As of Monday, May 27, Openjournals has received a new update. The Open Journals Software is now running at version 3.4. With it, users now have access to a number of useful new features.
Openjournals uses Open Journals Systems (OJS) software developed by the international Public Knowledge Project (PKP) community, with institutional support from Simon Fraser University in Canada. PKP continues to work steadily to further develop OJS and releases upgrades on a regular basis. Currently, the Openjournals team is preparing the upgrade to OJS 3.4. This is being done by trying out the new version in a test environment and detecting and updating bugs.
The 3.4 update includes new features and enhancements aimed at streamlining the editorial process, improving the user experience and increasing overall efficiency for journal managers and administrators. From a revamped interface to notify authors of editorial decision-making to a centralized DOI management system, OJS 3.4 offers a suite of tools designed to make scholarly publishing more intuitive. Key enhancements to this version include:
- New interface for emails about editorial decisions, allowing editors to choose from multiple templates. For example, because a regular issue and a themed issue have different lead times, it is now possible to set up a default email for both situations.
- A new contribution submission user interface that helps authors upload their files. Entering keywords and adding other contributors to the contribution have also been simplified.
- Improved user statistics in compliance with legal AVG regulations.
- Thorough revision of DOI management and a dedicated DOI management page, making DOI registration now a fully automated process.
- Improved support for HTML in titles.
- Easier invitation of new reviewers already registered with other journals.
- The error messages in OJS have been made much clearer, and now better specify what the problem is and where missing information needs to be entered.
