OJS for EveryoneThe Practical GuidebookRSYN Research LLP

Journal Standards & Compliance

Running a credible, discoverable academic journal requires meeting a set of internationally recognised standards. This page explains each standard, why it matters, and how OJS supports it.

ISSN — International Standard Serial Number

The ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is the fundamental identifier for a serial publication. Every journal should have both:

Print ISSN — for the physical version (even if print-only distribution is minimal)
Electronic ISSN (eISSN) — for the online version

Why it matters:

Required for DOAJ, CrossRef membership, and most indexing services.
Essential for libraries to catalogue your journal.
Without an ISSN, your journal cannot be formally identified in the scholarly record.

How to obtain:

Identify your national ISSN centre at issn.org/services/requesting-an-issn.
Submit an application with journal title, URL, and a sample content page.
Registration is free in most countries and takes 2–4 weeks.

In OJS: Enter ISSNs under Settings → Journal → Masthead.

DOI — Digital Object Identifier

See the dedicated DOI Reference page for complete coverage. In brief:

Assign CrossRef DOIs to all articles and issues.
Configure the DOI Plugin in OJS.
DOIs are required for many indexing services and funder compliance.

COUNTER — Standardised Usage Statistics

COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) defines international standards for measuring and reporting online usage of electronic resources.

OJS 3.5+ has built-in COUNTER 5-compliant statistics. Key reports:

Report	Measures
TR (Title Report)	Views and downloads per journal
DR (Database Report)	Usage across an entire platform
IR (Item Report)	Views and downloads per article

Why it matters:

Libraries use COUNTER data to evaluate journal subscriptions.
Funders and institutions use COUNTER reports to assess research impact.
DOAJ and other indexes sometimes require COUNTER compliance.

In OJS: Enable the Usage Statistics Plugin under Settings → Website → Plugins. Configure in plugin settings.

Open Access Standards

Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI)

The BOAI definition of open access requires that articles be freely available online, with no financial, legal, or technical barriers to access and reuse.

OJS supports open access publishing natively — articles can be freely available to readers with no paywall.

Creative Commons Licensing

For open access journals, choose a Creative Commons licence:

Licence	Allows	Restricts
CC BY	Any reuse with attribution	Nothing
CC BY-SA	Reuse with attribution; derivatives must use the same licence	Commercial use without share-alike
CC BY-NC	Non-commercial reuse with attribution	Commercial use
CC BY-NC-SA	Non-commercial reuse; derivatives share-alike	Commercial use
CC BY-ND	Distribution with attribution; no derivatives	Modifications

In OJS, set the journal's default licence under Settings → Distribution → Licence.

DOAJ — Directory of Open Access Journals

The DOAJ is the authoritative index of quality open access journals. DOAJ listing signals credibility and dramatically improves discoverability.

Basic DOAJ requirements:

Journal must be fully open access (no paywall on current content)
Must have an ISSN
Must have a defined peer review policy
Must have an editorial board with verifiable members
Must publish content at least annually

DOAJ seal (enhanced badge) additionally requires:

CrossRef DOI on every article
CC BY, CC BY-SA, or CC BY-ND licence
Deposit with a long-term preservation service
ORCID integration for authors

Apply at doaj.org/apply. In OJS, use the DOAJ Export Plugin to submit article metadata.

COPE — Committee on Publication Ethics

COPE provides guidelines and flowcharts for handling ethical issues in academic publishing: plagiarism, authorship disputes, data fabrication, conflicts of interest, and more.

Standards for OJS journals:

Publish a clear peer review policy.
Publish an editorial policy and conflict of interest statement.
Have a documented process for handling complaints and corrections.
Follow COPE guidelines when ethics concerns arise.

COPE membership is available to journals and publishers. Being a COPE member signals a commitment to publication ethics.

ORCID — Open Researcher and Contributor ID

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier for researchers. An ORCID iD distinguishes researchers with the same name and connects an author's work across journals, institutions, and time.

In OJS:

Enable the ORCID Profile Plugin under Settings → Website → Plugins.
Authors can connect their ORCID iD during submission or from their profile.
Verified ORCID iDs appear on article pages and in CrossRef metadata.

ORCID integration is required for DOAJ Seal compliance and is increasingly expected by funders (e.g., Wellcome Trust, NIH).

JATS XML — Journal Article Tag Suite

JATS is the XML standard for encoding journal article content. JATS XML enables:

Structured metadata for machine-readable article processing
Deposit to PubMed Central (PMC) — required for many health science journals
Rich indexing in CrossRef and other databases
Accessibility: screen readers can process structured JATS content

In OJS: Produce JATS XML galleys using tools such as Pandoc or the Texture editor. OAI-PMH metadata from OJS uses JATS-aligned formats.

Google Scholar Indexing Requirements

Google Scholar auto-crawls OJS journals and indexes article metadata from HTML <meta> tags.

Requirements for Scholar indexing:

Enable the Google Scholar Plugin in OJS (adds required meta tags to article pages).
Ensure robots.txt does not block Googlebot.
Provide complete metadata: title, authors, publication date, abstract.
Publish HTML versions of articles or at least well-tagged PDF landing pages.

See the ASEO Guide for full details on academic search engine optimisation.

PKP Journal Quality Guidelines

PKP publishes guidance on what constitutes a high-quality OJS journal:

Clear scope, aims, and peer review policy
Identified editorial board with institutional affiliations
Consistent publication schedule
No predatory practices (no payment for publication without transparent APCs)
Transparent ownership and funding

Review the PKP Documentation Hub for the latest quality guidance.

Standards Checklist for New Journals

Use this checklist when launching a new journal:

ISSN — International Standard Serial Number​

DOI — Digital Object Identifier​

COUNTER — Standardised Usage Statistics​

Open Access Standards​

Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI)​

Creative Commons Licensing​

DOAJ — Directory of Open Access Journals​

COPE — Committee on Publication Ethics​

ORCID — Open Researcher and Contributor ID​

JATS XML — Journal Article Tag Suite​

Google Scholar Indexing Requirements​

PKP Journal Quality Guidelines​

Standards Checklist for New Journals​

Further Reading​