With soaring costs for publishing, open access software provides a way for organizations to enter the publishing world with little startup capital. In this presentation, we introduce a collaborative effort on our campus, using a free open access software, to host journals within our library’s technology infrastructure, and we provide a map for others to follow in this innovative path. We provide critical details for participants such as planning, costs, and outcomes. We offer guides to help participants start their own open access journal, including hands on access to the software in a trial journal online. We offer a readiness checklist for participants to assess their institution’s ability to adopt an open access journal. And finally, we open up the discussion to include challenges in entering this fast growing, innovative field of publishing.
With soaring costs for publishing, open access software, like Public Knowledge Project’s Online Journal Systems (PKP OJS), provides a way for organizations to enter the publishing world with little startup capital. In this presentation, we introduce a collaborative effort on our campus, using PKP OJS, to host journals within our library’s technology infrastructure, and we provide a map for others to follow in this innovative path. We provide critical details for participants such as planning, costs, and outcomes. We offer guides to help participants start their own open access journal, including hands on access to the software in a trial journal online. We offer a readiness checklist for participants to assess their institution’s ability to adopt an open access journal. And finally, we open up the discussion to include challenges in entering this fast growing, innovative field of publishing.
The open access movement is not a new idea. From as far back as the 1960’s, efforts began providing the groundwork for open access to scholarly work (Suber, 2009). The US Government’s Office of Education (OE) created the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) as a way to provide systematic indexed reports available to anyone. At the time, the primary technology delivery came in the form of microfiche (50 Years of ERIC, 2014). By the late 1980’s, one of the first free, online journals appeared. Psycoloquy, a publication sponsored by the American Psychological Association and Syracuse University’s New Horizons in Adult Education became two of the first peer-reviewed online journals with open access. Throughout the next 20 years, open access journals began to flourish (Suber, 2009). Platforms changed, IT departments and libraries began to redefine themselves to include the addition of publishing tools. But the road to open access publishing can be littered with technology jargon and expensive platforms. Only recently, with the development and improvement of free open source software, has access opened up to institutions with little startup money.
Our publishing journey began with an invitation from a sister school to create an online journal under their existing site. The sister school’s Hosted Journal site includes publications ranging from issues directly published online to back copies of print issues. This variety appealed to our institution as we already had a publication proposal by our International Studies program to launch a new journal online as well as other on-campus print-produced journals that would benefit from an online presence.
The existing journal proposal from the International Studies Program on our campus had prepared the groundwork by assembling an editorial board, drafting a mission statement, and carving out a niche journal idea. All they needed was a publisher. Our institution’s library, Ramsey Library, recognized the changing landscape in the publishing world and the advent of greater acceptance of open access publishing as a reputable venue for disseminating scholarly work. All we needed was to assemble the talent and make it happen.
Our institution’s instructional designer (ID) is housed in the main library along with other members of the Teaching and Learning with Technology staff. The technical services and resource management librarian and the public services librarian teamed up with the ID and student interns from a university program to create and maintain an online publishing site. Given the close relationship with the sister school, the team went right to work to set up the institution’s first online journal.
Initially technical problems occurred at the host site level. The sister institution hosted the software, making access to modifications very challenging. Their firewall prevented the institution access to some of the widgets that would give the Library flexibility in designing the site. Additionally, there was no way to structure the site in a way that allowed the viewer to read the journal while remaining in the framework of the institution’s Open Access webpage.
Given the limitations, the open access journal team investigated other ways of hosting their online journals. After reviewing a myriad of choices, including one offered by PKP itself, the team settled on Reclaim Hosting’s domain service. Founded in 2013, Reclaim Hosting provides hosting services for schools and gives access to open source software. Although the institution was one of the first to request access to OJS, they were helpful in setting up the software.
The first journal launched by the Library was an interdisciplinary journal of africana studies. Other print publications produced on campus can be uploaded to the Library Open Access site in the near future. While libraries of the past held the repository of and access to research published elsewhere, the future promises avenues for the creation and dissemination of journals, broadening the ability to reach all audiences.
track changed per rec of chairs.