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OJS for EveryoneThe Practical GuidebookRSYN Research LLP

Comprehensive OJS Training — 4 Hours

Training Duration: 4 Hours
Training Method: Online (via Zoom)
Level: All levels — self-contained; no prior OJS experience required

Who Should Attend​

This flagship course is designed for:

  • Journal editors, administrators, and academic publishing professionals seeking complete OJS mastery
  • Institutions establishing a new journal or publishing office
  • Publishing service providers training client editorial teams
  • Experienced editors who want to fill gaps in their OJS knowledge
  • Anyone who wants to learn OJS from scratch to a professional level in a single session

Course Description​

OJS (Open Journal System) is the most widely used article publishing system in the world, complying with academic publishing standards. The system supports all individuals involved in academic journal publication — authors, reviewers, editors, and readers — with a permissions structure appropriate to each role. It stands out with features for accepting articles, review management, reviewer assignment, editorial decision reporting, and publication.

This comprehensive course covers all processes from scratch to professional level — editorial management, section editing, reviewer assignment, article publishing, site management, and advanced configurations.

Training content can be adjusted to your journal's specific needs and OJS version.

Training Coverage​

Chapter 1 — Introduction (30 minutes)​

  • OJS background and the Public Knowledge Project (PKP)
  • OJS features and capabilities overview
  • What's new in OJS 3.5
  • The Reader Interface: what visitors see
  • The Editorial Interface (Dashboard): what editors see
  • OJS in the global context: worldwide usage, PKP community

Chapter 2 — Journal Standards (15 minutes)​

  • ISSN: what it is, how to obtain print and electronic ISSNs
  • DOI: Digital Object Identifiers and why they matter
  • COUNTER statistics compliance
  • Open Access policies and DOAJ criteria
  • COPE publication ethics guidelines
  • ORCID author identification
  • JATS XML for structured metadata

Chapter 3 — User Accounts (15 minutes)​

  • Roles in OJS: overview of all 12+ roles
  • Registering with a journal
  • Viewing and changing user profiles
  • Resetting passwords
  • Managing email notification preferences

Chapter 4 — Site Administration (20 minutes)​

  • Site Management: hosted journals, languages, site settings
  • Administrative Functions: clear caches, expire sessions, scheduled tasks
  • Multi-journal installations
  • User management at the site level

Chapter 5 — Settings (30 minutes)​

  • Journal Settings: masthead, sections, contact
  • Website Settings: appearance, plugins, navigation menus, announcements
  • Workflow Settings: submission, review, copyediting, production, email templates
  • Distribution Settings: access, indexing, payments, DOI

Chapter 6 — Issues (15 minutes)​

  • Creating and managing future issues
  • Managing back issues
  • The table of contents and article order
  • Cover images and issue metadata
  • Publishing and archiving issues

Chapter 7 — Users and Roles (15 minutes)​

  • User management: adding, editing, disabling users
  • Role management: assigning and removing roles
  • Site access options: reader, author, reviewer registration policies
  • Preventing spam registrations

Chapter 8 — Tools (15 minutes)​

  • Import/Export: Native XML, OAI-PMH, CrossRef XML, DOAJ, Users XML
  • Statistics: COUNTER reports, usage statistics dashboard
  • DOI management and batch registration

Chapter 9 — Authoring (15 minutes)​

  • Registering with the journal as an author
  • Submitting an article: the five-step wizard
  • Responding to a review request
  • Re-submitting for review (revised manuscripts)
  • Responding to copyediting requests
  • Responding to proofreading requests

Chapter 10 — Editorial Workflow (45 minutes)​

  • Tasks and dashboard navigation
  • Submission stage: intake, desk review, assignment
  • Review stage: inviting reviewers, managing rounds, decisions
  • Copyediting: workflow, communication, approval
  • Production: galleys, proofreading, scheduling

Chapter 11 — Reviewing (15 minutes)​

  • The reviewer's experience end-to-end
  • Accepting and declining invitations
  • Accessing the manuscript
  • Completing the review form
  • Reviewer best practices and ethics

Chapter 12 — OJS Customisation (20 minutes)​

  • User Interface Design: themes, CSS, logo, colour schemes
  • Setting up editorial flows
  • Performance optimisation: caching, scheduled tasks
  • Plugin configuration and the Plugin Gallery
  • Workflow customisation for different journal models
  • Ongoing support and maintenance considerations

Prerequisites​

  • No prior OJS experience required
  • Web browser
  • Access to a test OJS installation (can be arranged)

After the Training​

You will receive:

  • A recording of the session (on request)
  • Links to all official PKP documentation
  • Access to this guidebook for ongoing reference

Further Reading​