Annotate a Preprint

This Article Is Licensed Under CCO For Maximum Reuse.

OSF Preprints and the community preprint services integrate with Hypothes.Is - a third-party annotation tool - to allow you to annotate preprints and provide feedback to the authors. Hypothes.is is available on a service-by-service basis, meaning some, but not all, community preprint services hosted on the OSF platform will have Hypothes.is enabled. Learn more about Hypothes.is by visiting their Support page.

Annotations and comments can be made on PDF/docx/doc files only.

Log in to Hypothes.is

You must have an account and be logged in to Hypothes.is in order to annotate preprints. Having an Hypothes.is account enables you to comment on content in other platforms using Hypothes.is.

If using the Chrome extension, the embedded Hypothes.is sidebar on the preprint will have trouble loading. This is a known issue, and we recommend avoiding the browser extension until this issue is fixed.

First, open the preprint that you want to read, then click the left arrow in the top right of the preprint.

Click the red Sign up or Log in link to log in to Hypothes.is.

Once logged in, you can begin annotating the preprint (on-screen instructions will be displayed in the sidebar).

Expand the file viewer

Expanding the file viewer enlarges the preprint, making it easier to read and annotate in browser.

Click the right arrow in the top right of the file viewer.

The file viewer will expand across the page.

Add an annotation

Annotations are comments that respond and link to excerpts of text in a document. The number of annotations in relation to where you are in the preprint are tracked in the up and down arrows along the right sidebar. For example, there may be 15 annotations total, but there may be five annotations made before the current page and 10 annotations made after.

Public Annotations Are Licensed Under CC0. In the event that a preprint is rejected from a moderated preprint service, annotations made on the preprint will persist and will be discoverable via the Hypothes.is site.

Select the text on which you want to comment, then click the Annotate button.

The right sidebar will expand, where an empty textbox will appear below the selected text.

Type your comment into the textbox.

Then click either the Post to Everyone or Post to Only Me button.

The annotation will receive a tick mark along the right sidebar that points to it.

Add page notes

Page notes are comments made in response to the document as a whole, and do not link to excerpts of text.

Public Page Notes Are Licensed Under CC0. In the event that a preprint is rejected from a moderated preprint service, page notes made on the preprint will persist and will be discoverable via the Hypothes.is site.

Click the New Page Note button in the right sidebar.

The right sidebar will expand, where an empty textbox will appear.

Type your comment into the textbox. Then click either the Post to Everyone or Post to Only Me button.

View annotations and page notes

If an "Orphans" tab is visible in the right sidebar in addition to "Annotations" and "Page Notes," it indicates that annotations and page notes were made on a previous version of the preprint, and that those comments do not map to the current version.

Annotations will not be carried over when downloading a preprint.

To view public page notes and annotations, click the left arrow in the top right of the preprint.

The right sidebar will expand, and annotations will be displayed in the sidebar by default.

Next, click thePage Notes tab, and page notes will be displayed in the sidebar.

Reply to page notes and annotations

Click the Reply button below the comment to which you want to reply.

Then type your comment into the textbox and click either the Post to Public or Post to Only Me button.

Highlight text

Highlighted text is only visible to the highlighter and will not appear to other viewers.

Select the text that you want to highlight, then click the Highlight button.

The text will be highlighted.

To hide the highlighted text, select the eye icon in the right sidebar.

Your highlights will be hidden on the document.

Edit your page notes and annotations

Find the page notes and annotations that you have posted, then click the Edit icon in the bottom right of the textbox.

Enter your changes into the textbox, then click either the Post to Public or Post to Only Me button.

Delete your page notes and annotations

Find the page notes and annotations that you have posted, then click thetrashcan icon in the bottom right of the textbox.

The page note or annotation will be deleted.

Should you come across an inappropriate annotation, you can click the Flag icon to report it to Hypothes.is moderators. Alternatively, you can email Support@Hypothes.Is with "Abuse" in the subject line. In the email, please attach a screenshot of the annotation, or include the URL and username of the annotation in question.

Please refer to the Hypothes.is Terms Of Use and Community Guidelines.

Click the Flag icon on the annotation you want to report.

The "Flag" icon will turn red, indicating that the annotation has been reported.

At this time, sharing a link to an annotation does not directly link to the annotation itself, but to the entire preprint. This is a known issue that you can track Here.

Click the Share icon in the toolbar at the top of the right sidebar.