Version 4.4.3.0 includes new account management features, the ability to translate titles and abstracts into any one of 40 languages, and enhancements to reports. Under the hood, we re-wrote the way we handle authentication, account creation and all associated functions. This introduces big changes in how different tasks are carried out in the Account Manager (more below). Within EPPI-Reviewer itself, the significant change is that expired accounts are now always able to log on and have read-only access to their reviews (no matter how long ago the account expired).
EPPI-Reviewer: New Features
Translate Title and Abstract:
In "Document Details", "Citation Details" tab, a new "Translate" button is available from the main toolbar. Clicking on the button makes a sub-menu appear that allows users to pick the destination language. The source language is detected automatically. This system relies on the Azure Translator from Microsoft, which offers a computer-generated translation that should aid assessment as to whether the current citation is relevant for a given review. Naturally, the list of languages is limited to those available on the Azure service. For convenience, the list of languages shows some common languages on top, followed by all the other languages in alphabetical order.
Clicking on a "to {this language}" option on the sub-menu will generate the translation and automatically save it as additional text on the top of the Abstract. The translated text is delimited by the "[Translated title]", "[Translated abstract]" and "[End translation]" tags. No direct "undo" is provided, but in case the translation is unsatisfactory it is always possible to edit the abstract normally and thus remove the unwanted translation.
Things to note: this is an experimental "first implementation" feature. As such, it may suffer some teething problems, and it was deliberately designed as a "bare bones" feature. We are eager to receive your feedback in order to design further improvements. Furthermore, the Azure service allows for a fairly generous "free" monthly quota of translations but after this quota is consumed, it will require a payment and stop working until the monthly counter resets. At this point, we have not set up a system to handle the paid-for service, therefore the translation feature may stop working (and resume after a few days/weeks) if it will prove to be more popular than we expected. (And if it does prove useful, then we will need to estimate usage and pay Microsoft a monthly fee.)
Expired Accounts:
Starting from this release, all expired accounts re-gain the possibility to log-on the main EPPI-Reviewer program, with read-only access. This means that your data will always remain available, without having to contact us.
Additional Fields available in Reports:
Fully configurable Reports can now include the Full Title, Year and Abstract. Users can also decide to exclude the Item ID (not a new feature) and Short Title (new feature). These choices are made when running a report, leaving the "Configure Report" features unaffected. When running a report, users will find new options, allowing them to decide whether to include the Full Title, Year and Abstract. Also: Reports can now be sorted by Full Title and Year, in addition to Short Title, Item ID and Imported Item ID. When ordering by a given field, that particular field will always be shown in the resulting report.
The order in which the different fields will appear is fixed, and follows the rules explained below.
In horizontal reports, the order is: Item ID, Imported Item ID, Short Title, Full Title, Year and Abstract. In vertical reports, the order is: Short Title, Full Title, Item ID, Imported Item ID, Year and Abstract.
Minor Changes and bug fixes:
We have replaced the generic ‘get Silverlight’ page from Microsoft with one which contains our own custom text with better guidance on how installing Silverlight can be accomplished on different platforms.
The main logon page now contains a link to our Twitter page. Our Twitter feed is important: if a major service outage happens, it may be the only way available to communicate with our users, so we would like you all to be aware that it is there. We will use Twitter to explain what is happening in case all our systems go off-line and we also announce all new releases there. Given the text-length limitations, Twitter is not the best way to seek support on how to use EPPI-Reviewer; the support forum and email channels are most appropriate here.
Account Manager: summary of the changes.
The way accounts are created, checked and managed has changed radically, please check the "Create/edit an EPPI-Reviewer 4 user account" (updated) video for all the details. Here are the major changes:
- Upon creating an account, new users will choose their own password, and password complexity requirements will be enforced at this stage.
- After an account is created, to check that the email address is correct, an "Account activation" message will be sent. The message contains a link that users will have to click in order to complete the account creation. Failing to complete this step will prevent users from logging on the main EPPI-Reviewer as well as the Account Manager (please check your Spam folders, if it looks as though the email hasn’t arrived).
- A new "forgot your username?" facility is available from the Account Manager login screen.
- Similarly to the account activation feature, the "Forgot your password?" facility now sends an email that contains a link. Clicking on the link allows you to reset your password (the link only remains active/useable for 10 minutes).
Account Manager - Online shop:
The shop now allows any purchase, as long as the total amount (before VAT) is more than £30. This restriction allows us to avoid surcharges for payments done via credit cards. Before this update, the shop would not allow purchasing any renewal that was less than three months, regardless of the total amount of the purchase. In other words, the new policy is much less restrictive. Note also that from February 2015 there will be a £10 administrative fee for all orders made offline that sum up to less than £500 (before VAT).
It's worth mentioning here that the shop allows you to purchase with Mastercard, Visa credit and debit cards, and via PayPal.
To reflect the changes in how we check the validity of emails associated with new accounts, the procedure to activate accounts that were created via the shop (empty accounts) has changed. From now on, to activate a purchased account, the purchaser will only enter the email address of the desired user. An email will be sent to the address indicated, inviting the final user to click the activation link and fill in his/her personal details in the resulting page.