This document provides an overview of using Open Journal Systems (OJS) for online journal management. OJS is an open source journal management and publishing system that allows journals to accept submissions, peer review, edit and publish articles online. It has benefits such as being locally controlled, providing online submission and management tools, and building capacity for journals with fewer resources. The document discusses implementation of OJS, training, and continued support available through organizations like ASSAf and PKP. It also covers topics like registering with indexes, rights management, analytics and measuring impact.

1. Online Journal Management using
Open Journal Systems (OJS)
Ina Smith

2. Journal Publishing Needs
“Scholars need the means to launch a new
generation of journals committed to open access,
and to help existing journals that elect to make the
transition to open access…”
Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2002
2

3. Open Source Software (1)
• Highly skilled developers, highly productive, self-motivated – pride and
peer recognition
• Highly prized factors: clean design, reliability, maintainability, with adherence to
standards and shared community values preeminent
• Open source community with lots of collaboration, enhancement,
bug fixes
• Code available & transparent – no clever salesperson
• “Closed-source software forces its users to trust the vendor when claims are
made for qualities such as security, freedom from backdoors, adherence to
standards and flexibility in the face of future changes. If the source code is not
available those claims remain simply claims.”
• It is not free software: purchase cost vs total cost of ownership (TCO)
3

4. Open Source Software (2)
• Possibly zero purchase price
• Potentially no need to account for copies in use, reducing administrative
overhead
• Claimed reduced need for regular upgrades (giving lower/nil upgrade fees, lower
management costs)
• Claimed longer uptimes and reduced need for expensive systems administrators
• Near-zero vulnerability to viruses eliminating need for virus checking, data loss
and downtime
• Claimed lower vulnerability to security breaches and hack attacks reducing
systems administration load
• Claimed ability to prolong life of older hardware while retaining performance
4

5. Open Journal Systems (OJS)
• Journal management & publishing system, web site – all in
one
• Licensed as Open Source Software (OS)
• Developed by Public Knowledge Project (PKP) & Simon
Fraser University
• Community of developers
• Download and install on local server https://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/
• Version 3.0 in August/September 2016
5

6. Benefits of OJS
• Installed locally and locally controlled
• Editors configure requirements, sections, review process
• Online submission and management of all content
• Central archive – documentation, communication etc
• Comprehensive indexing of journal content
• Reading tools for content
• Plugins (additional tools)
• Email notifications and commenting options
• Builds capacity, reduces dependency
• Allows for flexible publishing frequency
6

7. Online Help – OJS Tutorials
7

8. Online Help – OJS Video Tutorials
8
http://www.youtube.com/user/PublicKnowledgeProj/

9. Online Help – PKP School
http://pkpschool.sfu.ca/
9

10. ASSAf Help Wiki
http://academyofsciencesa.wikispaces.com/home
10

11. Users of OJS in SA
• Societies
• Publishers
• Universities
• Other
11

12. SA Journal Titles using OJS
12
132 titles

13. Visit OJS
https://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/
13

14. ASSAf Approach
• Introduction & Overview
• Discuss with Editorial Board
• Implementation of OJS & Training
• Continued support based on MoU
• Limited capacity – currently 5 journals
14

15. Which Journals Qualify (ASSAf)?
• SciELO SA Journals
• Journals in good standing
• Print to Online
• “Challenged” journals
• Committed & dedicated editorial team
15

16. E-Workflow
• Author
• Editor
• Section Editor
• Reviewers
• Proofreader
• Copyeditor
• Layout Editor
Not in workflow
• Journal Manager
• Reader
16

17. Variations of Editorial Role
http://pkpschool.sfu.ca/becoming-an-editor/module-1/unit-5-
editorial-titles-and-positions/
17

18. Beall’s list of questionable
journals/ publishers
• Use with caution, but nevertheless consult
• Lists of suspicious publishers & journal titles
• Authors: consult list before deciding where to
submit paper
• Editors: regularly check and confirm that your
journal is not listed
• Funders: consult before funding research
published in journal
http://scholarlyoa.com/

19. Academic Integrity (1)
19
• Researchers, journals should take ownership of their
academic identity & integrity on the web – be pro-active
• Create a Google Profile (Google Scholar & Google
Citations)
• Create an ORCID ID
• Setup alerts and know who cites your work and in which
context it is used

20. Academic Integrity (2)
20
• Assign good quality metadata to OA research so that
Google will return quality research at the top of Google
listing
• Conduct Google searches for your own research/name,
and see where it has been mentioned
• Know what is being researched in your field
• Take action if needed

21. Requirements
• Use Open Source software, open standards
• Make base URL available to harvesters
• Journal setup complete
• Google Scholar site map in configuration
• Article persistent URLs (DOIs)
• Quality metadata

22. Digital Preservation http://www.portico.org/

23. XML
• XML was designed to carry data - with focus on what
data is
• HTML was designed to display data - with focus on how
data looks
• XML tags are not predefined like HTML tags are
• It simplifies data sharing
• It simplifies data transport
• It simplifies platform changes
• It simplifies data availability
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp

24. XML OJS Parsing Service
24
http://pkp-udev.lib.sfu.ca/

25. Online ISSN
25
http://www.nlsa.ac.za/index.php/bibsa/isn-agency

26. Depositing Policy
26
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo

27. “Without data you are just another person with an opinion.” –
W. Edwards Deming
Data Sets
27
http://dataverse.org/

28. Referencing
28
https://www.refme.com/

29. Gmail for Journal
29

30. Charges
30
• Article Processing Charges
• Article Submission Charges
• Galley, other charges?
• Waiver Policy

31. Rights
31
• Copyright: Author/s
• Licensing: Conditions of use by other
Apply one of six licenses
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
• Publishing Rights: Exclusive or Non-exclusive Licenses

32. DOAJ Recommended OA Policy
32
Law, Democracy & Development is an Open Access
journal which means that all content is freely available
without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are
allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search,
or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any
other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission
from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance
with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition
of Open Access.

33. Registering for Indexing (1)
• InCites Journal Citation Reports (TR WoS)
• Criteria: http://wokinfo.com/essays/journal-selection-
process/
• Apply: http://ip-
science.thomsonreuters.com/info/journalsubmission-
front/
• Elsevier Scopus
• Criteria: http://www.elsevier.com/online-
tools/scopus/content-overview#content-policy-and-
selection
• Apply:
http://suggestor.step.scopus.com/suggestTitle/step1.cf
m%20

34. Registering for Indexing (2)
• Google Scholar Metrics
• Criteria:
http://scholar.google.co.za/intl/en/scholar/metrics.html
#inclusion
• Google Scholar Profile
• Register:
https://scholar.google.co.za/intl/en/scholar/citations.ht
ml
• Google Web Site registration
• Gmail & Google Search Console
• https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-
url?pli=1

35. Registering for Indexing (3)
• Discipline specific indexes
• E.g. Music: Rilm Abstracts; The Music Index; Sabinet
Online; African Journals OnLine
• E.g. Aquatic Science: Agris; ASFA; Aquatic Biology;
Aquaculture & Fisheries Resources; BIOBASE; BIOSIS;
Fish & Fisheries Worldwide; Journal Citation Reports;
Science Citation Index Expanded; Zoological Record
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• https://doaj.org/application/new
• SHERPA RoMEO
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php

36. Directory of Open Access Journals
(DOAJ) https://doaj.org/

37. Social media

38. Wikipedia

40. Facebook

41. Twitter

42. Google Plus

43. AddThis toolbar
http://www.addthis.com/

44. YouTube

45. Webinar sessions

46. Measuring journal impact
• OJS System Statistics
• Google Scholar Metrics
• Google Scholar Profile
• Google Analytics or Piwik
• Altmetrics
• Piwik

47. OJS System Analytics

48. The index is based on the set of
the journal's most cited papers
and the number of citations that
they have received in other
publications.

50. Google Analytics

51. http://piwik.org/

52. Finding References (OJS)

55. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1681-150X/2015/v13n4a3
Digital Object Identifier Example (DOI)
ASSAf Wiki
http://academyofsciencesa.wikispaces.com

56. Monitor impact
http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcblog/2014/11/06/the-impact-factor-of-
journals-converting-from-subscription-to-open-access/

57. For your journal ….
http://journals.sfu.ca/testdrive/
admin
testdrive

58. Questions? Thank you!
Ina Smith
ina@assaf.org.za