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OJS for EveryoneThe Practical GuidebookRSYN Research LLP

Software Features

Questions about OJS capabilities — what it supports out of the box, how flexible it is, and where its limits lie.

How do I know if OJS is right for us?​

OJS is a strong fit for academic and scholarly journals that need a complete, end-to-end platform covering submission intake, peer review, copyediting, production, and online publication. It is used by thousands of journals worldwide, from small society titles to large university press portfolios.

Key factors to consider:

  • Features: OJS covers the full editorial lifecycle, metadata management, indexing support, and reader-facing publication. Review the Learning OJS 3 guide to confirm it matches your workflow.
  • Community: A large user and developer community means bugs are found and fixed, and free support is available on the PKP Community Forum.
  • Technical resources: OJS requires server infrastructure and someone to maintain it. If that is a barrier, consider managed hosting (see Getting Started).

If your journal has highly unusual workflows or requires deep integration with proprietary systems, it is worth evaluating whether OJS's plugin architecture can accommodate those needs before committing.

Can I try OJS before installing?​

Yes. PKP operates a public demo environment where you can log in as different roles and explore the interface without installing anything. The demo reflects a recent stable release of OJS and covers all the major role perspectives — site administrator, journal manager, editor, reviewer, and author.

Visit the PKP OJS page and look for the Demo link. Keep in mind that the demo is periodically reset, so no changes you make are permanent.

tip

Walk through a complete submission cycle in the demo — submit a test article, assign a reviewer, make a decision — before configuring your live journal. This builds familiarity quickly.

Where can I find examples of OJS journals?​

Thousands of active OJS journals are publicly discoverable:

Browsing real-world examples is a useful way to explore theme options, navigation structures, and how other journals handle policy pages and author guidelines.

Can I use OJS for submission workflow only, without publishing on it?​

Yes — some journals use OJS purely to manage the submission and review process, then publish the final article elsewhere (for example, on a separate institutional repository or a legacy website). OJS handles this gracefully: you can receive submissions, conduct peer review, and communicate decisions without ever publishing an issue.

However, you forfeit several benefits by doing so:

  • Discovery and indexing — OJS generates structured metadata and supports Google Scholar, OAI-PMH, and various indexing services automatically when you publish on the platform.
  • DOI integration — The Crossref and DataCite plugins work on published articles. Depositing DOIs requires items to be published in OJS.
  • Reader statistics — Usage statistics are only tracked for content hosted on OJS.

If you are migrating from another platform, running OJS in submission-only mode can be a useful transitional step.

Is OJS only for open access journals?​

No. OJS includes a full subscription module that supports:

  • Institutional subscriptions — Grant access by IP range to subscribing organisations.
  • Individual subscriptions — Per-user paid access with configurable duration.
  • Article Processing Charges (APCs) — Collected through the OJS payment module, with integration available for payment gateways.
  • Mixed or delayed open access — You can embargo content and open it after a set period.

That said, OJS was designed with open access values in mind, and many of its integrations (DOAJ, PKP PN preservation network, etc.) are most relevant to OA journals. Subscription management is functional but not as polished as dedicated publishing platforms built specifically for paid-access models.

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The subscription module is disabled by default. Enable it under Settings → Distribution → Access and configure subscription types before restricting article access.

Can I use OJS for newsletters or magazines?​

OJS can accommodate newsletters and magazines, though it is optimised for academic journals with discrete issues and peer-reviewed articles. For non-peer-reviewed content published on a rolling basis, the Quick Submit Plugin (available in the Plugin Gallery) lets editors bypass the full submission and review workflow and upload final content directly.

You can configure sections without peer review, disable reviewer assignments for specific section types, and use a continuous publishing model with a single rolling issue. OJS's metadata fields (abstract, keywords, DOI) are simply left optional where they are not relevant to your content type.

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For newsletters, consider whether an RSS/Atom feed (generated automatically by OJS) meets your subscriber notification needs before looking for an email distribution add-on.

Can I use OJS for conference proceedings?​

Yes. While PKP's dedicated Open Conference Systems (OCS) software was frozen in 2018 and is no longer actively developed, OJS can handle conference proceedings effectively.

A typical approach:

  1. Create a journal titled as your conference proceedings series.
  2. Use the Quick Submit Plugin to upload papers that have already been reviewed externally, or run a full review workflow within OJS.
  3. Publish each conference as a separate issue or volume.

OJS supports DOI registration, structured metadata, and PDF galley hosting — all the essentials for a citable proceedings record.

Does OJS support open peer review?​

Yes. OJS supports three standard peer-review models, configurable per section:

ModelDescription
Double-blindAuthor and reviewer identities are hidden from each other (default)
Single-blindReviewer identity is hidden from the author, but reviewer sees author details
Open reviewBoth parties can see each other's identities

You set the review policy under Settings → Workflow → Review. Each journal section can have its own review model, so a single journal can run double-blind for research articles and open review for commentaries, for example.

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OJS does not currently support publishing reviewer reports alongside articles (as some fully open review models require). This would need custom development or a plugin.

Can I use OJS with Crossref for DOIs?​

Yes. OJS includes a Crossref Export Plugin that handles DOI registration for articles, issues, and preprints. To use it:

  1. Join Crossref as a member organisation and obtain a depositor login.
  2. Enable the Crossref plugin under Settings → Website → Plugins.
  3. Configure your DOI prefix and depositor credentials in the plugin settings.
  4. Assign DOIs to articles and deposit them — either automatically on publication or manually in batches.

Crossref membership has an annual fee based on your organisation type. Academic institutions and non-profits typically qualify for lower rates. See Crossref membership options for details.

tip

Before enabling DOIs, decide on and document your DOI suffix pattern (e.g. 10.XXXXX/journalabbrev.v1i1.001). Changing the pattern after DOIs have been assigned and deposited is difficult and creates broken links.

Can I add Print on Demand to OJS?​

There is no built-in Print on Demand (PoD) feature in OJS. However, you can link to an external PoD service in a few ways:

  • Add a PoD order link in the issue description or article abstract page via a custom HTML block.
  • Use a custom theme plugin to add a "Print this issue" call-to-action in the issue table of contents template.
  • Reference PoD availability in your journal's About pages or in article galley notes.

Services like Lulu, IngramSpark, or a local print provider can generate print-ready PDFs from your existing galley files. There is no automated integration — the workflow would be manual.

Further Reading​