with the access level of "Editor", who can view all the articles of the system, or "Associated Editor" that can view only the articles attributed to the user.

There are two ways to configure the system when the associated editor is attributed to an article regarding its decision autonomy:

• With autonomy: The associate editor can approve the articles that are attributed to him, generating immediate notification to the author when the articles are approved, rejected and returned to the authors for correction.
• Without autonomy: The associate editor recommends a decision, that is, his final decisions are sent as recommendations to the chief editor who can apply the final decision.

The submission of articles has an exclusive step for sending various annexes of the article. The author defines what type of file is sent, the types are configured for each category of article, allowing certain categories to send different annexes.

It is possible to configure a type of document as mandatory, such as a proof of payment (for journals that collect the submission), and prevent the reviewer from accessing the submitted annex.

The images sent can be validated to meet a certain quality standard, for example, 300dpi and 1000 pixels wide, according to international standards of the National Library of Medicine..

When called to correct an article, the author will receive the opinions of the evaluators. It is also possible for reviewers and / or editors to comment on parts of the document, making the correction process much richer from the author's point of view. The author will be able to respond to each adopted criterion of revision, conferring more transparency when giving the possibility of informing the realization of a correction, or even justifying the non-fulfillment of the suggestion of the reviewers or editors.

The journal can use various evaluation forms that can be configured in the system to be selected during the indication of the reviewer for the work. The publisher or associate editor can indicate a reviewer who is already registered in the system, or even invite an ad hoc reviewer to evaluate the article.

Each reviewer's contribution in the articles updates a production report of the reviewers to allow the editor to identify the most productive, punctual, delayed or those who ignored the last invitations sent.

The editor or the secretariat has tools that send notifications by e-mail claiming authors and reviewers who are behind in their respective activities of correction and evaluation of articles.

In GNPapers the standard of review used is the double blind review (double blind review), thus, the reviewers do not have access to the name and affiliation of the authors, and the authors do not have access to the names of the reviewers.

When an article is attributed to him, the reviewer can accept or reject the invitation. The response to the invitation is made through a link sent in the invitation e-mail. After being accepted, the reviewer can fill out the evaluation form of the article without it being necessary to inform his e-mail and password.

All registered users with access to the system, regardless of their level of access, author, reviewer, editor, etc., can be located by the managers. All submitted articles, evaluations and registration details remain in your registry.

The editor or secretary, have autonomy to inactivate a user or access the area of a reviewer, for example, without specifying your access password (proxy function), for guidance on use.

In the event that at the time of hiring GNPapers, the magazine already has a database of users, it is possible to import them into the system, the password, however, will be redefined for all imported users.

During the filling of the review forms, everything is saved, so the user can interrupt the process and continue later from the point where it was stopped. In the form, there are fields visible only to the editor, such as notes or secret comments.

Once the invitation to review is accepted, the reviewer has access to the full text of the article without needing to have his/her password to access the system. Simply click on the invitation e-mail link to read the article and fill out the form. This simplifies the performance of the "ad hoc" or guest reviewer.

Optionally, the system offers the reviewer a certificate in PDF format for having reviewed an article (the journal can choose to inactivate this function for the reviewer).

When the editor returns an article for correction, a new version of the article is created, to accompany the modifications of each version of the article and thus facilitate the work of reviewers and editors to verify whether the recommendations were made by the authors or not. In addition to this the editor (or reviewer) can insert comments in the paragraphs in order to guide the author in specific corrections.

All system processes have defined deadlines that change as the article progresses in the flow. The publisher may change the predefined deadlines, or may exceptionally adopt a differentiated term for a particular user in an article, in the case in which a reviewer, for example, requests more time for a justified reason.

All the procedures of the system generate notification e-mails for continuation by the new manager. When attributing an ad hoc reviewer to an article, there is always the risk of reporting an invalid e-mail, perhaps because the editor has been wrongly informed. The GNPapers allows the monitoring of the delivery status of the e-mails, so, in case the e-mail of the reviewer does not exist, the system will inform the editor about the impossibility of delivering the message to the recipient.

The system also informs the editor when the e-mail sent is read, or when it was delivered to the recipient but not yet read.

Monitor comparative time graphs that illustrate the completion of the term by process of the system, for example, receive an article, assign reviewers, evaluate, verify an evaluation form, etc.

The editor visualizes the average time in days of the tariffs delivered for the respective processes and percentage of attributions that were delivered within the established term. The system compiles this data from the delivery history of the users.

Registered users of GNPapers can associate their user accounts with the ORCID account. The integration method is in accordance with the ORCID specification, that is, the user makes the link when he is addressed to the ORCID screen and informs, in a secure environment, his access credentials to the platform.

The strategic information is crucial for any manager, the GNPapers provides various essential data for publishers, presents them in two different periods to allow comparison, in addition to offering the editor the possibility of changing the filtered periods.

The journals indexed in the SciELO need to present periodic reports on productivity. All data requested by the publisher is currently provided by the system.

• Submitted articles;
• Approved articles;
• Rejected articles;
• Average time between submission and approval;
• Average time between submission and publication;
• Number of corrections of the article until its approval;
• Most active reviewers;
• Most active authors;
• And more...

During the submission process of the article, the user can register all the members and authors of the article. Each author can be linked to one or more members.

An important question is to know the role of the authors in the investigation. The GNPapers allows to register an author indicating what was his contribution in the research, the system offers a predefined list of contributions, the author may have participated in the research by one or more than one among the available contributions. Each contribution offers a more definite explanation of its objective through an informational ball.

The register of authors has the e-mail and allows, in different fields, to register the first name, middle name and surname. Such a format simplifies the understanding of the name of orientals, such as Japanese, Chinese and Korean.