I am not sure if I can claim credit for this, but my detailed documentation of Elsevier’s faulty Enhanced Upload Tool might have contributed to its removal. I received several emails of fellow academics that confirmed my report. Some of them even email Elsevier with reference to the documentation. Today I received an email from them stating that:
Dear Dr. Bartneck,
We are writing to inform you that a new version of EES (2013.7) will be released on August 12th 2013.
In this release we will be removing the Enhanced Upload Tool that authors can currently use to upload files when submitting a manuscript. This action is being taken because many authors report problems when trying to use the Enhanced Upload Tool and the large majority of our authors prefer to use the Classic Upload Tool during submission.
By removing the Enhanced Upload Tool we hope to improve the overall submission experience for our authors. Authors wishing to upload multiple files can upload a single compressed (zip) file and authors will still be able to upload large files, e.g. video files. Instructions for uploading zip files are provided on the Support Hub.
For more information about this release and other recent updates, you can click the EES version number that appears on the banner of all EES sites. Information on the 2013.7 release will be added to the Support Hub once the changes are live in EES.
If you have any questions about this update, please contact your Journal Manager or Customer Services (support@elsevier.com).
Best regards,
Your Elsevier Editorial System Team
The question I have for Elsevier is: what are you doing with all the thousands of dollars you charge us? How about investing some of it in creating an appropriate upload tool. WordPress, Facebook and many other manage to create a drag and drop. Or at least a “multiple select” open dialog. Elsevier, stop wasting our money and get to work!