Open Journal Systems (OJS) is free, open-source journal-management and publishing software developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), a research and development initiative operating as a Core Facility of Simon Fraser University. It is the software many journals run on behind the scenes: the online portal where you create an account, upload your manuscript, and track it through peer review and, if accepted, into publication. PKP estimates OJS is in active use by tens of thousands of journals worldwide, making it the most widely used open-source journal platform, and it is especially common among diamond and other fully open-access journals, society-run titles, and university presses that need a no-license-fee alternative to commercial systems.
For an author, OJS is simply the door you walk through to submit a manuscript to a specific journal — each OJS-powered journal runs its own separate installation (or its own “context” within a multi-journal instance), with its own branding, its own submission checklist, and its own editorial team, even though the underlying software and workflow steps look similar from journal to journal. This guide covers what OJS is, who builds and maintains it, and — the part that matters most if you are about to submit — exactly what to expect as an author working through an OJS submission for the first time.
Who develops OJS, and how long has it existed
OJS is developed by the Public Knowledge Project, which John Willinsky founded in 1998. PKP released OJS 1.0 in 2002 at Memorial University of Newfoundland, followed by OJS 2.0 in 2005. OJS 3.0, released in 2016, was a substantial rebuild of the editor and author-facing interface and is the design lineage the software still uses today; subsequent releases (3.1 in 2017, 3.2 in 2020, and the 3.3/3.4 line from 2024 onward) have refined that interface and workflow engine rather than replacing it again. PKP also maintains two companion platforms built on the same underlying software: Open Monograph Press (OMP) for books, and Open Preprint Systems (OPS) for preprint servers. All three are released under an open-source license and are free for any institution, society, or independent editor to download, self-host, or run through a third-party hosting provider.
Because OJS is open source and self-hostable rather than licensed as a hosted product from a single vendor, the version, look, and exact configuration you encounter as an author varies by journal — one journal may still run an older 3.2-series install with a dated theme, while another runs a current 3.4/3.5 release with a modern interface. The core submission logic described below is consistent across the 3.x line, which is what the large majority of active OJS journals now run.
What OJS actually does, from an editorial-management standpoint
OJS is not a single service like a preprint server or a DOI registry — it is journal-management software that a journal (or its publisher) installs and configures to run its own editorial operation. Within one installation, OJS handles:
- Author submission intake — the multi-step wizard described below, where you upload files and enter metadata.
- Peer review coordination — editors invite and assign reviewers, reviewers submit recommendations and comments through the system, and editors record decisions.
- Editing and production — copyediting, layout/typesetting, and proofreading stages, each with their own file versions and sign-offs.
- Publication — assembling accepted articles into issues (or publishing continuously, article-by-article), generating reader-facing HTML/PDF galleys, and depositing metadata with services like Crossref for DOI registration.
As an author you mainly interact with the first stage and then resurface periodically for reviewer feedback and production sign-off — but knowing that OJS is running the whole pipeline explains why the interface asks for things (indexing keywords, a structured abstract, contributor ORCID iDs) that feed directly into what the published article’s metadata will look like.
The OJS submission process, step by step
The exact wording and number of steps varies slightly by journal configuration and OJS version, but a standard OJS 3.x submission wizard runs through the following stages:
- Start. You select the article section (e.g., Research Article, Review, Case Study) and confirm the journal’s submission checklist — a list of yes/no attestations (originality, formatting compliance, ethics approvals, etc.) that the journal has configured. Some journals ask for a brief cover message here.
- Upload submission files. You upload the manuscript itself, plus any additional files the journal requests — figures, supplementary data, a data-availability statement, or a signed copyright/license form. Each file is tagged with a component type (e.g., “Manuscript,” “Figure,” “Data Set”) so it routes correctly during review.
- Enter metadata. Title, abstract, keywords, and — critically — every contributor’s name, affiliation, email, and role. OJS distinguishes contributors flagged as authors from other contributor roles, and lets you (or the editor) designate the corresponding author. This is also where many journals collect CRediT contributor roles and ORCID iDs if they have enabled those fields.
- Confirmation. You review everything and formally submit. The manuscript then moves out of your hands and into the editorial queue — you’ll typically see its status change to something like “Submission” or “Awaiting assignment” in your author dashboard.
After submission, OJS becomes your tracking and communication tool rather than something you actively fill out: you’ll receive system-generated email notifications at each status change (assigned to an editor, sent for review, decision recorded), and any editor or reviewer correspondence that isn’t anonymized flows through the same submission’s “Activity Log & Notes” or discussion threads, viewable when you log back into your author dashboard.
What to expect as a first-time OJS author
A few things surprise first-time OJS authors that are worth knowing in advance:
- The interface looks different journal to journal. Because each journal customizes its own theme, fields, and workflow steps, and runs its own OJS version, an OJS-powered journal you’ve used before may still look unfamiliar the first time you submit to a different OJS journal — the underlying wizard structure is the same, but labels, required fields, and branding are journal-specific.
- You create a separate account per journal (usually). Unless the journal is part of a shared multi-journal OJS instance with single sign-on, a fresh OJS journal typically means a fresh account registration, even if you’ve used OJS elsewhere before.
- Revisions come back as a new file round, not a marked-up document. When a decision is “revise and resubmit,” you’ll typically upload a new manuscript version plus a response-to-reviewers document as separate files in a new review round, rather than editing in place. See CASRAI’s guide on the manuscript submission process and on peer review etiquette for more on this cycle from both sides.
- Copyediting and proofing happen inside the same system. If accepted, you may be asked to review copyedited text or approve page proofs directly through OJS rather than by email attachment — check your author dashboard, not just your inbox, at this stage.
- You can usually track status in real time. Unlike some commercial systems, OJS’s author-facing status labels are generally granular (submission, review, copyediting, production), so you don’t have to email the editorial office to know roughly where a manuscript stands.
OJS compared to commercial submission systems
Authors who have submitted through Editorial Manager or ScholarOne Manuscripts (both used heavily by large commercial and society publishers) will recognize the general shape of an OJS submission — file upload, metadata entry, review tracking — but should expect a plainer, less heavily customized interface, since OJS journals more often run with lighter configuration and smaller editorial-support teams than large commercial platforms. For a closer look at how the three systems differ in practice, see CASRAI’s comparison of Editorial Manager, ScholarOne, and OJS.
Why journals choose OJS
From a publisher’s perspective, OJS’s main draw is that it is free to run and does not carry per-submission or per-journal licensing fees, which is a significant factor for society journals, university-press titles, and especially diamond open-access journals that charge neither authors nor readers and therefore have limited budget for commercial platform licensing. Because it is open source, journals and library-publishing programs can also self-host it, customize workflow steps, and integrate it with their own institutional infrastructure rather than depending on a vendor’s roadmap. The tradeoff, from an author’s point of view, is the version and configuration variability described above — there is no single “OJS experience” the way there is a single Editorial Manager or ScholarOne interface, because every journal’s installation is its own.
Frequently asked questions
Is Open Journal Systems free to use?
Yes, for the journal running it — OJS is free, open-source software with no license fee. Whether an individual journal charges authors an article-processing charge is a separate, journal-specific policy decision unrelated to the submission software it happens to run on.
Do I need to create a new account for every OJS journal I submit to?
Generally yes. Each OJS installation manages its own user accounts unless the publisher has configured a shared multi-journal instance with single sign-on across its titles, which is common at some university presses and society publishers but not universal.
How do I know what version of OJS a journal is running?
It is rarely displayed prominently to authors, and in practice it does not change what you need to do — the core submission steps (start, upload files, enter metadata, confirm) are consistent across the OJS 3.x line, which is what most active OJS journals currently run.
Can I add ORCID and CRediT information during OJS submission?
If the journal has enabled those fields, yes — contributor entry in OJS supports ORCID iDs and, on journals that have turned it on, CRediT role selection per contributor at the metadata step.
Is OJS the same as PKP?
No. PKP (the Public Knowledge Project) is the organization — a Core Facility of Simon Fraser University — that develops OJS along with its companion platforms OMP (for monographs) and OPS (for preprints). OJS is one specific piece of software PKP maintains, not the organization itself.
