Open Journal Systems (OJS) at CSUDH

There are some broad areas that journal managers need to think about, but it's attention to the details that will make setting up and running your journal an easier process.

• The lists and worksheet below give you an idea of what questions you need to answer.
• Following best practices ensures that your journal meets the highest standards; this is a must if you want your journal to be included in indexing and abstracting services.
• The resources and tips provide further examples and help.

Student Journals

Student journals operate along the same guidelines as other journals, but with a few extra planning points.

• Journals must have at least one CSUDH faculty or staff advisor.
• Journals must include a plan for continuity, i.e., staff transitions.

The Digital Initiatives Librarian will schedule an annual meeting with student journal manager/editors to ensure that training needs are being met.

• Creating a New OJS Journal: Decisions. Use this checklist/worksheet to help you think about some of the major areas involved with journal publishing and make decisions about your journal. Areas include:
  • The journal: decisions about policy/content, production, and design
  • The workflow: first decide on an overall workflow; then decide which tasks will be accomplished within OJS
  • The people: decisions affecting journal staff (editorial board, managing editor, etc.) as well as other stakeholders (authors, reviewers)
  • Sustainability: how will you keep a steady flow of content and people

• Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. This guide is the result of a collaborative effort among the Committee on Publication Ethics, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, and the World Association of Medical Editors.
• Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. (March 2011).

Journal Management

• Academic Journal Management Best Practices: Tales from the Trenches. Suggestions and tips from editors; available as a free download from Scholastica. (Registration required.)
• PKP School's Becoming an Editor module provides a broad overview of the responsibilities and duties of an editor of a scholarly journal. This short course is especially useful for new student editors. 

Editorial Board

• This web page from Stockholm University Press provides information about the editorial board, as well as an explanation of the role of the editor and the editorial team.
• PKP School's Becoming An Editor module includes the unit Making the Most of Your Editorial Board that describes the responsibilities and duties that board members might fulfill.

Style Guide

• Conscious Style Guide is a web resource to promote critical thinking about language and its use. In addition to formatting and grammatical considerations, appropriate and sensitive identification and language decisions are important factors.

Submission

• Author guidelines are helpful both to authors and to the journal. Well written detailed guidelines help authors determine whether your journal is the best fit for their article and ensure that basic content and formatting are in place. Check author guidelines for open access journals and journals in your subject area for ideas.
• A checklist will help authors ensure that requirements are met and the article is ready to be submitted.
• Consider including in the author guidelines/checklist a request that the author be mindful of standard guidelines for optimizing their article so it can be easily found. Here's a brief explanation and some tips from Sage.

Review

• Types of Review. Information about different kinds of reviews and different kinds of peer review from McGill Library.
• COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. COPE Council. Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers. September 2017. www.publicationethics.org
• Best Practices for Peer Review. AAUP handbook. (2016). Written for monographic review, but most aspects apply to article review as well.
• Fitzpatrick, K. (2009). Peer-to-Peer Review and the Future of Scholarly Authority. Cinema Journal, 48(2), 124-129. This article argues that online scholarship necessitates a transformation in the way we conceive of and conduct peer review.

Layout

One way to make the layout process easier is to use a template. This provides consistent formatting (especially when several staff are doing layout) and ensures that boilerplate content you need (e.g., journal information, ISSN, DOI) is included. Check the PDFs of articles from journals in your subject area for ideas. Here are two basic templates for inspiration or adaptation. [Template 1; Template 2]