Duke University Libraries has announced a new service to help members of the Duke community create and publish peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journals. The move is part of its efforts to promote broader access to academic research.
The Libraries' new service is expected to help prospective editors establish their journal online, providing guidance and advice as editors develop the journal's structure. Journals are built on a free, open-source platform known as Open Journal Systems (OJS), which was developed specifically to manage the overhead of creating and sustaining academic journals.
The platform is structured to guide editors as they set up their publications, with customisable templates to control the overall design and internal structure. The software also helps editors manage the publishing process, from receiving submissions to peer review, editing, layout, and publication. OJS allows both editors and contributors to track and manage articles as they move through the pipeline, so that the publication process is prompt, efficient, and transparent.
The Open Journal Systems software was developed by the Public Knowledge Project, a partnership of Canadian and US universities. More than 7,500 scholarly journals use the software as their publishing platform. At Duke, the Office of Information Technology hosts the software, and is managed by staff from the Libraries.
In March 2010, Duke's Academic Council unanimously adopted an open access policy by which scholarly articles written by all Duke faculty members are made freely available to the public for non-commercial use, by default. Later during the year, Duke joined a group of leading research institutions in signing a Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE), establishing a special fund to make it easier for researchers to publish their work in open-access journals.
Search for open access related information
To access our daily STM news feed through your iPhone, iPad, or other smartphones, please visit www.myscoope.com for a mobile friendly reading experience.
