| Developer(s) | Public Knowledge Project |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2.3.6 / June 30, 2011 |
| Preview release | 2.4 / git |
| Platform | PHP |
| Available in | English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, 30 more |
| Type | Open access journal |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | pkp.sfu.ca/ojs |
Open Journal Systems (OJS) is an open-source software for the management of peer-reviewer academic journals, created by the Public Knowledge Project, released under the GNU General Public License.
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OJS was designed to facilitate the development of open access, peer-reviewed publishing, providing the technical infrastructure not only for the online presentation of journal articles, but also an entire editorial management workflow, including article submission, multiple rounds of peer-review, and indexing. OJS relies upon individuals fulfilling different roles, such as the Journal manager, editor, reviewer, author, reader, etc.
The software has a 'plugin' architecture, similar to other community-based projects such as WordPress, allowing new features to be easily integrated without the need to change the entire core code base. Some of the plugins contributed to OJS include tools to facilitate indexing in Google Scholar and PubMed Central, a feed plugin providing RSS/Atom web syndication feeds, a COUNTER plugin,[1] allowing COUNTER statistics and reporting, and more. Open Journal Systems is also LOCKSS-compliant, helping to ensure permanent archiving for ongoing access to the content of the journal.
To improve reader's engagement, PKP has developed a series of Reading Tools,[2] which provide access to related studies, media stories, government policies, etc. in open access databases.
Originally released in 2001, OJS is currently in version 2.3.3. OJS is written in PHP, uses either a MySQL or PostgreSQL database, and can be hosted on a Unix-like or Windows web server.
A strong user community has developed around the software, with many active participants, and significant enhancements being contributed to the project from the Brazilian Institute for Information in Science and Technology (IBICT),[3] the Journal of Medical Internet Research, and others. A growing body of publications and documentation[4] is available on the project web site.
OJS has been translated into eight languages (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish), with an additional ten languages (Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Persian, Hindi, Japanese, Norwegian, Thai, Vietnamese) in development. All translations are created and maintained by the OJS user community.[5]
The Public Knowledge Project is also collaborating closely with the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to develop scholarly research portals in Africa,[6] Bangladesh,[7] Nepal,[8] and Vietnam.[9]
OJS, as well as the Erudit publishing system,[10] is being used in the Synergies project,[11] creating a scholarly portal for Canadian social sciences and humanities research. OJS is also being used for research portals in Brazil[12] and Catalonia,[13] Spain.
As of December 2010, OJS was being used by at least 7,500 journals worldwide.[14] A selected list of OJS journals is available on the PKP web site.
Other open source journal management systems include: