Post-Upgrade Verification Checklist & Audit Protocol
Comprehensive post-upgrade quality assurance manual for OJS. Step-by-step checklist to test editorial stages, review forms, email dispatch, and indexing endpoints.
Real Problem
Journals often discover critical post-upgrade issues weeks later—when reviewers complain they cannot submit reviews, Crossref deposits fail silently, or Google Scholar stops indexing new articles.
Practical Solution
Execute a rigorous post-upgrade verification protocol covering editorial workflows, file streaming, plugin status, email dispatch, OAI-PMH harvesting, and SEO meta tags before opening the journal to users.
The Necessity of Systematic Post-Upgrade Quality Assurance
A successful CLI upgrade exit code indicates only that the database schema transformations ran without unhandled exceptions. It does not guarantee that custom plugins are functioning, that email servers are authenticating properly, or that third-party indexing engines can harvest published metadata.
A structured verification protocol ensures that every stakeholder—editors, authors, reviewers, librarians, and indexing crawlers—enjoys a seamless, error-free experience.
Tier 1: System and Cache Housekeeping
Immediately following the upgrade, execute cache flushes to remove compiled templates from the previous codebase:
cd /var/www/ojs
rm -rf cache/t_compile/*
rm -rf cache/*.php
Log in as the Site Administrator and navigate to Administration > Clear Data Cache and Clear Template Cache.
Tier 2: The End-to-End Editorial Lifecycle Audit
The only foolproof way to test an editorial system is to simulate a complete publication cycle:
1. Author Stage: Register a test author account and submit a paper with attachments.
2. Editor Assignment: Assign an editor and verify submission stage progression.
3. Review Stage: Invite an external reviewer, complete a review using both text comments and file attachments, and submit the recommendation.
4. Copyediting & Production: Upload copyedited files, create a new issue, assign the article, and publish.
Tier 3: Galley Rendering and Download Audit
Navigate to published archives across different publication eras:
- Test an article published in the current volume.
- Test an article published 5 years prior.
- Test an article published in your earliest digitized issue.
Verify that PDF galleys open cleanly in the browser PDF viewer and download without corrupted headers.
Tier 4: Indexing and Harvesting Validation
Validate the public metadata endpoints essential for Google Scholar, Scopus, and DOAJ:
1. OAI-PMH Endpoint: Access https://journal.institution.edu/oai?verb=Identify. Verify valid XML output with no PHP warnings.
2. Metadata Prefix Validation: Query ?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc and ?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=rfc1807.
3. Highwire Press Meta Tags: Inspect the HTML source code of an article landing page. Confirm presence of citation_title, citation_author, citation_publication_date, and citation_pdf_url tags.
Tier 5: Email Delivery and Template Variables
Send test messages to external mailboxes (such as Gmail or Outlook). Verify that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC pass validation and that template variables like {$authorName} or {$journalName} are properly evaluated rather than displaying as raw bracketed code.
Step-by-Step Action Plan
Clear Template & Data Caches
Log in as Site Administrator and execute "Clear Data Cache" and "Clear Template Cache" via the UI or terminal.
Conduct Test Submission Walkthrough
Submit a dummy manuscript through all editorial stages: Submission, Review, Copyediting, Production, and Publication.
Verify PDF & Galleys Across Browsers
Open published articles and test PDF inline rendering, HTML galleys, and direct download links across mobile and desktop.
Test Outbound Email Notifications
Trigger reviewer invitation emails to verify SMTP routing, DKIM signatures, and template variable replacement.
Validate OAI-PMH & Crossref Endpoints
Query /oai?verb=ListRecords and check Crossref plugin status to ensure metadata harvesting is fully operational.
Questions People Usually Ask
Why is clearing the template cache mandatory after an upgrade?
Smarty compiles templates into cached PHP files in cache/t_compile/. If these are not cleared, OJS will continue rendering outdated UI markup and scripts from the prior version, causing broken layouts and JavaScript errors.
How can I verify that Crossref deposits are functioning after an upgrade?
Go to Settings > Distribution > DOIs > Crossref Plugin, select a test article, and click "Deposit". Check the Crossref log to ensure a 200 OK or SUCCESS response code is returned.
What should I do if reviewer review forms fail to save after an upgrade?
This indicates a JavaScript conflict or a missing CSRF token in the review form template. Check your browser developer console (F12) for JS exceptions and clear all site caches.
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