Journal backend: issue/volume lifecycle, masthead metadata, DOI/Scholar/Crossref compliance

[duckyquang]

Unit 1 — backend-issues

Backend foundation for the standalone Synthica Journal site (synthica-org/journal reads this API), per ISSN and Crossref (DOI) requirements.

Issue/volume lifecycle (store.js)

• db.journalIssues: first-class {volume, issue, status: 'open'|'closed', publishedAt, editorial} records (plus a year field driving the volume rule). Exactly one open issue at all times — Vol 1 Issue 1 is created lazily if none exist.
• publishToJournal auto-assigns the open issue's volume/issue when the Director doesn't pass them (manual override still honored); the publish result includes {doi, volume, issue}. The default DOI is now minted via nextSynthicaDoi() (fixes the hardcoded 2026. suffix).
• closeOpenIssue({editorial?, at?}) stamps publishedAt and opens the next issue: issue+1 within the same UTC calendar year, a new volume at Issue 1 once the year rolls over.
• moveArticleToIssue({publicationId, volume, issue}) — target issue must exist.

Public endpoints (no auth, server.js)

• GET /api/journal/meta → {title, issn (JOURNAL_ISSN || 'pending'), publisher, frequency, journalUrl (JOURNAL_URL || GitHub Pages default), dashboardUrl (FRONTEND_URL || https://app.synthica.org), currentVolume, currentIssue}
• GET /api/journal/issues → all issues newest first with articleCount + editorial
• GET /api/journal/issues/:volume/:issue → issue record + full ToC (reuses issueContents)
• GET /api/journal/publications/:id → now includes citation: {bibtex, ris, apa} (escaped)

Director-only

• POST /api/editor/director/issues/close, POST /api/editor/director/issues/move
• GET /api/editor/director/crossref.xml?volume=&issue= → Crossref 5.3.1 journal deposit XML (doi_batch → journal → journal_issue → journal_article: full_title, ISSN when set, contributors given/surname, publication_date, pages, CC BY in <ai:program>, doi_data with landing URL ${JOURNAL_URL}/articles/<slug>.html), served as an application/xml attachment. Validated well-formed via xml.dom.minidom.

Google Scholar (og.js)

Share pages now emit citation_title, one citation_author per author, citation_publication_date, citation_journal_title, citation_issn (when set), citation_volume/issue/firstpage/lastpage (pages 'A-B' parsed, en-dash tolerant), citation_pdf_url, citation_doi, plus a JSON-LD ScholarlyArticle block (< escaped so titles can't break out of the script tag).

Seed

Vol 1 Issues 1–2 closed in 2025 (one seeded paper each: Vol1/I1 and Vol1/I2) + open Vol 2 Issue 1 — ToCs are non-empty out of the box.

Tests

backend/test/issues.test.js (18 cases): open-issue auto-assignment, manual override, close → next issue, UTC year → volume rollover, move validation, meta/issues/detail shapes, Crossref XML (doi_batch + every article DOI + slug landing URLs + ISSN gating), bibtex/ris/apa content + escaping, Scholar tags + JSON-LD. All 25 suites / 201 tests pass.

E2E (verified on :4021)

/api/journal/meta, /api/journal/issues, /api/journal/issues/1/1, publication citation, share-page Scholar tags, director login → crossref.xml (headers + body), issues/move (incl. 404 on unknown target), issues/close (stamps date, opens Vol 2 Issue 2), and a second boot with JOURNAL_ISSN/JOURNAL_URL set to confirm ISSN/landing-URL propagation into meta, Scholar tags, and the Crossref deposit.

Notes

• notify.js/email.js untouched (owned by PR added discord notifications and resend emails #25); store.js/server.js/seed.js edits are additive and localized.
• The sheets provider doesn't persist journalIssues — the same pre-existing gap as preprints/proposals/etc. (it reloads from the seed baseline); the postgres provider persists it generically. Worth a follow-up owned by whoever owns providers/.

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