Managing journals: challenges and opportunities

How to get started (with OJS)

Jackie Proven

• Why and how did we get started?• What did we have to think about and what

have we learnt?• How would a hosting service work for you?• How does OJS help?

University of St Andrews journal hosting service http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/library/services/other/journalhosting/

Journal hosting service – the early years

Journal hosting service – pre-history

Pilot journal and its subsequent development

Hugely valuable learning experience – ‘soft’ issues

more important than ‘technical’ issues

Journal hosting service – the practicalities

• Technical support from IT Services Free, open source software, easy to install× What about upgrades and development?

• User support from the Library Thorough knowledge of OJS easily gained through good

documentation and strong user community Library happy to act as electronic distributor× TIME required! Support needs vary greatly. Is it a core service?

• Publishing and management devolved to Schools The journal is responsible for all content, polices and processes× The journal is responsible for all content, polices and processes

• Additional services ? Repository for preservation; open access advocacy; advice for

metadata, harvesting, indexing, reading tools etc…

Journal hosting Journal management Editor(s)

Technical support Set up functionality Define policies

OJS user training Configure templates Manage review process

Advice on copyright Customise look and feel Track submissions

Support for access and preservation

Register users and assign roles

Create and publish issues

Open Access advocacy Administration Create author guidelines

Library (with IT services)

Library / School School + Editorial board

Journal hosting service – our model

• Preparing for setting up a journal…• What resources do you have in your team?• Is there existing content, can it be made OA?• How often will you publish?• Have you defined journal’s scope, editorial

policies, author guidelines?• How will copyright and licences be handled?• Will you have multiple sections, different

formats, supplementary material?

Setting up the journal: iterative process

• OJS steps you through the process with tips and recommendations

Setting up the journal: iterative process

OJS prompts you to think about your journal policies and how to communicate them effectively

Setting up the journal: iterative process

• Framework of the hosting setup process encourages additional dialogue

Setting up the journal: iterative process

• The most common queries– Are there any costs?– How can I customise the look of the journal?– How do I upload content?

• The less common queries– How do we manage copyright?– How do we let authors and readers know what

our journal policies are?– How will readers find our journal?

Setting up the journal: iterative process

• Relevance of open access to underlying mission, e.g.– Knowledge sharing / visibility / impact / benefit to global economy / educational

• Fully open access (standard for inclusion in DOAJ ) – freely available on the internet, allowing users to "read, download, copy,

distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles…" – Creative Commons licences support full OA and proper attribution

• Partial or delayed open access possible with OJS– Requires configurations

• Think creatively about Open Access models– Could you support your journal through institutional subsidy; sponsorship;

advertising; charging for print copies; fundraising; membership?– Is it appropriate to charge submission / publication fees?

Running the journal – Open Access

• General principles– Be explicit about responsibilities, embed in Author Guidelines– Consider your own use of copyright material, eg Cover images

• Copyright agreements and statements– Your publishing agreement with authors– Transfer of copyright v Licence to publish– Responsibility for 3rd party copyright– Making author rights explicit in any licence or policy statement

• Copyright and reuse– Creative Commons licences supporting full Open Access– Making readers reuse rights explicit on your website

• We can help, other Editors can help, OJS can help!

Running the journal – Copyright

• Submissions – offline or through the system?• Peer-review processes – how rigorous?• Editing – offline or through the system? • Editorial team – how will you manage people?• Publication - can you keep to a schedule?• Publishing – would a “Quick Submit” option be for you?• Formats – Are PDFs searchable? Are PDFs enough?

• OJS can help! – You choose how much functionality you want to use.

Running the journal – Processes

Running the journal – your readers

• Promoting the journal– Marketing and publicity– Web links, social media – Subject liaison, academic contacts

• Making the journal content ‘discoverable’– Cataloguing - ISSN– Searching - Metadata and keywords– Indexing – subject specific, DOAJ– Deposit in repositories– DOIs

Running the journal – your readers

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec YTD Total Journal of Terrorism Research* 11258 11921 16255 13683 15645 13050 13009 11080 10697 10444 127,042

Theology in Scotland 1055 1076 1778 1676 1248 1825 2370 1860 1037 966 14,891

Ethnographic Encounters 583 370 532 687 648 401 611 404 538 379 5,153

North Street Review 331 302 385 373 233 323 616 348 175 212 3,298

Journal of Sustainability 168 109 152 117 138 177 185 131 139 93 1,409

Aporia 45 37 67 95 86 51 116 74 36 41 648

Proceedings of AMPAL 2013 113 140 161 124 172 100 190 100 47 46 1,193

Syria Studies 35 280 128 152 93 296 168 126 72 66 1,416

Yearbook in Cosmopolitan Studies (launched Oct 2014) - - - - - - - - - 69 69

[*JTR has HTML versions as well as PDFs]

Monthly article downloads 2014

Journal hosting service – where are we now

Aporia

Convocamus

Ethnographic Encounters

Journal of Sustainability

Journal of Terrorism Research

North Street Review

Proceedings of AMPAL 2013

Syria Studies

Theology in Scotland

Yearbook in Cosmopolitan Studies

http://ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/

Journal hosting service – coming soon

Journal hosting service – what next

New features Clearer setup tips

Journal hosting service(s) – we are not alone

Journal hosting service(s) – we are not alone

• Aporia • Convocamus (launching soon)• Ethnographic Encounters • Journal of Sustainability • Journal of Terrorism Research • North Street Review • Proceedings of AMPAL 2013 • Syria Studies• Theology in Scotland • Yearbook in Cosmopolitan Studies (launched Oct 2014)

Hosted journals