Difference between revisions of "Getting Started With OJS"

Revision as of 10:32, 13 August 2014

Introduction to Open Journal Systems (OJS)

What is OJS?

“Is a journal management and publishing system that has been developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) through its federally funded efforts to expand and improve access to research” (http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/).

OJS assists the user with each step of the refereed publishing process. OJS supports each step of the submission, review, editing, formatting, publication, and indexing processes. Furthermore, OJS is an open source software made freely available to journals and currently supports over thirty languages. OJS offers journals the option of considering online open access publishing, but also supports subscription-based or partial-subscription publication models.

What is PKP?

“PKP is a multi-university initiative developing (free) open source software and conducting research to improve the quality and reach of scholarly publishing” (http://pkp.sfu.ca/).

PKP has two institutional anchors, Stanford University and Simon Fraser University Library, and four major development partners, California Digital Library, Ontario Council of University Libraries, University of British Columbia Libraries, and University of Pittsburgh Libraries.

In addition to Open Journal Systems, PKP projects include: Open Conference Systems, Open Monograph Press, and Open Harvester Systems.

For a quick video introduction to OJS and PKP, check this video from PKP’s “OJS for Journal Managers” course: Introduction to PKP and OJS.

OJS at Northeastern University?

Open Journal System is an open source journal publishing system supported by Northeastern University Libraries. With Open Journal System, users can manage many aspects of the serial publishing workflow, including managing submissions, editing and indexing content, maintaining subscriptions, among others.

Northeastern Libraries’ instance of Open Journal System is still in the development phase. If you would like more information about an anticipated start date, please contact us by filling out the form located here.

Resource List

There are quite a few resources that can guide a user through the various steps of using and managing an OJS installation. A more comprehensive list is in development, but these resources will be invaluable to users interested in using OJS.

User Roles in OJS

“OJS uses a comprehensive roles system to divide work between users, assign workflows, and limit access to different parts of the system” (Roles in OJS). Users of OJS can be assigned multiple roles within the same journal or assigned different roles for multiple journals within the same installation. Please note that for many journals Editors or Section Editors often fill the roles of Copyeditors, Layout Editors, and/or Proofreaders depending on the individual journal’s task assignment and policies directing workflow.

On this page, we will provide a brief description of the responsibilities and capabilities of the various user roles. For a more detailed description of the user roles in OJS please consult the OJS User Guide. Wherever available, links will be provided to the appropriate chapters in the User Guide for a given user role.

Journal Manager

The Journal Manager is responsible for setting up the journal website, configuring system options, and managing user accounts. The Journal Manager also assigns roles to users, can create new journal sections, edit review forms and default emails, manage Reading Tools, configure and activate OJS plugins, and view Statistics and Reports for the journal. For more information on the Journal Manager, please consult Chapter 4: Journal Management.

Editor

The Editor is responsible for overseeing the entire submission, review, editing, and publishing process. Working with the Journal Manager, the Editor often establishes the policies and procedures for the journal. The Editor often assigns new submissions to a Section Editor, who oversees the review process and editing (copyediting, layout editing, and proofreading). The Editor also creates the journal issues, schedules submissions for publication, arranges the Table of Contents, and publishes the issue. For more information on the Editor, please consult Chapter 6: Editors.

Section Editor

The Section Editor oversees the review and editing process for submissions that are assigned to them by the Editor. Depending on your journal’s task assignment, Section Editors might also assume the roles of Copyeditor, Layout Editor, and/or Proofreader. For more information on the Section Editor, please consult Chapter 7: Section Editors.

Copyeditor

The Copyeditor edits submissions to improve grammar and clarity, works with authors to ensure everything is in place, ensures strict adherence to the journal's bibliographic and textual style, and produces a clean, edited copy for the Layout Editor to turn into the galleys that will be in the published format of the journal. For more information on the Copyeditor, please consult Chapter 9: Copyeditors.

Layout Editor

The Layout Editor transforms the copyedited versions of submissions into galleys in HTML, PDF, PS, etc. -- files which the journal has elected to use for electronic publication. Please note that OJS does not have an internal mechanism for document conversion, so the Layout Editor must have access to and be able to use a third-party software for document conversion and styling. For more information on the Layout Editor, please consult Chapter 10: Layout Editors.

Proofreader

The Proofreaders carefully reads through the galley file, produced by the Layout Editor, noting typographical and formatting errors for the Layout Editor to correct before publication. For more information on the Proofreader, please consult Chapter 11: Proofreaders.

Author

Authors submit their work to the journal directly through the journals website. Authors upload their submission file, provide metadata and/or indexing information, and can upload supplementary files to accompany their submission. By logging in to the journal website, Authors can track their submission through and participate in the review and editorial process. For more information on the Author, please consult Chapter 5: Authors.

Reviewer

The Reviewer is selected by the Section Editor to review a submission. Reviewers are asked to submit reviews to the journal's web site and are able to upload attachments for the use of the Editor and Author. For more information on the Reviewer, please consult Chapter 8: Reviewers.

Reader

The Reader role is the simplest role in OJS, and has the fewest capabilities. Readers include both subscribers for journals for which access is subscription-based, and readers who choose to register for open access journals. Registered Readers receive a notification email with the publication of each issue, which includes the Table of Contents for that particular issue. For more information on the Reader, please consult Chapter 12: Readers.

Subscription Manager

The Subscription Manager manages the journal's subscriptions and subscription types, and can also configure where and how payments are handled within the system. This role is only available when a journal has activated subscriptions in OJS. For more information on subscriptions, please consult section 2.12 of the OJS User Guide: Subscriptions.

Editorial and Publishing Workflow in OJS

PKP has produced a very helpful chart detailing the Editorial Workflow in OJS. For more information about the workflow consult the OJS User Guide.

Creating and Setting Up Your Journal

Creating a New Journal

Creating a new journal in OJS is a fairly simple process but only the Site Administrator has permission to do so. If you are interested in creating a new journal but are not the Site Administrator, please contact them.

Log-in to your OJS installation as Site Administrator. Then click “User Home” in the navigation bar. After that click the “Site Administrator” link.
From the Site Administrator page, click “Hosted Journals” under the heading “Site Management.”
Clicking “Hosted Journals” will direct you to a list of all the Journals already created for your OJS installation. To create a new journal, just click the “Create Journal” link:
You will then be prompted to fill out a few main fields in order to create this journal. The majority of the Journal setup will be the responsibility of the Journal Manager, not the Site Administrator, but to create the Journal one must fill out the “Journal Title,” “Journal Description,” “Path,” and choose whether or not the new journal will be publicly viewable. Only the “Journal Title” and “Path” are required.
Once you have filled the necessary fields, click “Save,” and the new Journal will be created with you (the Site Administrator) automatically enrolled as its the Journal Manager. From the Journal Manager role for this new journal, you can then enroll users into the new journal, assign appropriate user roles, and begin the Setup process.

@@ Line 78: / Line 78: @@
 # Once you have filled the necessary fields, click “Save,” and the new Journal will be created with you (the Site Administrator) automatically enrolled as its the Journal Manager. From the Journal Manager role for this new journal, you can then enroll users into the new journal, assign appropriate user roles, and begin the Setup process.
-* Setting Up Your Journal
+===Setting Up Your Journal===
-* Managing Users and Creating Accounts
+===Managing Users and Creating Accounts===
 ==Designing your Journal Site==