Re-think author sorting

[wrynearson]

In NASA-IMPACT/nasa-apt-frontend#574, we reverted author sorting functionality based on user feedback. We should think through how prescriptive we want to be in author sorting.

One solution is to allow users to define the order of the authors that wouldn't be dependent on the order that they add the author's information in the contacts section. This could be achieved with increments in the contacts section, or listing the order in the Journal details subsection of the closeout section.

[bwbaker1]

A couple of other notes related to author sorting.

1. On the general PDF, the corresponding author is listed as the first creator on the title page. Some users may not like that (see attached image-Brad Baker is technically the second author but also the corresponding author).

2. We have had requests in the past for the corresponding author to be listed first in the “Contacts Section.” I’m not sure if that would be possible given that we don’t want the corresponding author listed as the first author on the journal PDF title page. I’m noting this because this may be future feedback.

[bwbaker1]

@wrynearson In the contacts section, the text prompts state to list the contacts in the desired order. However, I noticed the order changes after the contacts are saved. This causes the author order on the Journal PDF title page to change (not desirable).

On the general PDF, the orders seems correct on the title page, but not in the contacts section. I suspect some users will be frustrated with the sorting in the contacts section.

I'm noting this because one ATBD is ready to be published now (waiting on this weeks UI improvements before publishing), and the lead author is adamant on author order. They are not using the journal PDF, but he still doesn't like the fact that the order isn't correct on the journal PDF.

[bwbaker1]

@wrynearson Just bringing to the attention again. I realize APT development work is complete for this PI, however, we have an ATBD ready to publish now except for this issue.

It's a strange thing because if I add the authors in the desired order, it will change after being saved. When I add the authors in the reverse order (though not desired), the order does not change when I save. I can't figure out why it sometimes changes.

After some more testing, it seems the issue is related to user roles. The contact order is correct if I add contacts with no roles selected.

[wrynearson]

Hi @bwbaker1, we haven't addressed this ticket because we thought it was outside of the scope of this week. Building out more user-driven author/contact sorting is a new feature, which we didn't think was defined enough for us to start working on.

Could you clarify where you are seeing the order change after saving? Which report? Which contacts, and with which role(s)?

In NASA-IMPACT/nasa-apt-frontend#574, we reverted contact sorting based on the corresponding author role. There shouldn't be other roles that are affecting the sort order (at least we haven't discussed that as a feature in the past year).

I've created a new report and added you. I used 3 contacts, in the following order: Brad Baker, Leonardo Davinci, and New Contact. New contact is listed as a contributing author.

These rendered properly in the view mode, document PDF and journal PDF:

View:

Document PDF:

Journal PDF:

You said that the user wasn't using the Journal PDF, so I'm struggling to understand why this is blocking the author from publishing?