Inactivate People Record

Sometimes a publication may need to inactivate a duplicate or invalid People record in the system. Editorial office staff and Editors (with appropriate permissions) can perform this inactivation.

When a record is inactivated, the person no longer appears in any Select Reviewer list, Assign Editor list, or results of a search of the people database. The person cannot log into the system with the username and password associated with the inactivated record.

The inactivated user's effect on past manuscripts and performance statistics are not removed. The recorded actions and details of the inactivated person are not removed from manuscript history or details, from Editor and/or Reviewer performance statistics, or from any table or record that uses the historical information.

When an inactivated person's name appears in a manuscript history or detail, or in any sort of historical report, it includes the parenthetical label, person removed from system.

An inactivated user record cannot be reinstated (although the individual can be registered as a new user).

To inactivate a user:

Find the user record using the People search.
Go to the user's Search People – Update Information page.
Click the Inactivate this User button (in the left column below the user's name and registration date).
Click OK in the pop-up window that requests verification of the inactivation.

The pop-up window also provides notification if there is a reason the user record cannot be inactivated.

Author activity: Submission still in editorial process or still in production. Author receive and/or accepted an invitation to submit.
Reviewer activity: Open assignment (includes position in Alternate Reviewer queue).
Editor activity: Open assignment. Initiator of an open Proposal. Responsible Editor for a Section or Category. Owner of a saved Automatic Reminder Report or scheduled EAR report.

In addition, if the person to be inactivated is an Editor, the popup includes information about any saved searches that the Editor created and shared; these must be removed (and will no longer be available to any other Editors with whom they had been shared) before the inactivation can be completed.