Impressions from the OJS-de network - workshop report (Berlin, 1-2 february 2018)

Workshop Report: Berlin, Germany, 1-2 february 2018.

For the third time, the “OJS-de.net” network met for a two-days workshop at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. The event was organized by the head of the expertise network, the Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS), and attended by about 70 participants from German speaking countries and Denmark.

“OJS-de.net”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), connects and supports not only universities and research institutes in Germany that use the widely popular open source software Open Journal Systems (OJS), but also contributes to the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) research initiative that coordinates the development of software solutions for Open Access publishing platforms.

As the funding of the OJS-de project is going to expire in 2019, the aim of the workshop was not only to present new developments in the OJS community and exchange experiences, but also to discuss the future of the network itself.

The presentations given on the first day mainly concentrated on new features of and migration experiences for OJS 3, the latest version of the software, and use cases of OJS in the context of Open Access publishing.

For instance, the new modern and responsive design of OJS 3 and its improved editorial workflow are important achievements that attract academic publishers. Examples are the interdisciplinary online review journal KULT_online and the Electronic Library of Mathematics eLibM which uses OJS as a component for peer review. Other presentations discussed the integration of the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), the Crossref Funder Registry, and other software developments available as optional plugins.

OpenAIRE colleagues from Bielefeld University Library presented technical achievements from the first alternative funding mechanism for non-APC based open access publishing platforms. Among them the use of the Journal Article Tagging Suite (JATS), ORCIDs, and FundRef IDs in landing pages, editorial workflow, and metadata were highlighted. Best practice examples are the journal initiatives HRČAK by the University of Zagreb University Computing Centre (SRCE), Croatia and Scientific Journals Online by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies.

Table: selected measures and their implementation results

Measure	Description	Software URL
JATS	OJS 3 plugin embedGalley JATS-XML to HTML transformation (Scientific Journals Online)	https://github.com/ajnyga/embedGalley
JATS	OJS 3.1 fixes incl. support of image references (Scientific Journals Online)	available in OJS 3.1
JATS	OJS 2 plugin JatsXmlEditor (EKT ePublishing)	https://github.com/defstat/JatsXmlEditor
ORCIDs	OJS 2 plugin OJS-ORCID-ProfileLink (EKT ePublishing)	https://github.com/defstat/OJS-ORCiD-ProfileLink
funding information	OJS 3.1 plugin fundRef Integration with CrossRef Funder Registry (Scientific Journals Online)	https://github.com/ajnyga/fundRef

The second day of the workshop was mainly about strategy and development. While the developers talked about communication, collaboration, and current projects, the other participants discussed the network’s functions as well as how to continue the network once the funding ceases. It became clear that training and support, meetings in person, and a central contact point were desired most.

The vibrant atmosphere at the workshop, with the participants eager to exchange their experiences, but also the request of attendees from neighbouring countries to join OJS-de.net, confirmed the demand for a regional OJS expertise network.

OpenAIRE-Advance will widen its support of Open Access publishing platforms including OJS by providing guidance and recommendations for improving technical and metadata aspects.

Slides of the presentations delivered at the conference (mainly in German) will be uploaded to the network’s website soon.

Authors post: Amelie Bäcker, Aenne Löhden, Jochen Schirrwagen