OJS version 3.4 upgrade for Openjournals

Since Monday 27 May, Openjournals has received a new update. The Open Journals Software is now running on version 3.4. With this, users now have access to a number of useful new features.

Openjournals uses Open Journals Software (OJS), developed by the Canadian Public Knowledge Project (PKP). PKP works steadily to further develop OJS and releases upgrades on a regular basis. The Openjournals team has prepared the upgrade to OJS 3.4 by trying out the new version in a test environment and detecting and updating bugs.

The 3.4 update includes new features and improvements 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 centralised DOI management system, OJS 3.4 offers a range of tools designed to make scholarly publishing more intuitive. The main enhancements to this version are:

• New interface for e-mails about editorial decisions, allowing editors to choose from multiple templates. For example, since a regular issue and a themed issue have different lead times, it is now possible to set a default e-mail 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 GDPR rules.
• A thorough revision of DOI management and a dedicated DOI management page, making DOI registration now a fully automated process.
• Better support for HTML in titles.
• Easier invitation of new reviewers already registered with other journals.
• Error messages in OJS have been made much clearer, now better specifying what the problem is and where missing information needs to be filled in.