Email and SMTP Setup for Your Certificate System

Your certificate system sends two kinds of email: certificates you email to recipients, and the one-time codes authors use to sign in to the author portal. Both go out through your website’s email, and for reliable delivery that needs SMTP.

Why SMTP matters

Without SMTP, a website sends email directly from the web server. Many inboxes treat that mail as suspicious, so it lands in spam or never arrives. SMTP sends it through a proper mail account instead, which inboxes trust far more.

If authors say portal codes never arrive, or recipients don’t receive emailed certificates, missing or broken SMTP is the most likely cause.

What you need

• An email address on your journal’s domain to send from, such as certificates@yourjournal.org.
• The SMTP details for that mailbox, from your email or hosting provider: server, port, encryption, username and password.
• Correct email records for your domain (SPF and DKIM) so inboxes recognise the mail as yours.

Don’t use a personal Gmail or similar account to send your journal’s email. Use a mailbox on your journal’s domain or a transactional email service, so delivery doesn’t depend on one person’s account.

Who sets it up

The email settings are in Settings in your admin panel. They are locked with an unlock code so they can’t be changed by accident, and Altechmind sets them up with you. If your email provider or password changes, contact Altechmind to update them.

How to test it

1. Issue a test certificate to yourself, using an address on a different provider (for example a personal inbox).
2. Email it to yourself from the certificate list. Check it arrives, and not in spam.
3. Open yoursite.com/my-certificates/, enter the same address and check the one-time code arrives within a few minutes.

If either email lands in spam or doesn’t arrive, contact Altechmind with the time you sent it and the address you used.

For a deeper look at why journal emails go missing, read why journal emails go to spam.

Questions

Does the certificate system work without SMTP?

Issuing, downloading and verifying certificates don’t need email. Emailing certificates and author portal codes do, and without SMTP they may not arrive.

Can we change the email settings ourselves?

They are locked with an unlock code. Contact Altechmind and we’ll update them with you.

Authors say the code never arrived. What should we check first?

That they used the email the certificate was issued to, and their spam folder. If codes fail for everyone, test your SMTP as above. See how authors get their own certificates.