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Demystifying the Open Journal System: A Guide for Researchers and Publishers

OJS Researchers and Publishers

Looking to start an open-access journal or to publish in open-access journals? The Open Journal System (OJS) is a powerful tool that can simplify and streamline the publishing process. In this comprehensive guide, we will demystify the OJS, providing researchers and publishers with the knowledge they need to navigate this popular platform.

With over 10,000 journals currently using the OJS, understanding its features and functionalities is essential for anyone looking to publish scholarly articles. From submitting manuscripts to peer review to publication, the OJS offers a seamless and user-friendly experience.

Demystifying the Open Journal System: A Guide for Researchers and Publishers 1

In this guide, we will walk you through the entire process, starting with an overview of the OJS and its benefits. We will explain how to set up an account, submit your manuscript, and navigate the peer review process. Additionally, we will explore the various customization options available to publishers, ensuring your journal stands out.

Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or new to the publishing world, this guide will equip you with the knowledge and tools to effectively utilize the Open Journal System (OJS). Let’s unlock the potential of OJS and get your research out into the world.

Benefits of using the Open Journal System

The Open Journal System (OJS) offers numerous benefits for researchers and publishers alike. 

  • Firstly, it provides a platform for open-access publishing, allowing your research to reach a wider audience. By making your articles freely available, you can increase their visibility and impact.
  • Secondly, the OJS streamlines the publishing process. It provides a centralized system for manuscript submission, peer review, and publication. This eliminates the need for traditional, time-consuming processes, such as mailing physical copies of manuscripts. With the OJS, everything can be done online, saving time and resources.
  • Lastly, the OJS offers a robust archiving system. Once your articles are published, they are stored in a secure and easily accessible database. This ensures the long-term preservation and availability of your research even if the journal website goes out of service.

Overall, the benefits of using the Open Journal System are clear. It provides a reliable archiving solution. Let’s now explore the features of the OJS in more detail.

Features of the Open Journal System

The Open Journal System (OJS) is packed with features designed to enhance the publishing experience. One of its key features is the manuscript submission system. Researchers can easily create an account, upload their manuscripts, and track the progress of their submissions. This system provides transparency and allows authors to stay informed throughout the publication process.Demystifying the Open Journal System: A Guide for Researchers and Publishers 2

Another notable feature of the OJS is its robust peer review system. The platform facilitates the review process by allowing editors to assign reviewers, track their progress, and manage feedback. Reviewers can access the manuscripts online, making the process more efficient and convenient.

Demystifying the Open Journal System: A Guide for Researchers and Publishers 3

The OJS also offers comprehensive publishing tools. Once an article is accepted, publishers can easily format and publish it on the platform. The system supports various file formats, ensuring compatibility with different types of content. Additionally, publishers can customize the appearance of their journal, giving it a unique and professional look.

Demystifying the Open Journal System: A Guide for Researchers and Publishers 4

In addition to these features, the OJS provides a range of administrative tools. Journal managers can easily track submissions, assign roles to team members, and manage the entire publishing workflow. This centralized system simplifies the management process and ensures efficient collaboration among team members.

Setting up the Open Journal System

Setting up the Open Journal System (OJS) is a little complex process. So, it is advisable to choose a service provider that offers OJS hosting.

Click Here to Consult OJS Hosting Provider>>

In case you want to set up OJS manually, then you can start by buying appropriate hosting. Once you have chosen a hosting option, you can proceed with the installation process. The OJS provides detailed documentation and installation guides to help you through the process. It typically involves downloading the software, configuring the server, and setting up the database.

After the installation is complete, you can start customizing your journal. The OJS allows you to create a unique look and feel for your journal by customizing the theme, logo, and colors. You can also configure settings related to user registration, submission guidelines, and publication workflows. Alternatively, you can go for the ready OJS theme available with the OJS service providers. Click Here to buy OJS theme>>

With the basic setup complete, you can now start accepting manuscript submissions. The OJS provides a submission form where authors can enter their article details, upload files, and provide any additional information. As the journal manager, you can easily review and manage these submissions through the OJS dashboard.

Once your journal is up and running, you can focus on managing submissions and navigating the peer review process.

Customizing the Open Journal System for your journal

One of the advantages of using the Open Journal System (OJS) is the ability to customize it according to your journal’s specific needs. The OJS offers a range of customization options that allow you to create a unique and professional journal.

  • Firstly, you can customize the visual appearance of your journal by selecting a theme and modifying the colors and fonts. The OJS provides a variety of pre-designed themes to choose from, or you can create your custom theme. This customization option allows you to align your journal’s visual identity with your brand or organization.
  • Secondly, you can customize the submission process to fit your journal’s requirements. The OJS allows you to define submission guidelines, specify required fields, and set up a submission workflow. This customization ensures that authors provide all the necessary information and follow the submission process specific to your journal.
  • Additionally, you can customize the peer review process in the OJS. You can define review criteria, assign reviewers, and set deadlines for review completion. This customization allows you to tailor the peer review process to meet the specific needs of your journal and ensure timely and thorough reviews.
  • Furthermore, the OJS allows you to customize the publication process. You can define publication workflows, set up article templates, and configure article metadata. This customization ensures that the articles published in your journal are formatted consistently and meet the necessary standards.

Managing submissions and peer review process in the Open Journal System

  • The Open Journal System (OJS) provides a user-friendly interface for managing submissions and the peer review process. As a journal manager, you have full control over the entire workflow, from submission to publication.
  • When a manuscript is submitted, you can easily access it through the OJS dashboard. The system provides a clear overview of all submissions, allowing you to track their progress and manage them efficiently. You can assign reviewers, track their progress, and manage the feedback they provide.
  • The OJS streamlines the peer review process by providing a platform for communication between authors, reviewers, and editors. Reviewers can access the manuscript online, making it easy for them to read, annotate, and provide feedback. Authors can respond to reviewers’ comments and make revisions directly within the OJS.
  • As a journal manager, you have the authority to make decisions based on reviewers’ recommendations. The OJS provides a simple interface for making editorial decisions, such as accepting, rejecting, or requesting revisions for a manuscript. Once a decision is made, you can communicate it to the authors through the system.

During the entire process, OJS meticulously records all activities and facilitates transparent editorial decisions. This guarantees accountability in the peer review process, enabling the generation of reports and collection of data for analysis and decision-making. These log reports play a crucial role when applying to prominent indexing agencies such as SCOPUS, WOS, PubMed, and others.

Managing submissions and the peer review process in the Open Journal System is made easy and efficient. The system provides all the necessary tools and features to streamline the workflow and ensure a smooth publication process. Now that you have successfully managed the peer review process, let’s explore how to publish and archive articles in the OJS.

Publishing and archiving articles in the Open Journal System

Publishing and archiving articles in the Open Journal System (OJS) is a seamless process that ensures the accessibility and long-term preservation of your research.

  • Once a manuscript has completed the peer review process, it is ready for publication. The OJS provides a user-friendly interface for publishing articles. You can easily format the manuscript according to the journal’s guidelines and convert it into a publishable format, such as PDF or HTML.
  • The OJS allows you to assign DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) to your articles. DOIs are unique identifiers that provide a persistent link to your articles, ensuring their long-term accessibility. This allows readers to easily cite and reference your articles, increasing their visibility and impact.
  • Furthermore, the OJS provides a comprehensive archiving system. Once an article is published, it is stored in a secure and easily accessible database. The OJS supports various archiving standards, ensuring the long-term preservation and availability of your research. This archiving system ensures that your articles remain accessible even if the journal undergoes any changes or transitions.
  • The OJS allows you to create article collections or special issues. This feature enables you to organize related articles and showcase them as a curated collection. It also allows you to highlight important research or topics within your journal.

Promoting your journal using the Open Journal System

Promoting your journal is essential for increasing its visibility and attracting authors and readers. The Open Journal System (OJS) offers various features and tools to help you effectively promote your journal and reach a wider audience.

  • Firstly, the OJS allows you to create a journal website that showcases your journal and its content. You can customize the website’s design and layout to align with your journal’s brand or organization. Additionally, you can create sections on the website to highlight important articles, news, or announcements.
  • Secondly, the OJS provides a range of indexing and discovery options. You can register your journal with indexing services, such as DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) or Google Scholar. This increases the visibility of your journal and allows it to be discovered by researchers and readers worldwide.
  • Furthermore, the OJS supports social media integration. You can easily share articles, announcements, or updates from your journal on social media platforms. This enables you to reach a wider audience and engage with potential authors and readers.
  • The OJS also offers email notifications and alerts. You can set up automated email notifications to inform authors about the status of their submissions or to notify readers about new articles or issues. This keeps authors and readers engaged and informed, increasing their involvement with your journal.
  • Additionally, the OJS provides usage statistics and analytics. You can track the number of article views, downloads, or citations to assess the impact and reach of your journal. This data can help you make informed decisions about your journal’s promotion and development.

Common challenges and solutions in using the Open Journal System

While the Open Journal System (OJS) offers numerous benefits and features, there can be challenges in using the platform. However, with the right knowledge and solutions, these challenges can be overcome.

  • One common challenge is the initial setup and installation of the OJS. For those new to the platform, it may seem daunting to configure the server, set up the database, and customize the journal. However, there are dedicated OJS hosting and service providers like us (www.ojscloud.com) where you can seek support.
  • Another challenge is managing the peer review process efficiently. With multiple submissions and reviewers, it can be challenging to track the progress and ensure timely reviews. To overcome this challenge, it is important to establish clear communication channels with reviewers and set clear expectations and deadlines. Additionally, utilizing the features of the OJS, such as automated reminders and notifications, can help streamline the process.
  • Furthermore, promoting the journal and attracting authors and readers can be a challenge. With numerous journals available, it can be difficult to stand out and gain recognition. To overcome this challenge, it is important to create a unique and professional website, register with indexing services, and leverage social media and email notifications to increase visibility.
  • Lastly, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the journal can be a challenge. Journals may face financial constraints or changes in editorial teams. To overcome this challenge, it is important to explore funding options, establish partnerships with institutions or organizations, and regularly review and update your journal’s policies and workflows.

Conclusion

This guide explores the Open Journal System (OJS) and its advantages for researchers and publishers. OJS provides a user-friendly platform for open-access publishing, streamlining processes, and offering robust archiving. We’ve highlighted benefits such as increased visibility, simplified workflows, and reliable archiving. The guide covers OJS features like manuscript submission, peer review, and customizable publishing tools. It includes a step-by-step setup guide, addressing common challenges with solutions. Whether you’re an experienced researcher or new to publishing, OJS provides a powerful platform to share your research globally.

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OJS 2 vs OJS 3: Understanding the Differences and Benefits

open journal system
ojs 2 vs ojs 3

Academic publishing has many different software options for managing your journal. The most famous open-source software for establishing online open-access journals is Open Journal Systems (OJS). So far, PKP has released three main versions of this platform: OJS 1, OJS 2 & OJS 3. OJS 1 is outdated, and currently, no one is using it though OJS 2 and OJS 3 are ongoing versions. Both are practical tools for managing academic journals; some critical differences may make a better choice for your particular needs. In this article, we’ll compare OJS 2 and OJS 3 to help you decide which is better for boosting your journals in 2023.

First, let’s start with a brief overview of what an Open Journal System is and what it can do for your journal.

So, What is Open Journal System (OJS)?

Open Journal System

An Open Journal System is an open-source software program designed to help publishers manage the editorial process for academic journals. With Open Journal System, you can manage the submission and review process, handle peer review, publish articles online, and more. It’s a powerful tool that can help streamline your editorial process and make it easier to publish high-quality academic research.

It is a free, open-source software platform widely used for managing and publishing academic journals. It is designed to provide an all-in-one solution for managing the editorial process, publishing articles, and distributing content to readers. 

Open Journal System 2 vs. Open Journal System 3: What’s the Difference?

There are currently two main versions of the Open Journal System in use: OJS 2 and OJS 3. This section will detail the differences between OJS 2 and OJS 3.

1. User Interface

User Interface

OJS 3 has a more modern, user-friendly interface, cleaner design, and intuitive navigation. It is also designed to be mobile-responsive, meaning it can be accessed and used on various devices, including smartphones and tablets. OJS 3 has a more modern, user-friendly interface than OJS 2. The dashboard is more intuitive, making navigating the system easier for editors, authors, and reviewers. 

In contrast, OJS 2 has a more dated interface that can be somewhat clunky and difficult to navigate, especially on mobile devices.

2. Performance

open journal system performance

OJS 3 is generally faster and more reliable than OJS 2, with better support for large volumes of content and more efficient code. This means that journals using Open Journal System 3 can offer users a smoother and more seamless experience, with faster page load times and fewer errors or delays. 

In contrast, OJS 2 can be slower and more prone to crashes or other technical issues, especially when handling large amounts of content or traffic.

3. Plugins and Themes

open journal system plugins

One of the key advantages of Open Journal System (OJS) 3 over Open Journal System (OJS) 2 is its wider selection of plugins and themes. OJS 3 has a more active development community, which means more plugins and themes are available to customize and enhance your journal’s functionality and appearance. 

See Exciting OJS Themes & OJS Plugins

This can include plugins for managing author submissions, integrating with social media or other external services, and providing advanced analytics or reporting features. Additionally, OJS 3 offers a more flexible theming system, allowing you to easily customize your journal’s appearance without modifying the underlying code.

4. Security

ojs security

OJS 3 offers several security improvements over OJS 2. For example, it uses the latest version of PHP, which has better security features and fewer vulnerabilities. OJS 3 includes more advanced user authentication and authorization features, which can help prevent unauthorized access to your journal’s content or data. OJS 3 also offers better data encryption and privacy features, which can help protect sensitive information about your authors and reviewers.

5. Technical Support

ojs support

It’s important to note that OJS 2 is no longer being actively developed or supported by the developers of OJS. This means that if you run into technical issues or have questions about using the software, you may be unable to get help or support. In contrast, OJS 3 is actively developed and supported. You can access documentation, user forums, and other resources to help you troubleshoot problems or get assistance using the software. 

6. Migration

ojs miration

While OJS 3 is a new and improved version of OJS 2, it’s not a simple upgrade. Migrating from OJS 2 to OJS 3 requires some effort and technical know-how, so it’s important to consider this before switching.

Which is Better for Boosting Your Journals in 2023?

ojs performance booster

Now that we’ve covered some key differences between OJS 2 and OJS 3, the question is: which is better for boosting your journals in 2023?

In general, OJS 3 is the better choice. While OJS 2 has been a reliable tool for managing academic journals for many years, it’s no longer being actively developed or supported. This means that if you continue to use OJS 2, you may miss out on new features and improvements being added to OJS 3. In addition, OJS 3 has a more modern, user-friendly interface, is faster and more reliable, and is designed to be mobile-responsive. The wider selection of plugins and themes gives you more options for customizing your journal’s appearance and functionality.

That being said, it’s important to consider the effort and technical knowledge required to migrate from OJS 2 to OJS 3. If you have a large archive of content, a complex setup, or limited technical resources, it may not be feasible to switch to OJS 3 right away. In this case, it may be worth sticking with OJS 2 for the time being and planning for migration in the future.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, OJS 3 is generally the better choice for boosting your journals in 2023 than OJS 2. It has a more modern interface, is faster and more reliable, and is designed to be mobile-responsive. It also has a broader selection of plugins and themes, which gives you more options for customizing your journal’s appearance and functionality. Additionally, since OJS 2 is no longer being actively developed or supported, choosing OJS 3 ensures that you won’t miss out on new features and improvements.

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How to Merge Two Journals with One OJS (Open Journal System)

Merge OJS Journals

Open Journal Systems (OJS) is an open-source software for managing and publishing scholarly journals. It is a comprehensive system that provides various features, such as article submission, review, editing, and publishing. If you are a journal editor or publisher with more than one journal on Open Journal Systems (OJS), you may want to merge them into a single platform. Merging journals into a single Open Journal Systems (OJS) installation has several advantages, such as reducing maintenance costs, improving user experience, and increasing efficiency. This article will guide you through merging a journal with another Open Journal System (OJS).

Steps to Merge Journals on a single Open Journal System (OJS):

Step 1: Back up your data

Back up your data

Before merging your journals, it is essential to back up your data to prevent data loss. You should back up all the data related to your journal, such as articles, issues, submissions, reviews, and user accounts.

To back up your data, go to your Open Journal System (OJS) administration dashboard, and click “Tools” in the left-hand side menu. Then, select “Backup” from the drop-down menu. Select all the options related to your data on the backup page and click on the “Backup” button. Your data will be downloaded as a compressed file in the “public” folder of your Open Journal System (OJS) installation. Make sure to keep this file safe and secure.

Step 2: Install the new OJS

Install the new OJS

To merge a journal to another Open Journal System (OJS), you need to install a new OJS platform where you will merge your journals. You can install OJS on the same server as your existing OJS or on a different server.

You can download the latest version of Open Journal Systems (OJS) from the official website (https://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/). Once you have downloaded the installation package, extract it to a folder on your server. Then, create a new database for the new Open Journal Systems (OJS) and configure the Open Journal Systems (OJS) installation by following the installation instructions.

Step 3: Export your data

Export your data

The next step is to export your data from your existing OJS installation. To export your data, log in to your OJS administration dashboard and click “Tools” in the left-hand side menu. Then, select “Import/Export” from the drop-down menu. On the Import/Export page, select the “Native XML Plugin” and click on the “Export” button. This will export all your journal data in a single XML file. Save this file to a safe location on your computer.

Step 4: Import your data

Import your data

After exporting your data, the next step is to import your data into the new OJS installation. To import your data, log in to your new OJS administration dashboard and click “Tools” in the left-hand side menu. Then, select “Import/Export” from the drop-down menu. On the Import/Export page, select the “Native XML Plugin” and click on the “Import” button.

This will open the import page where you can upload the XML file you exported from your existing OJS installation. Once you have uploaded the file, click the “Import” button to start the import process. This may take some time, depending on the size of your data. Once the import is complete, you should see all your journal data in the new OJS installation.

Step 5: Merge your journals

Merge your journals

Now that you have your data in the new OJS installation merging your journals is next. To merge your journals, go to the “Journal Manager” page in the new OJS administration dashboard. On this page, you should see all your journals listed. To merge your journals, select the journal that you want to merge with another journal and click on the “Edit” button. On the “Edit Journal” page, go to the “Journal Information

Important: Merging journals into a single open journal system (OJS) must be carried out under expert supervision. We don’t take any responsibility for any mishap caused by the steps mentioned in this blog.

What care should be taken during the merging process?

OJS care

Merging two journals hosted on different Open Journal Systems (OJS) into a single OJS installation requires careful planning and execution to avoid data loss and ensure a smooth transition. Here are some of the key considerations that you should keep in mind when merging two journals into a single OJS:

  • Check compatibility: Before merging two journals, ensure that the version of OJS used in both journals is compatible with the version of OJS used in the new OJS installation. While exporting/importing the data, you may face issues if the versions are incompatible. Check the compatibility by referring to the OJS documentation or consulting with the OJS support team.
  • Plan the merging process: Plan the process carefully to ensure you do not lose any important data. Create a detailed plan that outlines the steps involved in the merging process and assign responsibilities to the relevant team members. The plan should include steps for exporting and importing data and merging the data into a single OJS installation.
  • Back up all data: Before you start the merging process, it is essential to back up all the data related to your journals. Back up all articles, issues, submissions, reviews, user accounts, and other data related to your journals. This will ensure that you have a copy of all your data in case something goes wrong during the merging process.
  • Test the import process: Before you start importing the data, test the import process with a small sample of data to ensure that the process works correctly. This will help you identify any issues that may arise during the import process and take corrective action before you import all the data.
  • Verify the imported data: Once you have imported it, it is essential to verify the imported data to ensure it has been imported correctly. Check all the articles, issues, submissions, reviews, and user accounts to ensure they have been imported correctly. If you find any issues, resolve them before proceeding with the merging process.
  • Merge the data: Once you have verified the imported data, it is time to merge it into a single OJS installation. Merge the data according to your plan, ensuring all data is merged correctly. Depending on the amount of data you are merging, this may take some time.
  • Reconfigure the new OJS installation: After merging the data, you need to reconfigure the new OJS installation to reflect the merged data. Configure the settings of the new OJS installation to reflect the settings of the original journals, such as journal settings, email templates, and publication schedules.
  • Test the new OJS installation: Once you have reconfigured the new OJS installation, test it thoroughly to ensure it works correctly. Test all the features of the new OJS installation, such as article submission, review, and publishing, to ensure that they work as expected.

Merging two journals hosted on different Open Journal Systems (OJS) into a single OJS installation requires careful planning and execution to avoid data loss and ensure a smooth transition. By following the above-mentioned considerations, you can ensure that the merging process is executed correctly and that your new OJS installation works correctly.

Advantages of merging the journals to a single OJS

Advantages of merging the journals

Merging two journals hosted on different Open Journal Systems (OJS) into a single OJS installation has several advantages. Here are some of the key advantages of merging two journals into a single OJS:

  • Increased efficiency: By merging two journals into a single OJS installation, you can increase your efficiency by streamlining your editorial and publishing processes. This can reduce the time and effort required to manage multiple journals on different OJS installations, leading to increased productivity and reduced administrative overhead.
  • Improved visibility: Merging two journals into a single OJS installation can help improve the visibility of your publications. By consolidating your journals into a single platform, you can attract more readers and increase your visibility in the academic community.
  • Improved quality control: You can improve your quality control processes by consolidating your journals into a single OJS installation. This can help ensure that all published content meets the highest quality standards, leading to a better reputation and higher impact.
  • Easier collaboration: Merging two journals into a single OJS installation can facilitate easier collaboration between editors, reviewers, and authors. This can help foster a more collaborative and supportive community of scholars, leading to increased engagement and a more vibrant academic community.
  • Cost savings: Consolidating your journals into a single OJS installation can help reduce costs associated with managing multiple journals on different OJS installations. This can include costs associated with hosting, maintenance, and technical support.
  • Better user experience: By consolidating your journals into a single OJS installation, you can improve the user experience for your readers, authors, and reviewers. This can help attract and retain users, leading to increased engagement and a more vibrant community of scholars.

Cost of merging journals into single Open Journal Systems (OJS) 

cost of ojs

As far as cost is concerned, I cannot pinpoint the figure; instead can guide you on the affecting factors. Such factors are as below:

  • The size and complexity of the journals, 
  • The number of issues and articles to be merged, 
  • The amount of customization required, 
  • The expertise of the team handling the merging process.

If you are wondering about the direct technical cost ( these costs can vary widely depending on the specific needs of the project and the service provider chosen) factors, they could be as follows.

ojs website hosting
  • Web Hosting
  • Software Licensing
  • Technical Support
  • The Time and Resources required to plan and execute the merging process
  • Data Migration
  • Reconfiguration of settings and Customization
  • Testing and Quality Assurance
  • Retraining Staff and Users

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Merge Journals on OJS >>
merge ojs journals

Conclusion

Merging journals into a single Open Journal System (OJS) installation can benefit journals and authors with a streamlined workflow, reduced costs, increased visibility, and access to a larger audience. It also enables cross-journal searching and browsing. However, the process is complex and requires careful planning and management. Ultimately, deciding to merge journals should be based on considering the benefits, challenges, and needs of the communities involved.

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What is Open Access Journal Publishing?

Open-Access-Journal-Publishing
Open-Access-Journal-Publishing

You might have often heard the group of words “open access journal publishing” if you are related to the education or research field. Nowadays, people talk about the free resources for knowledge as the Internet makes the normal human being very addicted to knowing something new. Earlier, the knowledgeable contents were not free to access, but now people understand the power of making this content free for the general population. 

These opening remarks lead us to the question: How can we answer the question? What is open access journal publishing? or what is an open-access journal? So, tighten your seatbelt; I will take you on a ride in the deep sea of the open-access world.

So, What is Open Access?

Anything which doesn’t require any prior permission, license, subscription, or fee payment is called open access. In simple language, the content which is open access is free to consume. In other words, you can say that it is a way of conveying information (in digital form) free of cost via the Internet.

Open Access

For example, when you surf the Internet for knowledge hunting, you find two kinds of web pages. The first type may ask for a payment, some authentication, or a subscription to allow you to access the content. The second type doesn’t ask for fees or a subscription but directly allows you to access the content. The latter type is called open-access content.

Open-access word is much more prevalent in research publications or scholarly literature. The scholarly articles are open access and can be accessed without any payment over the Internet. The primary form factor of open-access content is digital, which is accessible on the Internet. The subsequent section will focus on the purpose of open access, which will clarify your understanding.  

What is the purpose of open access journal publishing?

purpose of open-access journal publishing

The primary purpose of open access journal publishing is to maximize the availability of research documentation, usually in research articles, book reviews, book chapters, or recorded communication regarding novel fact findings. The idea of open access journal publishing has erupted from the matured understandings which emphasize the belief that knowledge gained from public efforts must be freely accessible. It will not be cliche to say that publishing open-access content is a noble cause and indirectly affects millions.  

What are the types of open access journal publishing or mode of open access journal publishing?

Types of Open Access Journal

It has been divided into three categories. Each has been explained below;

Green Open Access

This mode of open access is closely coupled with the author’s intention. Intention means; whether authors are willing to put/archive their accepted research article(s) to their institutional repositories or other open-access sites. This arrangement empowers the authors to make the last version of their research paper available, even though it has been published in subscription-based journals.

Gold Open Access

This mode may give you a setback after knowing that it involves some form of cost to authors for open publishing access. However, this may provide immediate online access to the published article on the publisher’s website. Publishers following this mode demand payment as processing charges. In this mode, the author must assign the publishers a copyright. 

Hybrid Open Access

This mode involves the working principle from the above-discussed categories. An author can put their contents in open-access journals for availing to other readers.

I think you are well aware of “open access.” So, without wasting much time, let’s jump into the core part of this blog, which is all about open-access journals & open-access journal publishing.

What is an open-access journal?

Open Access

Don’t expect any contradictory definition of the real meaning of open access. To define this term, rewrite the term as “open access to the journal.” You will have the definition automatically by putting the meaning of open access in the first place and the meaning of journal in the second place. Still, if you are confused, read the paragraph below for the exact words. 

Definition of open access journal: Journals (collections of well-formatted and expert-reviewed research articles written by academics, research scholars, industry experts, or professors) that do not require any prerequisite (in the form of paid subscription or license) for accessing the inside articles are called open-access journals or open access journal publishing

Definition of open access journal

Journals having open access are not just free to read. Instead, the contents of such journals are also immune from most copyright and licensing restrictions. Anyone can have the reference of these articles for their future works. 

Open access journal publishing contents are open to all research communities and normal human beings. You are not required to purchase a subscription or any special license to access the published research articles in such journals. The most beautiful thing about these categories of journals is that they are “free.”

e-Journals

open access journal publishing contents were not very popular as there were no dedicated online infrastructures. Journals were in print form only. However, after the entrance of the Internet, many publishers have developed open access journal publishing websites. open access journal publishing contents can be accessed by anyone having a good internet connection. So, you might be clear now that this is a very generous arrangement to accelerate the research and development by subtracting the cost hurdles.

Recently, research funding agencies (mainly controlled by the national administration) are compressing researchers to make their findings open because the funding received from tax money should be reverted with positive outcomes.

What is the purpose of open access journal?

Researchers from many countries across the globe do not have the same financial support to afford the high subscription rates of closed-access journals. Due to this limitation, many good research scholars find it difficult to access others’ scholarly content and their relevant fields’ novel findings. In the research world, the word “reference” matters a lot. By referring to others’ research work, researchers can get handsome help in their tasks.

No payment for Research Publication

To overcome the above-cited problem, open access journal publishing has emerged. This journal believes that knowledge derived from public funding must be freely accessible to all researchers. The other reason open access journal publishing gained popularity is that publicly funded research works become very easy to access. The statement, as mentioned earlier, makes them more likely to be downloaded, read, and cited.  

What is the importance of open access journal publishing?

Research Paper Publishing

What we are today is only and only due to research, directly or indirectly—for example, our great fathers used to eat raw meat for survival. Still, eventually, medical science evolved, and via rigorous research/observations, we concluded that cooked stuff is way more beneficial to the human body and easy to digest. This is just a small example of the impact of research on human life. I can write a whole essay on this.

By the above discussion, there is no doubt that research is a nonneglectable part of our life to make our routine life more sustainable and prosperous. So, the journal’s open access brings this even further by allowing free access to research articles.

For most junior-level researchers, open access journal publishing allows them to take advantage of published scholarly work from experienced and expert researchers around the globe.

Researcher's Communication

From the author’s point of view, an article published in open access journal publishing gets more attention from citations worldwide as it is open to all. This also works as a motivation factor for contributing more in relevant fields. Furthermore, a higher number of citations can lead to a swelling number of inter researchers’ communication, making it even more fruitful for new directions.

How can I find open access journal publishing websites?

How can I find Open Access Journals?

Online directories are available to find open access journal publishing relevant to your research fields. These directories have a well-organized list of the journal with all details of volume and issues. However, make sure about the indexing status of these journals before publishing your articles. These directories will work as a one-stop solution for finding open access journal publishing websites. Famous players of this game are:

What are the open-access journals which have no publication fee for authors?

DOAJ for Open Access Journals

Finding an open-access journal that publishes the article for free is very tough and time-consuming. However, you may find such open-access journals via ISI . In ISI, you will have all journals’ categories. First, select the journals of your concern field and get the publisher details. Then, insert this publisher detail in BEALL’S LIST . While researching this type of journal, please read the authors’ section carefully. By this methodology, you might find a journal that accepts free publication.

One another way to find such journals is to visit the directory of open-access journals; You can follow below given steps:

  • Go to DOAJ
  • Enter your discipline or keywords in the Search box to search for journal titles.
  • On the results page, choose “Without article processing charges (APCs)” on the left. 

Who can start open-access journal publishing?

Start Open Access Journal

Any individual, institution, organization, NGO, national body, group of individuals or academician can start their open-access journal. There are no such difficult criteria to the full fill as a prerequisite for establishing the new open-access journals. The only requirement is that you have will power to start it; resources needed for the journal will be automatically prompted in front of you.

Would you like to start your own journal? Click here to make your journal website live in 2 weeks.

Start Open Access Journal >>
Open Access Journal publishing

What is the process of starting a new open-access journal?

To start a new open-access journal, you need basic things, which I have listed below in a step-by-step manner. If you acquire all these details well in advance, then any journal hosting service provider can establish your journal in 2-3 weeks. However, ISSN and indexing can take much time, depending upon which country you are in. So read each step carefully.

Steps for open access journal publishing Setup
  • Finding out the name of the journal and the area of research.
  • Obtain the ISSN for the journal.
  • Find an excellent editorial team.
  • Automated website with SMS, email support, and online publication.
  • Define all policies about an open journal system.
  • Licensing and indexing open journal system.
  • Advertise your journal.

Is there any open-source platform for open-access journals?

Open Journal System (OJS)

One world-renowned open-source platform is the “open journal system (OJS).” This platform allows anyone to start their journal website with readily available journal architecture and workflow. This platform already hosts more than 25000 open access journals. So, if you host your journal on this platform, you will get free popularity along with the overall workflow per the guidelines of leading indexing agencies like SCOPUS.

OJS allows us to manage, review, and organize all scientific content for later publication. Everything is handled by an editor located in servers to manage the contents better. It is also a system that helps to train people so that they can step by step assemble their journals in a very professional way. This is also important if you consider all the guidelines by Scopus and WOS. All these are the protocols to follow to take a scientific journal from 0 to publication and its ISSN.

What if I don’t know about the journal website development on OJS?

OJS Service Provider

Don’t worry; all the researchers need not know the website development technologies like HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. Researchers from non-IT backgrounds may find this task difficult. 

To overcome the above-cited problem, you may hire a tech company with expertise in open journal system (OJS) hosting and setup. However, you need to pay the relevant remuneration. In addition, these service providers often offer fully customized OJS themes, which can make your journal website stand out from the crowd. On the contrary, you need to pay hefty charges for these add-ons. If you are not ready to pay an additional amount, you can go for the default OJS themes. 

Conclusion:

To summarize, I would say that the open-access movement is a blessing for the research community worldwide. Publishing your article in open-access journals can attract more attention from other researchers. All in all, open-access journals can contribute a lot to improving human life. In my opinion, all academicians should start their journals alone or in a group.

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OJS Features for Open Access Journal

Top-OJS-Fetures-2023
Top-OJS-Fetures-2023

The Internet has disrupted our life, specifically in “How we access information?”. Open access journal is not immune to this groundbreaking innovation. Research is a field that is largely affected by the WWW. Documentation of the novel findings or alteration suggestions in existing findings is changed entirely. Open Journal System (OJS) has provided tremendous capabilities to its user for establishing the open access journal website in 2-3 weeks.

OJS & Internet
OJS & Internet

Entry of the OJS into the WWW makes the research digitization very efficient and manageable. As a result, many like to have these research articles at their fingertips, which means in the form of journal websites, specifically open-access journals. Access to research documentation in the form of a research article has become much easier than 10 years ago.

Research & Innovation
Research & Innovation

Therefore, we cannot overlook the open access journal’s website performance and features. In this blog, I would like to discuss the most important features provided by Open Journal System (OJS) to host open access journal websites.

Before moving into the discussion, I would like to spare some time for the elephant in the room, an “open access journal.” If you are new to the research world, you might not have heard about this group of words before. So, please read the below section to understand the background theory well so that advanced learnings become very easy.

What is an open access journal?

Anything which doesn’t require any prior permission, license, subscription, or fee payment is called open access. The same phenomenon is applied to put this into the perspective of open-access journals. 

Open Access Journals
Open Access Journals

Open access journals are open to all research communities and normal human beings. To access the published research articles in such journals, you are not required to purchase a subscription or any special license. The most beautiful thing about these categories of journals is that they are “free.”

Note: Open-access journals are free for readers; however, they can charge some amount for publishing the articles.

Open Access Journal
Open Access Journal

Open access journals were not very popular as there were no dedicated online infrastructures. Journals were in print form only. However, after the entrance of the Internet, many publishers have developed open-access journal websites. In continuation, I would add that Open Journal System (OJS) is a robust open-sourced platform to establish such open access journals website quickly.

Open-access journals website can be accessed by anyone having a good internet connection. So, you might be clear now that this is a very generous arrangement to accelerate the research and development by subtracting the cost hurdles.

Top Features of the Open Journal System (OJS):

1. Efficient OJS Themes:

With the recent upgrade, OJS has ready-to-use themes with endless color options. These themes are not just about looks but also agile in performance. These themes will allow you to set up your journal website quickly. Drag and drop facility is there for you in case you need to be made aware of HTML and CSS. Earlier themes were not easy to change as they required many template files. A recent upgrade has solved this problem by making template files stand alone. Get exciting OJS Themes

Apart from the basic layout, the latest OJS allows customizing the theme per the individual test and requirements. Many OJS hosting service providers are available who can help you make your journal website more interactive and user-friendly with full customization.

2. Responsive Nature of OJS Theme

As mobile phone becomes the mode of internet access, the OJS website is no exception. Many researchers love accessing such websites via mobile phones, tablets, or handheld devices. These devices are of different screen sizes. So to put this variable display environment, OJS has provided responsive layout themes.

3. Fragmented and Bifurcated stepwise procedure

The entire workflow has been divided into small parts, making it easy to work with and manage. Primarily this division consists of Accommodation {where novel requirements are entertained by affirmation or negation}, Survey {where peers check the content and revert to the creators so that they can edit the content} and Copyediting{where foreseen contents are stored for the final revision and ready to enter into the production}.

The great thing about the above-discussed steps is that each step can be accessed individually and left to visit, which means jumping the sequence. This edition allows you to enroll the creator at any step for proper correction.

4. Dynamic User Swap

Generally, software systems are of a nature in which they do not allow the user role to change without reentering the credentials. OJS, on the other hand, allows you to change the user if you have logged in with the master credentials. This facility is very convenient for changing roles and doing tasks with rapid response. For example, you can become a reviewer and journal manager in one login. You do not require to log out from the system to change the role.

5. Interaction regarding publication

As you know, OJS has divided the entire journal management task into various stages: Accommodation, Survey, copyediting, and production. The different user roles can collaborate via a simple messaging system during this phase. Apart from this, robust email facilities are also there for logging activity status. Peers can review each other’s work and comment also. This facility ensures that each stakeholder can take an interest in all activities. This is possible only and only due to the OJS new theme advancement.

6. Simple Registration

Enrolling in a new user’suser’s biome is very easy with this upgrade. The new registration form includes very few and extremely important fields to be filled in by the user. The user with no extra information can fill out this form. It can be submitted with handy or memorized basic information. After the form submission, new clients are informed via well formatted prescribed email.

7. Easy Task Assignment Mechanism

Another significant benefit of OJS is that you can swap between two different users who are experts. Swapping is straightforward, and configuration options are available in the left sidebar. As a result, it has made the assignment of dual obligations easier.

Upgrade to the latest OJS 3.3.0-13 for New Features

You might be running a journal website on old OJS, so you might not have the new features. I request you upgrade your OJS to the latest OJS 3.3.0-13. Ensure you take enough care during the upgrade because an OJS upgrade is complex and demands expertise. One should take a full system backup before upgrading because sometimes the upgrade may go wrong, and data can be lost. If possible, then higher experts for OJS upgrade.

We at OJSCloud provide end to end hosting solutions for open access journal on OJS.

Start Journal
OJS Service Providers

Conclusion

To wind up the discussion, I would definitely rate the current OJS version along with the discussed features on the higher side of the weight scale, as it provides extraordinary functionalities for the user. All the discussed functionality make the journal management task very efficient. I recommend upgrading to this version to maximize the new features.

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How to Upgrade Open Journal System from OJS 3.x to OJS 3.3.0-13

How to upgrade OJS?
How to upgrade OJS?

Welcome to the step-by-step guide for Upgrade Open Journal System (OJS) version 3. x to OJS-3.3.0-13. This process requires a lot of care, time, and patience as it involves much complexity. An expert must do this upgrade, as you might need some help. There are many chances of losing valuable information, so I urge you to hire an expert agency with good experience in this field.  

Prerequisite: Have you gone through the head-to-tail of my other blog on the “What is Open Journal System (OJS) upgrade? Why upgrade is necessary for the Open Journal System (OJS)?” Because this blog contains all the basic understandings needed for the upgrade. So please go through it and come back here. 

Steps for Open Journal System upgrade from OJS 3.x to OJS 3.3.0-13

Step-1

Take Full Backup: Copy all the directories (Open Journal System Files Folder, Public Folder, Current database) of the existing Open Journal System and store them well for full backups. The backup will be crucial if anything goes wrong in the upgrade process. Because Open Journal System upgrade is a process having a higher rate of failure.

Step-2

Download the Latest version Folder. You can visit the website:https://pkp.sfu.ca/software/ojs/download/, (and directly jump onto the step-3, you can skip step-2.1 to step-2.6) or you can do this from your website’s back panel. Please follow the below screenshot for the process.

Step-2.1: Log in to your back panel and go to the “Dashboard“.

open journal system

Step-2.2: Click on “Administration” in the left corner.

How to Upgrade Open Journal System from OJS 3.x to OJS 3.3.0-13 5
OJS Upgrade

Step-2.3: Click on “System Information”.

How to Upgrade Open Journal System from OJS 3.x to OJS 3.3.0-13 6
OJS Upgrade

Step-2.4: Now you can check your current version and click “check for the updates“.

How to Upgrade Open Journal System from OJS 3.x to OJS 3.3.0-13 7
OJS Upgrade

Step-2.5: Click on “download” to get the latest Open Journal System version zip folder.

How to Upgrade Open Journal System from OJS 3.x to OJS 3.3.0-13 8
OJS Upgrade

Step-2.6: This step will take you to the website of PKP, where you can download the latest Open Journal System version by clicking on the below-stated button.

How to Upgrade Open Journal System from OJS 3.x to OJS 3.3.0-13 9
OJS Upgrade

Step-3

Extract the downloaded Folder. In our case, that Folder will be default named “ojs-3.3.0-13“. You can change the name of the Folder, but keep it as it is because it will be easy to identify it as the latest version’s Folder.

Step-4

Upload the extracted Folder (ojs-3.3.0-13 in step-3) to the concerned server where your Open Journal System website is being hosted.

Step-5

Bring from OLD and Put it new Folder: Bring the following two things from the old backup (created in step-1): (1) config.inc.php (2) public/ and upload the above two things to the new version folder (named ojs-3.3.0-13 in step-3).

Step-6

Alter, one file settings in a new Folder:

For this, do as directed below:

  • Find “config.inc.php” file.
  • In this file, find “General Settings”. 
  • Find installed = On and replace with installed = Off.
  • Save this file.
  • See the below screenshot for better clarity.
How to Upgrade Open Journal System from OJS 3.x to OJS 3.3.0-13 10
OJS Upgrade: config.inc.php file change

Step-7

Go to your journal’s website, where you will find below mentioned text along with one hyperlink. “If you are upgrading an existing installation of OJS, click here to proceed.” Please click on the words “click here”.

Now wait for the message given below: “Upgrade of the Open Journal System to version 3.3.0-13 has been completed successfully” (it might take 20-30 minutes to pop. Depending upon the size of your database)

Step-8

Alter one file set in a new Folder:

For this, do as directed below:

  • Find “config.inc.php” file.
  • In this file, find “General Settings”.
  • Find installed = Off and replace with installed = On,
  • Save this file.
  • See the below screenshot for better clarity.
How to Upgrade Open Journal System from OJS 3.x to OJS 3.3.0-13 11

Step-9

Task Completed:

Congratulations…..!!!! Your Open Journal System has been upgraded to version OJS 3.3.0-13. You can check by refollowing step 2.4

Note: Above mentioned steps do not promise a successful upgrade. You might face trouble upgrading if you have installed a customized theme and plugin. These steps are derived from the actual documentation of the Open Journal System. You are requested to higher expert for this task. In case of any destruction to your database, I am not liable for that.

Precaution Steps for Open Journal System upgrade:

(a) Find the perfect time to upgrade

In a software world, the upgrade is an ongoing process. As a result, PKP continuously releases new minor versions of OJS. It is not advisable that each time you need to keep on updating the OJS each day because it is a time-consuming and complex task. So to solve this confusion, one should keep track of new features available in new releases. Analyze your requirements against the newly released features; if those are necessary, please go for them. However, security point of view, you should upgrade at least once a year. 

(b) Check plugins & important features Compatibility

At the time of the upgrade, ensure that any plugin important to your user is compatible with the OJS 3. If not, you need to wait until the new bug-free version of OJS has been released. Because some of the immediate new version releases may not support all plugins, this care is not only limited to the plugins but must also be kept in mind for other essential features. So it is better to chat with editorial teams before going for an upgrade.

(c) Which version to go for? (i.e. OJS 3.1.0, OJS 3.2.0, or OJS 3.1.0-1; OJS 3.2.0-1)

Generally, it is good to go for the latest version. On the contrary, you must know the type of the latest version. Is it a major or minor update release? Because if you go for the immediate major release, it might contain some bugs, which will be addressed during the subsequent minor release. So my advice is to always go for the latest minor release.

(d) Making Aware the editorial team and other concerns

As this upgrade procedure will affect many areas, relevant entities must be aware of this for a seamless user experience. Before the upgrade announces, all involved parties, like an editorial team, editors, and section editors, must be aware of the upgrade procedure. Though the reviewer and author will not face significant issues with the upgrade.

(e) Make necessary changes to the server to meet the requirements of OJS 3.

You need to focus on the below-mentioned requirements. These have been generated by PKP from users’ feedback, so you may need some extras apart from the below-mentioned.

  • PHP >= 7.2
  • MySQL >= 4.1 
  • PostgreSQL >= 9.1.5
  • Apache >= 1.3.2x or >= 2.0.4x 
  • Microsoft IIS 6
  • Operating system: Any OS that supports the above software, including Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows

(f) Prepare a list of items automatically moving to the new version or requiring manual efforts. 

  • Submissions
  • Users
  • Roles/Permission setting
  • Announcements
  • Sections
  • The following items will need manual efforts for moving to OJS 3:
  • Journal Information – Masthead, Editorial Team, Permissions, etc.
  • Customizations – CSS, images, color codes
  • Journal setup settings and textual information
  • Plugins
  • Pages/ Menus
  • Links
  • Files
  • Customized email templates
  • Reviewer Forms
  • Custom blocks
  • PDF uploads

(g) Deletion of the existing database.

This step will wipe out all spam users. So take this as an opportunity to clean up unwanted users from the database. You can manually identify the spam users present in your system by SQL query. This query utilizes email domains fetched during the new user registration.

(h) Perform sandbox testing.

A sandbox is an isolated testing environment that enables users to run programs or open files without affecting the application, system, or platform on which they run. The upgrade task is very intensive, so it is better to be double-sure before going to the war zone.

(i) Evaluate, test, and troubleshoot your sandbox OJS 3 site

This is the right time to test the website involving all stakeholders (Journal Managers, Editors, and Section Editors) in a secure environment. Collect the feedback from the users and, if necessary, go back to the drawing board for changes. This is where you can test the workflow and train the stakeholders.

(j) Adjust your theme (If the custom theme is applied)

After the upgrade, it is most important to check the applied theme. Because the older version theme might not work correctly in the new OJS 3, I suggest checking for the OJS 3 themes to overcome this option.

Please click below to book an appointment for an OJS upgrade.

Upgrade your OJS >>
Open Journal System Upgrade
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What is a Free Open Journal System (OJS) Upgrade?

What-is-OJS-Upgrade
What-is-OJS-Upgrade

Open Journal System (OJS) is an open-source software, developed by Public Knowledge Project (PKP). This journal management system gaining enormous popularity in the last 7-8 years. Many research scholars and renowned institutes throughout the world use this open-source software for accessing open-access journals. It would not be cliche to cite here that the Open Journal System is the home of more than 10000 open-access journals. 

So, by looking at its serving volume and popularity it is in the list of giant software systems like Dspace. Looking at this giant software architecture it definitely requires the addition of new features in form of upgrades.

This article will answer all your queries regarding the Open Journal System (OJS) upgrade, and throw light on the importance of upgrading the Open Journal System (OJS) version along with the upgrade procedure of Open Journal System (OJS). So, tighten your seat belt and have an exciting journey in the world of Open Journal System (OJS) upgrades.

So, What is Open Journal System (OJS) upgrade?

OJS Upgrade is a process of migrating from the older version to the latest version, to make the hosted websites function very well in the area of security, reliability, responsiveness, GUI, and communication.

The main focus of the upgrade procedure is always better security and reliability. Shortly, you can say that this is the exercise to keep the system up to date for upcoming challenges and demands.

Click below to book an appointment for an OJS upgrade.

Book an Appointment
Open Journal System (OJS) upgrade

Why upgrade is necessary for the Open Journal System (OJS)?

open journal system

As we know that software is a thing that cannot be delivered in one go. The software requires constant feedback from the possessors or relevant user communities. The upgrade is very important for any software system in order to keep on user engagement for a longer period.

For Security

OJS Security

The most important aspect of upgrading any software is security concerns. Security is the most talked about topic in recent eras as far as World Wide Web (WWW) is concerned.

As your software grows in terms of active user base it also grabs the attention of the dark web practitioners, known as crackers (unethical hackers). As discussed in the preamble of this article, OJS is gaining popularity as the research industry grows. It has more than 10000 active open-access journals. Many hosted journals involve financial transactions for publishing work. So the risk is very high if the system is not up to date. In order to make the system tough enough it required frequent care in analyzing the threats and effective protection against them.

For New Functionality

As time passes by the user of the system needs something extra from the existing system. Adding new features which were not there at the time of the earlier version release, requires frequent upgrades. Such upgrades increase the usability of the system at a very rapid pace.

For Website Performance

OJS Website Performance

As the number of users and data grows, it hinders the overall performance of the hosted journal websites. Nowadays, nobody like slow software which takes more than 5 seconds to load the pages. If your system keeps on underperforming in the area of response time, that might happen you will lose your user base. To make it responsive OJS keeps on upgrading its structure and tries to make it optimized.

For Efficient GUI

OJS Website GUI

As Open Journal System (OJS) is not software that is only developed for information technocrats, it has a larger user base from a nontechnical background as well, like the Field of Medicine, Field of Education, etc. Such nontechnical use needs a user-friendly and nonredundant Graphical User Interface, which makes their relevant task very easy. Such efficient GUI required rigorous efforts and frequent upgrades to the system based on user experience and feedback. 

For enhanced Compatibility

OJS Website Compatibility

Open Journal System (OJS) setup is server intensive job. Simply speaking, Open Journal System (OJS) needs to talk with the server environment frequently. The technology used on the server side keeps on upgrading very often. To match the steps with such a frequently upgrading server environment Open Journal System (OJS) itself requires to be up to date.

What care should be taken during the Open Journal System (OJS) upgrade?

OJS Upgrade Care

Upgrading Open Journal System (OJS) is not as easy as upgrading a WordPress website. This upgrade procedure just does not involve clicking a single “upgrade” button. It is an expert task and needs extra care before going for the step. There is a scope of marginal error that can ruin your hard work by corrupting structural files or publishing articles. To avoid any mishap, the below-listed area must be taken into account while upgrading. 

  • Complete backup of database and essential files.
  • Selection of correct timings, as it might take 1-2 days.
  • Making aware the users for not accepting any workflow during the upgrade.
  • Post-upgrade testing and troubleshooting.
  • Open Journal System (OJS) login must be disabled to avoid any ambiguity between the current instance and the upgraded one.
  • Installed plugins may lose compatibility with earlier versions. So better to check it after the upgrade.
  • Choose the web-based method to upgrade only if your database is less than 300 MB and you have access to CPanel. Otherwise, go for a command-based system.
  • Use staging servers for the process.

Generic Steps for Open Journal System (OJS) upgrade:

  • 1. Set Environment Variables
  • 2. Enter Maintenance Mode
  • 3. Create Backups
  • 4. Create a Sandbox
  • 5. Download the Release Package
  • 6. Check System Requirements
  • 7. Install Release Package
  • 8. Run the Upgrade
  • 9. Remove Maintenance Mode
  • 10. Test the Upgrade
  • 11. Restore Custom Plugins
  • 12. Cleanup Backup Files

Why do you need to upgrade OJS 2 to OJS 3?

Since the inception of OJS, PKP has released two major versions that are OJS 2.x and OJS 3.x. Currently, both versions are doing extremely well in terms of managing scholarly research work publications throughout the world.

As you know, current circumstances demand constant upgrades and novelty in each thing. So that OJS is not the exception over here. The developer of OJS, known as the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) keeps on pushing the boundaries of OJS to meet the user’s demands. 

In continuation, I would say PKP is pouring the new features and functionalities in OJS in form of frequent upgrades. As a result in recent times (the year 2022), the new version, OJS 3.x has been released with great features and enhanced security functions. So, to take the advantage of the new add-ons everyone must need to upgrade from the older version to the latest.

Upgrade OJS 3.X to OJS 3.3.0-13 >>

You might ask a question:

If OJS 2 is working perfectly fine, then why should I move on to OJS 3? Your question is not at the wrong place, as a counterargument, I would like to add that, OJS 2 is lacking in many areas such as look and feel, security, and functionality. 

Time Change

If you do not migrate to the latest version, you will not be able to enjoy the extra benefits from the latest offerings of OJS 3. For better clarity please refer subsequent section that describes the additional features and benefits provided by OJS 3.

What are the features provided by OJS version 3 and 3.2.x compared to OJS 2.x?

  • Existing OJS users are more comfortable with OJS 3.
  • OJS management feature
  • Flexible editorial workflow
  • Author Plugins also recommend this upgrade.
  • Support a “draft” option for reviews.
  • Easy compatibility with third-party plugins.
  • New default themes
  • Statistics reports
  • More responsive in terms of page loading speed and mobile-friendly.
  • Author records can be deleted very easily by submission deletion.
  • Multilingual author name support
  • Support for thematic collections or categories of articles
  • Submissions from removed journals can be counted.

Important: Things to consider before upgrading OJS 2 to OJS 3 :

  • The OJS 2 Theme or the design template you used before, may no longer support the latest OJS version
  • Some plugins no longer support OJS 3, including Books for Review and Dataverse Please note that for you to take an inventory of your useful and frequently used plugins and features, you should check and trace details regarding their availability for newer OJS versions before you decide to upgrade.
  • Some data is not included as a result of the OJS upgrade. We have listed the exclusion of data that be found.
  • The pop-up that shows the detail of each editorial team won’t be supported. The solution for this issue is to create a custom static page or custom design for each of the Editorial members including their affiliation.

Conclusion

To summarize, I would say that an OJS upgrade is a very necessary thing to do if you want your hosted journal more secure, efficient, responsive, and reliable. However, this process is not an easy task for a normal human being. It requires expert knowledge. So, I would suggest you to higher an expert agency for the said purpose.

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How to Get Free Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Get Fee DOI

Step-by-Step Guide: Free DOI

If you are reading this blog, I assume you feel pain for paying a reasonable amount for the DOI (Digital Object Identifier). So, I am giving a surety that you will eventually get relief after going through below mentioned steps.

Before moving on to the steps for getting free DOI, I would like to introduce the involved stack holders in this process, which are stated below with a corresponding brief introduction. If you know about the below-mentioned, you can directly jump onto the steps.

Involved Stakeholders:

What is Crossref?

Crossref is an official DOI Registration Agency of the International DOI Foundation. This is the conventional place for having the DOI facility. Anyone who wants DOI needs to be a member of the crossref with annual membership charges of $ 250 USD and $ 1 USD to $ 2 USD per DOI. for many publishers or individuals; these charges may be a reason for not having DOI. But the below three can provide DOI facilities for free. Let’s go through them.

ZENODO Free DOI

What is ZENODO?

It is an open repository managed under OpenAIRE, created by CERN. It allows researchers to store scholarly articles and other documents in digital format. ZENODO allocates a unique DOI to each digital document, which can easily be accessed on WWW for a perpetual duration. And the good part about all this is that you have to be a member and will not have to pay a single buck for DOI.

What is OpenAIRE?

It is a European project supporting the Open Science movement. It is a technical infrastructure that gathers research findings from connected data providers. It aims to institute an open and sustainable scholarly communication infrastructure. This infrastructure is capable of overall management, analysis, manipulation, delivery, monitoring, and uniting all research materials. CERN operates it.

What is CERN Data Center?

CERN is actually an acronym of Conseil EuropĂ©en pour la Recherche NuclĂ©aire. In English, it is known as  European Organization for Nuclear Research. At CERN, physicists and engineers are probing the universe’s fundamental structure. For this purpose, they have gigantic servers with huge computing power. They have a huge computing infrastructure as a whole. They do this by providing researchers with a unique range of particle accelerator facilities to advance the boundaries of human knowledge. CERN provides storage support to ZENODO for DOI.

Steps for Free DOI:

Step-1

Type www.zenodo.org in the URL bar of the web browsers. You will have a webpage, as shown in the screenshot. If you have already created the account, click the “Log in” button; otherwise, click on the “Sign up” button.

Sign up
Free DOI Step-1

Step-2

Now, you will have a sign-up page, as shown in the screenshot below. You can signup using Github or ORCHID account. Else you can sign up using your normal email id. I will signup using my email id.

Sign up page
Free DOI Step-2

Step-3

An email verification link will be sent to your email id, which you entered during signup in step 2. Please find the email from zendo, and click on the link “confirm my account.” Now, you are registered in zendo.

Step-4

After email verification, you will be automatically login into the zendo. If this is not working, try to log in again.

Step-5

Click on the “Upload” tab on the topmost navigation bar.

Upload
Free DOI Step-5

Step-6

Click on the “New Upload” button.

New Upload
Free DOI Step-6

Step-7

Click on the “Choose File.” The browsing window will be opened. Please choose you desired file for which you want to create DOI. 

Choose File
Free DOI Step-7

Step-8

After selecting the file, click on “Start Upload.” Watch out for successful upload under the progress column. Then proceed with the required data insertion steps below (Step 9 onwards).

Start Upload
Free DOI Step-8

Step-9

Select “upload type” of the uploaded document file in step 7. In our example, we have publication. For research articles, select the “Publication” radio button and “Journal Article” from the dropdown box.

upload type
Free DOI Step-9

Step-10

Fill in “Basic Information” relevant to the uploaded file. Like, as publication date, document title, author information, and description. I would suggest filling only mandatory fields for a faster process.

Basic Information
Free DOI Step-10

Step-11

Fill “License” detail. This is for setting the access rights of the uploaded document. Do you want your article to be open-accessed or not?

License
Free DOI Step-11

Step-12

After inserting the concerned information, click on “save.” In this step, you can also delete the inserted detail by clicking on the left side “Delete(Red Colored background)” button. To move ahead, click on the “Publish” button.

How to Get Free Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 12
Free DOI Step-12

Step-13

A warning message will appear after clicking on the “Publish” button in step 12, as shown below screenshot. Read that text very carefully. If you agree with that text, click “I understand.”

Publish
Free DOI Step-13

Step-14

Congratulation!!!! Now you are at the last stage. You can now see the DOI and the uploaded article preview in the right-hand corner.

Congratulation
Free DOI Step-14

Step-15

Now click on DOI generated in the previous sep-14. A window containing “DOI Badge” will pop up. Your DOI information is here for your record. For the final check, please see below step-16

DOI Badge
Free DOI Step-15

Step-16

How to check generated DOI is working or not?

Now to check, copy the DOI generated in the previous step. Paste it in a new browser tab. Write “doi.org/” at the beginning of the pasted DOI “10.5281/zenodo.7498555”.

Your full DOI is “doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7498555”

For a better understanding, see below:

How to Get Free Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 13
Free DOI Step-16

The above steps will generate the DOI with the zenodo keyword in each generated DOI. To avoid this problem, Click below

Get DOI >>
Get DOI

Conclusion

I would say DOI is essential to the research article’s life cycle. DOI is necessary to locate any document in WWW. However, DOI is not free, but with the help of CERN, ZENODO, and openAIRE, it is possible to have DOI for free. If you follow the above 16 steps, eventually, you will have free DOI for your digital object.

Categories
Uncategorized

What are Free Open Preprint Systems (OPS)?

What is open preprint journal?

To begin with the basic idea, I would say, Open Preprint Systems (OPS) and Open Journal Systems (OJS) are kind of free or you can say open-source software. This software is developed and managed by PKP ( Public Knowledge Project). PKP is a project of various universities spread across the world to provide open-source software to the world research community, and to bring scholarly publishing under one umbrella as far as the World Wide Web is concerned. This software primarily aims at digitization of research work to make it more accessible easily and without any subscription. 

Open Preprint Systems

PKP not only has Open Preprint Systems and Open Journal System, but it also provides software like Open Monograph Press (OMP) and OHS (Open Harvester Systems). In this section, we will only talk about Open Preprint Systems. 

What is Open Preprint Systems (OPS)?

What are Free Open Preprint Systems (OPS)? 14
https://demo.publicknowledgeproject.org/ops/demo/index.php/publicknowledge/preprint/view/33

It is a very robust open-source platform, which primary task is to avail the functionality by which preprint management of research papers can become hassle-free. This software has a very good capability to manage research papers that are not published.

For providing the above-discussed functionalities Open Preprint Systems uses the same software architecture just as Open Journal System (OJS). Open Preprint Systems manages the servers which hold the preprint of research papers, that are accessible online by the general population.

What is a preprint?

What is a preprint?

It is nothing but one kind of research paper in its draft form not in the final published version. Many times it happens that researchers want their novel ideas put in front of the world before it gets finalized. A research paper is a thing that cannot be finished in one go, it requires a lot of editing and a rigorous back & forth correction process. 

  • During its implementation part, a single research paper generates many versions, which are called preprints. 
  • A research paper that is accepted by editors but not published is also called a preprint.  
  • A research paper that is sent back to the writer for correction by the editors, is also called a preprint. 

Which are the functionalities provided by Open Preprint Systems (OPS)?

Functionalities and Capacities
  • Responsive reader front-end with multiple options for content organization
  • Author-led rapid publication workflow
  • Online submission and management of all content
  • Customizable to suit your screening policies, with several options included
  • Integrated with scholarly publishing services such as Crossref and ORCiD
  • Locally installed and controlled
  • Community-led and supported
  • Built-in support for a wide array of features from the OJS and OMP ecosystem
  • Available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with more languages to come

How do Open Preprint Systems (OPS) differ from Open Journal Systems (OJS)?

OPS vs OJS

As far as the birth of these two software systems is concerned, they share the common goal of “Management of Scholarly Research Work & Publishing them online”. The way in which they operate to manage the resources makes them different from each other.

pkp
https://pkp.sfu.ca/

Both software originated from a common platform run by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), which is known for its non-profit nature and availing subscription-less, customizable various research-oriented software management systems. User can decorate their websites made by such platforms very easily and of course free of cost. This software holds the GNU General Public License (GPL v3) 

The primary goal of PKP is to initiate the OPS to make preprint management very easy for people who do not have a technical background. It has a very simple and self-explanatory workflow.

On the other hand, The main focus of OJS is to grab the attention of the research community, spread across the world. It provides services to individuals as well as the institute to host an open-access journal with a simplified editorial workflow. As more than 10000 open-access journals already have been hosted using OJS, it is very popular amongst the research community. 

What are Free Open Preprint Systems (OPS)? 15
https://sauraj.in/index.php/SAURAJ

We have a dedicated expert team for OPS (Open Preprint System) services. To make preprint management tasks easy, click below to schedule a meeting.

Get OPS Service >>
OPS

Conclusion

OPS is basically an open-source software, that is free for anyone to use with preprint handling. It is developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). Where the software is free to download or modify. Both software is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL v3). It is the one-stop solution for managing complex preprints.