Publishing Services
Service Overview
OU Libraries is proud to partner with departments and organizations to publish faculty-driven, peer-reviewed open access journals. We seek partners that wish to publish original, scholarly content in a timely and consistent manner, and are made up of nationally and internationally recognized editorial boards. We are committed to hosting publications that cover unique and underrepresented fields and topics. Our Publishing Services program strives to create a world where journal content is accessible to all without economic, technical, or social barriers.
What We Offer
We currently publish and archive 10 journals covering a range of topics in the social sciences and humanities fields, including architecture, forensic social work, higher education, athletics, music, performing arts, politics, race and ethnicity, single-case studies, writing, and young adult literature. Journals are published using Open Journal Systems (OJS), a collaborative, open source journal management software developed and maintained by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) and used widely by institutions and communities around the globe. Our publications are all freely available to view online and download. To learn more about the journals we partner with, visit the Publishing Services guide.
- No cost
- Get help creating and migrating journals
- Flexible and customizable publishing platform
- Retain full control of journal appearance and policies
- Ongoing support and guidance provided
Get Started
Schedule a Consultation
If you're interested in learning more about our Publishing Services, please contact Nicholas Wojcik, OU Libraries' scholarly publishing librarian. Nicholas can help you create a new journal or migrate an existing journal to our platform. He can be contacted with questions regarding managing open access journals, including copyright, Creative Commons licensing, fair use, and other open access topics.
Eligibility
- Any University of Oklahoma faculty member is eligible to apply for Publishing Services support for a new or existing journal.
- Faculty members can apply individually with the support from their college, and with the support of a sponsoring organization, if applicable.
- All content published by OU Libraries must be openly available to view and read, at a minimum.
- Journals must commit to ensuring that all authors retain copyright for their submissions.
- The journal's editorial team or board must include at least one OU affiliate at all times to remain an active publishing partner with OU Libraries.
- We do not support student journals on the Open Journal Systems platform at this time.
How to Apply
Faculty interested in setting up an open access journal through OU Libraries can contact us and we will set up an initial meeting to discuss your goals and how we can help you get started.
From there, you will be required to complete a journal proposal. You can download our journal proposal form, fill it out, and submit it to the email address listed on the form. You can expect to hear back from us within two weeks with preliminary feedback. Applicants will be asked to provide the following information about their publication when applying:
- Title of publication
- Type of publication (e.g. journal, conference proceedings, etc.)
- Content status (e.g. new content, existing content in need of migration, etc.)
- Links and names of current publisher and copyright holder(s) if migrating existing content
- Content types included in the publication (e.g. text, images, audio, video, etc.)
- Formally affiliated society/organization (if any)
- Scope or area of focus
- Expected publication schedule/frequency
- Potential audience and impact
Journal proposals will be reviewed by the OU Libraries Publishing Services team with a particular emphasis on the following factors:
- Clear demonstration of the journal's anticipated sustainability
- Commitment to publishing regularly
- Current capacity of library staff
Costs and Fees
For journal editors
OU Libraries provides its basic journal publishing services at no cost to its publishing partners, with the exception of digitizing back issues. OU Libraries may be able to digitize and host back issues of existing journals, dependent on staffing and a charge may incur on a cost-recovery basis. A timeframe for the digitization and upload of back issues will need to be negotiated and will be dependent on the availability of resources.
For journal authors
There are no publication fees for authors in any of our journals.
For journal readers
All content in journals published by OU Libraries is free for anyone to read and download. Readers may subscribe to any journal in the OU Libraries portfolio at no cost by simply clicking on the Subscribe link in the top right hand corner of the journal's homepage and following the prompts to set up an account. Subscribers will be given the option to be notified via email when new issues or volumes are published.
Contact Information
FAQ
Benefits of open access journals include:
- Articles are freely available online without any financial, legal, or technical barriers
- Increase worldwide visibility and research impact
- Authors retain copyright to their work
- Compliance with funding policy mandates
Why publish an Open Access Journal with OU?
- No cost
- Flexible and customizable publishing platform (OJS)
- Retain full control of journal appearance and policies
- Ongoing support and guidance by OU Libraries
OU Libraries utilizes the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform for journal publishing. Dependent on staffing, our Publishing Services team can help create a new journal or migrate an existing journal to our platform.
Our publishing services include:
- set up and training on the OJS platform to manage submission, peer-review, production, and publication workflows
- training and consultation on best practices in open access journal publishing
- copyright and licensing consultation
- consultation on migrating existing content
- digitization and hosting of journal back issues
- ISSN registry
- DOI registration for published articles
- quality control of article reference DOIs
- assistance with indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and relevant disciplinary databases
- submit requests for journal inclusion in Jisc's Open Policy Finder
- readership statistics for editors and authors
- ongoing technical support for the OJS system and your journal
- regular community of practice sessions centered on current trends and issues in open journal publishing
Our publishing services do not include:
- print-on-demand services for open access journals
As a publication editor, you are responsible for:
- establishing and maintaining an editorial team and advisory board for their publication
- ensuring that at least one OU faculty or staff member serves on the team or board for at least the first year of publication - until the journal is firmly established
- establishing author, editor, and copyright policies for the publication
- establishing peer review policies and procedures
- selecting a Creative Commons license for the publication
- selecting a design theme provided by OJS
- creating article templates
- managing publication subscribers
- managing submissions and peer review, including enlisting peer reviewers
- copyediting and proofreading submissions
- ensuring authors consent to their material being published in the journal
- creating journal issues
- publishing content on a regular basis
- maintaining current and accurate information on the journal website, including contact information, instructions for stakeholders, policies, etc.
- creating and maintaining internal training documentation to support current and future editorial team members
- ensuring the continuity and sustainability of issues/volumes
If your journal is accepted for publication, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) must be signed by the Dean of OU Libraries and the Dean of the journal Editor's college. The MOU outlines OU Libraries' expectations of the journal, along with services and commitments the journal can expect from OU Libraries. A sample version of our MOU can be viewed and downloaded at the bottom of this page. Feel free to contact us at any time during the process if you have unanswered questions.
Turnover among journal staff is common and expected. To help ensure clarity and transparency of agreed services and commitments, incoming journal Editors will be required to review the countersigned MOU at the start of their term as journal Editor.