Openjournals also supports student journals through digitization and increased visibility. Historical journal Skript, the history student journal of the University of Amsterdam, opted to switch to Openjournals. The journal’s two current editors-in-chief, Annick Gossen and Pim Storm, explain why Skript took this step and how they are experiencing the collaboration.
What is it like to run a student journal?
Annick: “It’s a lot of fun, but it also takes time and effort. You have to put out fires every now and then.”
Pim: “Still, it’s mainly very enlightening: you learn to solve problems, work together, and create something beautiful with a motivated group.”
Since when have you been working with Openjournals?
Pim: “About a year now. Thanks to support from the University of Amsterdam, we were able to digitize and join Openjournals.”
Annick: “The switch was mainly made because printing costs were becoming too high and the number of subscribers fell sharply after COVID-19. Digitization was therefore a logical step.”
What has that step brought you?
Pim: “Mainly more visibility. We now also have insight into the statistics: articles are easier to find and sometimes even reprinted by other magazines.”
Annick: “It also saves us a lot of time—we no longer have to deal with printing proofs or shipments. Everything can be done fairly easily online.”
How do you feel about working with Openjournals?
Pim: “Very pleasant. Communication is clear and we receive good support. The platform also offers technical advantages, such as registering DOIs, which makes articles citable. Something I personally like to put on my resume when I have published an article in Skript myself.”
Annick: “We can now also be found on Google Scholar, which is great. In addition, there is still room to keep certain things under our own control, such as the peer review process. We may switch to the Openjournals peer review workflow in the future, but for now we still see the added value of organizing it ourselves.”
