The University's journal hosting service is managed by the Open Research team in the Library. The service consists of expert advice and support for academic staff and students who are interested in setting up their own online journals, as well as a dedicated University of St Andrews journal hosting platform.
The service uses the open-source software Open Journal Systems (OJS) to support the publishing process, including submission, peer-review and online publication. The hosting service will act as an 'electronic distributor' for the journal and will provide a secure archive for the content.
Journal Managers and Editorial staff are responsible for the management, administration, and journal content. The journal Publisher must always be either a School, Department, or recognised centre or institute within the University, with the journal hosting service serving as the platform and distributer only.
The University recognises the need to provide new services to support scholarly communication and to increase the visibility of academic research. Consequently, Research and Innovation Services and the Library have established a range of services to provide research support in this area.
Related services are the St Andrews Research Repository which is the University's Open Access digital research repository. The repository provides access to the full text of University research outputs and is closely linked to the University's research information system, Pure, which captures all research-related activity.
The Open Research team in the Library also offers support on how to make your publications Open Access and how to meet funder and institutional OA requirements.
The journals are a mix of student (both undergraduate and postgraduate) and staff-led projects, including new titles as well as transfers of existing print titles to electronic delivery. Journals cover a variety of subjects and have a range of publication schedules, editorial structures and specifications.
The service is available to all academic staff and students. It is recommended that proposals for new journals are discussed and communicated within Schools to encourage sustainability for journal projects. It is encouraged that proposals relate closely to School research and teaching strategies so that the journal service best supports the research needs of users. Proposals from postgraduate and undergraduate students should have sponsorship from a relevant School and should have a named member of academic staff to oversee the project.
The content model can be very flexible. The service can offer start-up for new electronic-only journals or migration of an existing print journal to online delivery. Back issues can be digitised and used to create archival content. OJS can support a variety of formats, journal frequency and subject matter. All journals hosted by the service will be fully Open Access.
OJS can deliver a full editorial process or quick submission model. OJS is primarily a delivery and editorial management platform, not a desktop publishing service. The choice of model and options available will be discussed during the project setup.
OJS has several inbuilt options, with possibilities for more complex customisation if you have web design skills. Customisation and design and style options will be discussed during the project setup.
The Open Research team can provide demonstrations and further information to members of the University who want to discuss the journal hosting service and who may wish to consider setting up a journal.
Brief proposal forms will be required during the planning stage to establish whether the hosting service could meet the project requirements. After discussion and scoping of initial projects, a formal proposal will be made to senior management to seek approval for the journal to be included on the University’s journal hosting service. If approved, a Memorandum of Understanding for the service will be agreed.
Journals hosted on the OJS platform are encouraged to make every effort to ensure that published content does not infringe any applicable UK laws. However, if you believe any content is illegal, please read the Journal hosting take-down policy (PDF)
Planning a journal
If you are interested in starting a journal with OJS, you should consider what you want the journal to achieve. You will need to consider the journal title, the scope and what role this journal will fulfil in your discipline. Will the journal be peer-reviewed, and what will be the frequency of publication and expected types of content?
OJS is primarily designed to deliver open access content, and all journals hosted by this service will be fully Open Access.
You should look at the New OJS journal proposal (PDF) to see the initial questions you need to consider for your journal. After the first enquiry stage, you will be sent a more detailed form with further questions. This will assist with developing the policies you will need and closely mirrors the information required to set up the journal in OJS. The Open Research team will use these forms to record key information about the journal. You may also find them useful as the basis for discussions with a prospective editorial team.
The lists below demonstrate the related roles of the Library, Publishers (whether a School, Department or other recognised entity), journal managers and the editorial board. Full detailed responsibilities will be communicated as part of the initial setup process, with all parties agreeing to a Memorandum of Understanding.
Open Research team (Library)
technical support
journal site creation and platform maintenance
OJS user training
advice on copyright
support for access and preservation
Open Access advocacy.
Open Research and journal managers
sets up OJS functionality
configure templates
customise the look and feel of the journal
register users and assigns roles
set us supporting infrastructure
devise workflows and procedures.
Schools and editorial board
define journal policies
create author guidelines
be responsible for content
create and publish issues
manage submission and review process
journal administration.
As part of their responsibilities, the Open Research team will:
provide a dedicated server and will liaise with ITS on hardware and software support and upgrades.
divert Open Research team resources wherever possible to meet the needs of the busy startup period for a journal, to upload initial content and meet project deadlines.
provide training and support in OJS functionality, especially in the intensive startup phase of a project.
advise and assist in providing maximum discovery and visibility of publications by making full-text accessible to Google and Google Scholar and other search, aggregation and indexing services.
give advice on external services such as Crossref for DOIs and NLS for legal deposit.
give support for archiving, preserving and migrating content for future technologies.
provide help and advice for copyright issues and licences, support in creating redacted files if required, and maintain a Journal hosting take-down policy (PDF)
provide advice on shared network storage for offline archive and administrative files, for example, copyright licences.
provide advice and support for metadata creation.
support publicity for journals.
provide some support for the handover of journals to new editorial teams and provide re-training where required to aid journal sustainability.
continue to investigate support for alternative formats, for example, EPUB.
As part of their role, publishers:
are responsible for quality control, the submission process, reviewing and editing, production of the journal issues.
are primarily responsible for the style and customisation of the look and feel of their journal. The degree of customisation should be considered carefully so as to be compatible with future software upgrades. This will be discussed in detail during the project setup.
will be responsible for setting up copyright agreements with contributing authors and making provisions for the organisation and storage of copyright licences.