Introduction

Welcome to PRIMO!!!!

Primo is a web based proofing framework which renders the xml file sent by the typesetter into the HTML version thus making it very easy for the authors to access it and edit. To those of us who are used to using word processors, this tool would be quite easy to use (except with a few additional quirks).

By providing extra features which would then help the author to get a glimpse of the final result of the processing, PRIMO ensures a smooth transition throughout the whole proof checking process.

Accessing your article proof

Step-by-step process of accessing the proof

Step 1: As an author, you will receive an email from the publisher containing a link to the proof of your article.
Step 2: By clicking on this link, you will be directed to the login page.
Step 3: Registered Users, simply enter your credentials to sign in and view the proof of your article.
Step 4: New Users, if you do not have an account, you will need to complete a brief sign-up process. Rest assured, the sign-up is straightforward and will grant you access to your article's proof.
Step 5: Once you successfully sign-in/sign-up, you will reach the landing page.
Step 6: Read the instructions in the landing page carefully.
Step 7:Click on the Proceed button.
Step 8: Yes, you have landed on the proof page. Now, start proof-reading and making changes.

The detailed instructions are provided in the following sections.

Sign up process

Initiate Sign-Up: Click the'Sign-Up' link located at the top-right corner of the login page.
Enter Your Details: Fill in a valid email address, choose a user ID (use only alphabets), create a strong password (with a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters), and enter your name in the respective fields.
Complete Sign-Up: After entering the required information, click the 'Sign-Up' button to proceed to the proof page of your article.
Record Your Credentials: Remember to save your login details securely. In the future, you can access the site using these credentials to sign in.

Landing page

The metadata seen on the left-hand side of the screenshot is taken from the article "Utilization of generative AI for the characterization and identification of visual unknowns" by Kara Combs, Trevor J. Bihl, and Subhashini Ganapathy, published by Elsevier in the Natural Language Processing Journal, Vol. 7, June 2024, as an open access article, under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

Once you provided the credentials in the required field correctly, then you will be directed to the landing page.

In the landing page, with and placed at the top, you can see a brief info of the article on the left hand side and a part addressing the author as well as a few mandatory steps that need to be kept in mind before submitting the proof on the other side.
The tab functions to assist the author in making the proof checking process as easy as possible by providing instructions on the various functions and features that are available in the interface.
can be accessed to get a video tutorial of the interface.
can be accessed to get Elsevier's author guidelines.
In order to start the proofing process, click to load the PRIMO proof page on the same tab. Alternative, by clicking on the downarrow near the the button will provide an option to open the PRIMO proof page on a different tab.

Navigating to the PRIMO proofing page

The article in the screenshot is "Utilization of generative AI for the characterization and identification of visual unknowns" by Kara Combs, Trevor J. Bihl, and Subhashini Ganapathy, published by Elsevier in the Natural Language Processing Journal, Vol. 7, June 2024, as an open access article, under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

Upon clicking the Proceed button, you will be directed to the PRIMO proofing page. The layout is strategically divided into three sections for optimal navigation:

Center: The Main Editor is positioned here, serving as your primary workspace for reviewing and editing your article.
Left: The Navigation Panel is located on this side, providing quick access to various sections of your document.
Right: The Track Change Panel is situated here, displaying all the editorial changes, comments, queries, etc.

Recommended Workflow for Authors

The panels and tabs are organized to facilitate a smooth proofing process. Authors are encouraged to follow the sequence outlined below for an efficient review:

Start with the Navigation Panel: Familiarize yourself with the document's structure and easily jump to different sections.
Proceed to the Track Change Panel: Address any queries, editorial changes, and comments in the order they appear.
Utilize the Main Editor: Make necessary revisions directly within your article, leveraging the insights from the other panels.

Note: This structured approach ensures a comprehensive and systematic review of your article before submission.

Navigation panel

The Navigation Panel serves as your guide through the document's structure, allowing you to swiftly move between different sections. It lists all the key elements such as sections, figures, tables, formulas, etc. Clicking on any item will directly take you to its location in the document, streamlining your editing process.

Note: While the system is equipped to handle various modifications, it is crucial to limit changes during this stage to those that are absolutely essential.

Front Matter tab

Following the navigation tab, the 'Front Matter' tab is organized into sub-tabs for 'Head', 'Authors', 'Abstracts', and 'Keywords', each with its specific purpose. Based on the portion where you want to make the changes, you can make the edits in the associated fields provided within the tab. You can add short titles, footnotes, dedication, add or delete the existing author names, change the author name order, edit the contents in affiliations/ Abstracts/ Keywords etc.

Head

This section is divided into two parts:

Non-Editable Meta Information: Contains fixed details like JID, AID, Article number, PII, DOI, and Copyright, which cannot be altered by authors.
Editable Area: Located below the non-editable section, this area is presented in a form layout for ease of editing. Authors may choose to edit here or directly in the central editor. Different versions of titles like 'Subtitle', 'Alt title', 'Short title', 'Footnotes', etc. can be added, deleted or modified in the form mode as well as in the main editing area.

Authors

During the proof correction stage, it is generally advised to avoid making changes to author details. Should any critical changes be necessary, they must receive approval from the Journal Manager. The system does provide the following capabilities:

Add/Edit/Remove Authors: Manage the list of authors as needed.
Reorder Authors: Adjust the sequence of authors and switch between given names and surnames.
Email Addresses: Update or remove existing email addresses, or add new ones.
Contributor Roles: Define or modify the roles of each contributor.
Affiliations: Link or update author affiliations.
Corresponding Author: Designate or change the corresponding author.

Affiliations Tab

Manage Affiliations: Make necessary adjustments, including the reordering of affiliations. The system will automatically update the affiliation numbers to reflect any changes.

Correspondences Tab

Corresponding Author Details: This section displays the affiliation details of the corresponding author.

Footnotes Tab

Footnote List: If applicable, this tab will contain a list of all footnotes associated with the article.

Track change panel

The track change panel, located on the right-hand side of the main editor, is an essential tool for authors during the proofing process. It comprises several tabs, each serving a distinct purpose:

Queries: Start with the Queries tab to address any mandatory questions posed by the editors. These queries must be answered prior to submitting your proof.

Changes: Review the edits suggested by the language-editor or copy-editor. Each change is accompanied by 'Accept' or 'Reject' options, allowing you to decide whether to incorporate the suggested edits. Changes from the copy-editor are marked with 'CE', while your own changes will bear the initials from your login name.

Comments: Use this tab to communicate any additional changes you'd like the typesetters to make on your behalf.

Assets: This tab displays all figures and supplementary materials linked to your article. For fast-rendering and using low band-width, the low-resolution images are shown within the editor, but you can view the high-resolution versions in the Assets tab.

Warnings: Any critical issues or deviations from the journal's guidelines, such as exceeding the allowed number of keywords, will trigger warnings here.

Exploring more features of the track change panel

List decided changes: Once you accept changes made by the copy-editor, they will no longer be visible in the track change tab. To review the changes you've accepted, enable the 'List Decided Changes' option, which will display all the edits you've accepted.
Visualize: This feature allows you to categorize and view changes based on::

Made by yourself
Made by others
Decided by yourself (Your accepted changes)
Decided by others (Others' accepted changes)

Who/Everyone: Use this filter to view changes made by a specific contributor or by everyone involved in the document.
Where/Everywhere: This function lets you focus on changes made to specific sections of the document, such as the front matter, figures, tables, equations, and more.

Main editing area

Your article will be rendered in full in this area in HTML format with underlying XML. Whatever changes you make will be carried out automatically in the underlying XML from which the final PDF of your article is produced in web, print or any other format as required. To help you editing, there are two menu bars available — primary and secondary.

Primary menu

The primary one includes

Edit: Includes cut, copy, paste, select all, find, replace, undo, redo, etc. and no need to explain the usages since it is common all editors.
View: In this menu, you can control how to view the main page. View the Editor only (center portion), Editor with panels (navigation panel, editor and track change panel), Editor with PDF (editor on the left-hand side and a generated PDF (up-to-date) on the right-hand side), Editor with PDF and panels. You may choose the appropriate one as per your convenience.
Insert: This is a contextual menu. You can insert different elements if the document structure allows to. For example, in the author field, you cannot insert a math element, or inside the abstract, you cannot insert a float-figure or float-table. So the listing of possible elements in the menu depends on where you cursor is at present.
Format: Formatting your text. i.e., bold, italic, monospace, etc.

Secondary menu

The secondary menu includes . Text formatting functionalities like (bold, italic, monospace, list etc.) are placed directly here in the secondary menu for quick access. So these does not need an explanation. However, there are some other features too which needs explanation.

Toggle navigation panel
Go to previous position
Go to next position
Undo
Redo
Insert special characters
Non-breaking space (tie-up strings). Block two adjacent strings and press this button.
Level-up (eg. change subsection to section)
Level-down (eg. change section subsection)
Move an object (equation, figure, table) here (first you have to select "Move" in that environment and use this.)
Display PDF version of the article.
Toggle change panel.

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)

How to insert a figure?

In order to upload new figures in the interface, firstly click on the space where you want to place the figure in the Html editor.
Then proceed to click on the [Insert] tab in the Menu bar.
Select [Float] and then [Figure] as seen in the screenshot. A new pop up appears as a result of this.
Click on the box appearing below to [Upload] option and select the figure that you want to upload to the interface.
Type in the caption of the file and press [OK].

You can now see the figure displayed in the specified area.

How to change the position of the figures?

Changing the figure position is not a nightmare at all now. All you need is to locate the figure that you need to move and an idea of where you need it to be.

After identifying the figure, you can find a dotted portion near the figure caption.
A single click on the dotted area results in laying down the drop down menu which contains several options.

Select the option [Move] and paste the figure to the desired position either by right clicking there and going for the [Move here] option or directly paste the figure there by using Ctrl+V.

How to edit the figures?

Editing the figures is not possible as we are including the processed graphical images here. Therefore, if you need to insert or add any new edits to figures, then it's better to proceed to replace the figure with a newly uploaded one.

How to insert new rows or columns in tables?

There are several features present in association with the Tables in the proofing tool. These features (which are permissible as per Elsevier's requirements) can easily be identified by right clicking anywhere inside the display tables. If you need to add rows or colomns and whether you need to insert it above or below the specified space, all these can be easily implemented using these easy steps.

How to delete any rows or columns?

Place the cursor on the row or column that you need to remove and right click to get the features available in association with the table. Select the [Delete] option and proceed accordingly.

How to merge cells in a table?

Place the cursor on the row or column that you need to merge and right click to see all the table related features. Depending on how we need the cells to be merged, select [Merge with] and choose the required tab from the available options.

How do we align the cells?

Right click on the cells that you need to align.
From the options seen on the screen, click [Cells] and then select the suitable option. Alignment can be done vertically and horizontally. So, choose the option wisely.

How to edit the existing formulas or equations?

In order to edit an equation displayed in the proof, simply click on the concerned equation. This will result in the opening of a pop up menu as seen above.
If you are a LaTeX user, then you can, with ease, directly edit the data. If not, select the [Toggle virtual keyboard] tab displayed near the menu option in the pop up window.
Make the changes you need in the equation part visible within the box and then click [OK] to complete the task. You can see the now edited equation displayed clearly in the interface.

How to add new formulas in the article?

You can insert a new formula by clicking the 3 dots appearing in the left of the equation number and click on [Insert after] or [Insert before] (depending on where we want to insert the new equation). Then find the [Formula] tab from options.

Clicking on the [Formula] leads to the opening of the formula tab.

Just as we did for editing the existing formula, if you are able to, you can directly note down the LaTeX commands for the new formula. If not, then select the [Toggle Virtual Keyboard] and type in the new formula. Finally, click [OK] to finish the task.

How to add the enunciations?

Apart from formulas, enunciation can also be added using the proofing tool.
Click on the space in the main editor where you want to add the enunciation.
Then select [Insert] option from the menu bar and opt for the [Enunciation] tab from the available options.
Clicking on the [Enunciation] tab leads to the opening of another pop-up window in which you can select the type and mention the title (which is optional) of the enunciation.
After mentioning the details, click [OK] to complete the task.

How to edit the credit section in primo?

Different authors would have contributed in different ways to the creation of an article. There are standard as well as non-standard roles created to signify this purpose. This content can be edited as per the authors’ choice by clicking on this section in the HTML viewer and making the changes directly there. Select the portion that needs to be edited or deleted and press Ctrl+X, [Backspace] or [Delete] tab on the keyboard. You can now see the portion crossed out on the screen. Now, just type in the correct term in the space. You can check out the result by using the Toggle PDF view and get the PDF output of the article. If you are, in any way, unsatisfied with the change, you can either use the undo option or choose the Reject button in the Change tracker.

How to edit Declaration of Conflicting Interest section?

Editing the DoCI section is a very easy process. You can find the section easily while going through the article in the HTML editor or by finding this section using the Navigation tab in the Toggle left sidebar. Once we find the part, just edit it as we do in any word processor. Check the final result using the Toggle PDF view.

How to add a new funding source in the interface?

The funding details such as the grant sponsors and grant numbers are included in the Acknowledgements section found above to the reference part. You can directly edit this in the HTML view or click where you want to place the new addition and opt for [Grant sponsor] or [Grant number] tab from the [Insert] menu.

After selecting the name of the agency or organization that you need to make it to a grant sponsor, go to the [Insert] tab and select [Grant sponsor].
We need to include the grant number associated with the grant sponsor in the article too. Hence, type in the grant number and then select it as we did with the sponsor.
Proceed to click on [Grant number] from [Insert] menu which leads to the opening of a pop-up window from which you need to select the sponsor who is associated with the grant number you had selected.
After selecting the sponsor, click [OK] to finish the task.

How to edit supplementary materials?

Editing the supplementary materials is not possible in the tool. Instead of editing, what can be done is upload the new material in the interface. This can be done by 2 ways.

Using the [Assets] tab: In the [Assets] section, depending on the type of material provided, the details will be displayed alongside the processed graphical representations on the screen.

Click on the 3 dots found to the left of the size of the materials and select [Upload new high-res] option. Upload the necessary material from your system and mention this as a comment in the Comment section of the interface for the attention of the operators working in the stage of processing.

Using E-components tab: Click on [Insert] tab and select [E-components] from the [Float] option. A pop up will open. Upload the relevant file using the [Upload] option, enter the caption in the specified field and press [OK] to complete the task.