The Open Journal System or OJS, is the best open source management and publishing platform for today's scientific journals. OJS is a product developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). It has facilitated the world of research and knowledge with the best, covering all that it needs for a Journal to be published. For example, it streamlines the whole workflow, including editing, reviewing, authors' work, communicating with the readers, assistance, correspondence, etc. It is efficient in managing the tasks, but it is also cost-efficient. Furthermore, it allows each journal to have a unique OJS theme, face, and look. Furthermore, it facilitates correspondence among the teams playing different roles for the journal management. Here, we shall be discussing all the benefits of an open journal system in detail in the following.
Advantages of OJS
OJS was released in 2002 by PKP as part of its research and development at the University of British Columbia, and it continues to grow in collaboration with the Simon Fraser University Library and the Canadian Center for Studies. The amazing OJS development has provided the scientific world with the benefits mentioned below.
Flexibility
the system is very scalable and flexible in functioning. Clients may easily download the software and install it on their system. Once the installation is completed, OJS supports the operation of more than just one journal. Furthermore, it allows easy OJS theme customization for each journal's different and unique outlook accordingly. With the software, you can easily manage the journal workflow and the website with a single editor. It helps you coordinate efficiently with the team members in different world regions working on the same sections for a journal. Lastly, OJS 3. x has brought you a dynamic and flexible workflow with a customization option.
Cost- efficient
The most important of all the benefits of the open journal system is that it is efficient enough to cut down the journal publishing costs to the minimum. Furthermore, the journals based on OJS do not benefit from the subscriptions. Hence, it has allowed the researchers to openly access the excellent knowledge, making it a persuading option.
Journal's workflow
The unique features of OJS development are quite efficient in regulating various tasks lined up well before the production. For example, it takes care of all the submissions, single-blind and double-blind peer reviews, global distribution of the content, and the overall management of the journal articles.
Standardization
Owing to the proficient OJS, it also supports the JATS XML standardization, which opens the doors for your open journal to have higher readership rates and visibility with the JATS XML articles.
Interface
The benefits of open journal system also include a wide array of OJS theme customization. Moreover, if you get the best OJS services from a top-notch agency like Navicosoft, you won't have to do much to provide your readers with quality, responsive user interface. Besides, OJS offers multilingual support to its users as well.
Export tools
No research work validates without proper references; how could OJS work without facilitating the practice? Hence, it allows the readers to export the articles content to other databases or third-party agencies such as PubMed, DOAJ, CrossRef, and others.
Content discovery
While data mining for research purposes, even the best quality and reliability content won't make any difference if it is not discoverable. Therefore, OJS has also taken care of the issue because it is well-optimized for content discoverability across different search engines and offers comprehensive indexing of the journal.
Secure
Last but not least, of benefits of open journal system, OJS provides you with a secure ambience to archive the scholarly content and its stewardship.
The editorial workflow of OJS
The complete workflow of the system has always been a curiosity for such a targeted approach. With OJS, you can categorize the complete workflow into four different final stages explained as follows:
- Submission
- Review
- Copyediting
- Production
Theme customization
For such a great handy and one-click solution, we must know the OJS development deeper. Therefore, we shall be briefly looking into the options one may have regarding the overall look and theme of the journal that specifies it from all the other journals already available in the market. Studying the theme options in detail is important to leverage all the benefits of an open journal system and ensure the best user experience.
Default theme:
This straightforward layout implies a neutral color palette. It adopts the typography format from Google's Noto family. Furthermore, it can successfully integrate with the OMP 1.2+ and OJS 3.0+.
Classic theme
This theme is inspired by the amazing work of Renaissance printer Aldus Manutius which makes it the best choice for linguists, biblical scholars, classicists, and medievalists etc.
A classic theme is a well-suited option for the bigger screen with its block-based layout. Furthermore, it fits well with the other smaller screen gadgets as well. The classic theme uses yellow color as its primary. However, you may choose any other color of your choice for the theme.
Immersion theme
The theme is designed with a special need of aesthetics as its basic plan, which adds to the benefits of open journal system. Hence, it proves to be a perfect theme solution for art and culture-based journal. Furthermore, the theme weaves along the lines of a better and enhanced reading experience for the audience.
To ensure readability, the theme brings about bold designs with full-width images as header and aesthetic color choices for different sections of the journal. The typography belongs to the Serif family paired with the functionality of Roboto.
Manuscript
This is an OJS theme that focuses on benefitting and customizing the spaces in the layouts. Spaces play an important role in managing a reader's focus on the main content. The main inspiration of the theme is a typical paper document with no sidebars. However, having no sidebars is not your only choice, but you can customize it to your liking. Furthermore, you are also free to customize the color palette of the manuscript layout to your liking.
In short, OJS development has contributed a lot to the research world. Moreover, owing to the amazing theme customization options and benefits of open journal system, it has been very handy and cost-effective to manage various sections of journal publishing coherently. However, for a premium experience with OJS, you must join hands with a top-notch agency for a custom open journal system of your choice.
