Custom Pages for Journal Websites

Why does Scholastica care about custom page content?

At Scholastica, we care a lot about not only user experience in the broad sense, but also reader experience in the narrow sense. As a consequence of this, as we work with our journal partners, we encourage them to make decisions with their websites that put "readers first"; often the things that journals think they want to communicate aren't particularly "reader-friendly."

We believe that a journal's navigation bar should be considered sacred. It only has a limited amount of space and that space should be utilized as efficiently as possible. When considering requesting a custom page here are the types of pages for which Scholastica recommends creating a separate, custom page:

  • Reviewer Information
  • Annual Conference/Symposium
  • Open Access Policies

Information that Scholastica does not recommend be captured as a standalone, custom page:

  • Call for papers (should be a blog post)
  • Fee structure (should be on 'For authors' page)
  • Production process (should be on 'For authors' page)
  • Media mentions (should be on 'About' page)

To make your journal's website as reader-friendly as possible, here are some things we suggest:

News or Call for Papers make great blog posts!

Instead of a News Page write a post with the update instead, using your Journal Website's blogging feature. News pages are notorious for not being updated frequently and often end up taking up unnecessary space in a journal's navigation menu. The three most recent blog post updates are in the first section of your journal's front page so readers won't miss them!

Content for authors should be on the page where authors expect it

A common practice among journal websites is to have a page dedicated to things potential authors need to know about: citation styles, copyright information, etc. If your journal has any information that potential authors need to know about, this is the best place for it.

How to create a custom page

Now that you know what information is best included on a custom page, you'll create a custom page by following the steps below:

  1. Navigate to My Journals > Publishing > Publishing Settings > then click "edit" on the Customize journal website option
  2. Click “Edit website” to open the editor side panel
  3. Select + New custom page
  4. Fill out the entire "Create a custom page" form

  5. The "Name of Navigation Link" field is the text that will appear in your journal's navigation bar to take visitors to your new custom page. This field cannot exceed 25 characters in length.

  6. The "Page Title" field is the text that will appear in the banner for that page.

  7. The Banner field can be completed either by entering a hexcode for a solid color banner, using our image picker that connects directly to a free-to-use image library (we'll provide all necessary attribution for you), or by uploading your own image.
  8. The Content field will be the body of the page so enter all necessary information you want to share on your custom page there. The Content field supports Markdown and HTML so you can include links, images, and more!
  9. When ready, click Create custom page

How to delete a custom page

If you've made a page by mistake or realize it's no longer needed, you can delete the custom page easily by following these stps:

  1. Navigate to My Journals > Publishing > Publishing Settings > then click "edit" on the Customize journal website option
  2. Click “Edit website” to open the editor side panel
  3. Select the custom page you'd like to remove (note: only custom pages can be deleted, the default Scholastica pages are Homepage, About, For Authors, and Editorial Board and those default pages cannot be removed)
  4. Click "Delete custom page" in the editor side panel