Open Access Journal Publishing in India:
A study with OJS software
Nagaraj N . Vaidya
Librarian,
Tech Mahindra Ltd.,
Bangalore, India
[email protected]
Obaiah B
Open Knowledge
Society
Bangalore, India
[email protected]
Thomas Abraham
Open Knowledge
Society
Bangalore, India
[email protected]
Introduction
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Scholarly Communication

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Scholarly Journals

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crucial part of research
carriers of scholarly knowledge
Scholarly information, research results
available to general public
●
aid researchers with latest information
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facilitate further research
Introduction
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Traditional process of publishing

●
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Print only
Most popular journals published in developed
countries
Commercial interest
Solution is Open Access
Open Access
●
●
●
●
Digital, online
Free of charge
free of most copyright and licensing
restrictions
What makes it possible is the Internet and
the consent of the author or copyrightholder
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/brief.htm
Open Access
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Two primary vehicles
➢
OA journals
–
➢
perform peer review and then make the approved
contents freely available to the world
OA archives or repositories
–
–
do not perform peer review, but simply make their
contents freely available to the world
Archives may belong to institutions, such as
universities and laboratories, or disciplines
Open Access Publishing (OAP)
●
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Free & unrestricted access to research
literature
Author's copyright retained & acknowledged
promotes research progress
OAP maximizes research impact
Open source e-publishing systems



Digital Publishing Systems (Dpubs)
epublishing Toolkit (ePubTk)
Open Journal Systems (OJS)
Open Journal Systems (OJS)
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Open Journal Systems (OJS) is a journal
management and publishing system developed
by the Public Knowledge Project
Helps to expand and improve access to research
OJS is open source software made freely
available
making open access publishing a viable option
for more journals
Designed to facilitate OA, peer reviewed
publishing with entire editorial management work
flow
OJS Features
●
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OJS is installed locally and locally controlled
Editors configure requirements, sections, review process,
etc.
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Online submission and management of all content
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Subscription module with delayed open access options
●
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Comprehensive indexing of content part of global system
Reading Tools for content, based on field and editors'
choice
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Email notification and commenting ability for readers
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Complete context-sensitive online Help support
OJS Workflow
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OJS is structured around traditional journal
workflow
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Uses roles to organize activities
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Roles

Journal Manager

Editor

Section Editor

Subscription Manager
Advantages
●
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Provides and manages website for editorial and
publishing processes, while reducing need for
editorial office.
Authors do not need to print, photocopy, and mail
papers.
●
Improves administration and record-keeping
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Enables editors, reviewers, and authors from
anywhere to work together
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OJS is being used by at least 2000 journals
worldwide
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OAI-PMH, LOCKSS, Unicode compliant
OA in India
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DOAJ

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ROAR

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39 repositories
Indian Academy of Sciences (11 journals)
Indian Medlars Center

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107 Indian journals
MedIND programme 40 bio-medical journals
MedKnow (More than 70 journals)
Indian National Science Academy (4 journals)
Calicut Medical College (3 journals)
Issues facing OAP in India
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Fear that revenue loss from print subscriptions
if journal becomes OA

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even as it increases readership and circulation of
knowledge
Lack of IT infrastructure or the funds to
develop it for using far more efficient online
means of managing and publishing journals.
Other obstacles include uncertainty around
copyright issues and a lack of management
support and clerical support.
OJS Initiatives
●
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SJPI Project @ NCSI

Partnership with PKP (Oct 2004 – Mar 2007)

Demonstrated e-publishing with 13 prototype
journals

Harvester

OJS in Hindi

Workshops
Open Knowledge Society

www.oksociety.in
Open Knowledge Society (OKS)
●
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non profit organization
PKP partner in India
OKS supports

publication of Open Access Journals

conversion of print journals into online versions

creation of Institutional Repositories

automation of libraries

other activities that promote open access to
knowledge
OKS Support
●
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Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Association of
India
 Scientific society at National Research
Centre for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
(NRCMAP)
Open Access Journal on Medicinal and
Aromatic Plants (OJAMP)

http://oksociety.in/ojs/index.php/oajmap
OKS Support
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Demo system @ OKS

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http://ojsdemo.oksociety.in
Some of the test journals
—
Mysore Journal of Agricultural Sciences.
—
Journal of Spices and Plantation crop
—
Journal of soil Science and management’
—
Journal of Pest Management. Etc…
Journals using OJS in India
Conclusion
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Need to create OA awareness
With well defined work flow and easy to use
functionality OA journals can easily be set up
using OJS
OJS is a multilingual system
Draw many non-English speaking people to
computer and Internet
More and more OA journals will increase the
visibility of Indian research
References
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Open Journal Systems, Public Knowledge
Project

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OJS in an Hour

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http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q=ojs
http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/OJSinanHour.pdf
OJS Documentation

http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs_documentation
Thank you