Libraries

Resources for Editors of Scholarly Journals: Using Open Journal Systems (OJS), version 2.x

Digital Publishing Services at the University of Kansas Libraries have created this guide to assist those thinking of starting a new journal or working with an existing journal. Contact Marianne Reed (mreed@ku.edu) if you have any questions.

OJS and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP)

NOTE:  These materials were written for a legacy version of OJS (2.x) that is no longer supported.   If you are interested in learning about a more recent version of OJS, please see the information on the Using Open Journal Systems (OJS), version 3.3 page in this guide.

Open Journal Systems (OJS) is an open-source journal management system that is used by many institutions.   It was developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), "a multi-university initiative developing (free) open source software and conducting research to improve the quality and reach of scholarly publishing."  PKP has developed instructional materials to support those who use OJS to publish their journals.

If you're a new user to OJS, we suggest you start with the following resources from PKP:

  • For those that want to learn in more depth, PKP has created PKP School; online, self-paced courses to help teach basic OJS concepts and skills to different audiences.  The course for each audience is divided into a series of modules that allow users to skip to the topic with which they need help or to thoroughly cover all topics.
  • PKP has created an OJS installation that will allow editors to experiment with OJS workflows without having to install the software.  The login for the administrator account is “admin” and the password is “testdrive”. The testdrive installations are purged of data on a nightly basis and are intended for short-term evaluations of the software.

OJS for Journal Managers (PKP School on YouTube)

NOTE:  These materials were written for a legacy version of OJS (2.x) that is no longer supported.   If you are interested in learning about a more recent version of OJS, please see the information on the Using Open Journal Systems (OJS), version 3.3 page in this guide.

 

For those that prefer to learn how to use OJS from short YouTube videos, PKP School is also available through the PublicKnowledgeProject channel. Here is the listing of PKPSchool videos for Journal Managers. 

OJS for Journal Managers

OJS for Authors and Reviewers (PKP on YouTube)

NOTE:  These materials were written for a legacy version of OJS (2.x) that is no longer supported.   If you are interested in learning about a more recent version of OJS, please see the information on the Using Open Journal Systems (OJS), version 3.3 page in this guide.

 

OJS Journal editors and managers may wish to make available to authors and reviewers links to these YouTube videos from the PublicKnowledgeProject channel:

Information for Authors:

Information for Reviewers: