Are you running OJS to host your journal? Or planning to start a new one? Here are the best options available in the market.
Open Journal Systems (OJS) is considered as the preferred choice for Journal Management and hosting within the Academic Publishing market. It is free, open-source, and easy to install (If you are about to start, check out our OJS Installation blog).
It’s usually the de-facto standard for journals with a small Editorial team.
If you are reading this blog, it’s likely that your requirements fall in one of the categories below:
- You are new to OJS software. It would be preferable to hand the software management to a 3rd party so that you can focus on publishing and journal operations.
- You don’t want the operational burden of managing the OJS server that can guarantee a 100% uptime, backups, upgrades, and troubleshooting.
- You want to avoid the cost (& effort) of hiring an IT team internally for this software.
These are the usual suspects. There might be other reasons that cause you to decide on OJS hosting.
In this blog post, I’ll list the top two solutions for OJS hosting that are available in the market today. While the actual hosting providers are more than 100, we don’t want to confuse you. We will pick those that have an extensive user base, are considered a brand, and provide you with customizations.
OJS Feature Comparison
This is a summary of top providers. Details follow below the comparison chart.
SciSpace OJS Hosting Suite
You can book a demo for the OJS hosting here. They usually get back to you within 2–3 hours.
SciSpace (Formerly Typeset) provides an end-to-end publishing stack for small and medium journals. OJS hosting is part of this stack. We will go through their set of features below:
1. SciSpace Price for Open Journal Systems
The price offered is competitive. If you are a publisher with up to 5 journals, your requirements should be met with a single OJS instance. SciSpace's starting range is 299$/year (i.e. 25$/month, billed yearly) that can support up to 5 journals.
2. JATS XML Support
JATS XML is a key differentiator as compared to the other 2 providers. SciSpace offers JATS XML conversion at an additional cost for its clients. JATS XML is essential for publishers who are looking to build an online presence and improve their visibility on Google and Google Scholar.
Apart from that, this solution also offers PubMed XML, CrossRef XML, SciELO XML, Redalyc XML, HTML, ePUB. Journals also use the service for generating final typeset PDF output.
3. Unlimited Articles, Storages and Standalone server
Publishers do not want to have set bounds on the capacity of their respective journals. SciSpace agrees with the philosophy, and provides unlimited capacity on each journal level.
4. Backups & Security
Your data is regularly backed up on the AWS cloud, backed by the RDS infrastucture. Data is hosted in secure SSAE 16/SOC1 certified data centers of AWS. In addition, firewalls are implemented to prevent unauthorized access. Regular snapshots of database is taken by SciSpace's IT team and moved securely to separate datacenter for backup for disaster management.
5. Email integration with Sendgrid
Sendgrid is the leading player for email delivery for both transactional and marketing emails. As part of your OJS hosting suite, an Editorial admin would be regularly required to email authors & reviewers.
SciSpace integrates with Sendgrid to provide a balanced, scalable email infrastructure service that guarantees email deliverability. No hassles for you.
6. Dedicated Account managers & Webinars
To perform basic operations in the Open Journal Systems (OJS) admin interface, SciSpace organizes regular webinars with Chief Editors and Editorial Staff. This is to onboard the Editorial team to familiarize with the platform.
A dedicated account manager is also assigned for a 24 X 7 Support.
7. Custom Themes
This is an add-on functionality. SciSpace provides exposure to custom themes that could make your website be more visually attractive. SciSpace (Formerly Typeset) also provides themes that are compatible with mobile reading.
To get access to SciSpace's OJS service, you can book a demo at this link.
OJS Hosting by PKP
PKP stands for Public Knowledge Project. It is a non-profit research initiative focusing on making public funded research more openly accessible. They are the original creators of the OJS software. Their team maintains the software release cycle of the OJS software. Due to their efforts, a strong user community has developed around the software. This is their community discussion forum.
PKP provides OJS hosting and support as a service. Here is a summary of their features:
Price
The price point is on a slightly higher side, starting from $850/year/journal. An important caveat is that their pricing modal is per journal. This means that if you have multiple journals, the price might increase.
Support for JATS XML
Currently, the support for JATS XML is not directly provided. However, Open Journal Systems (OJS) software offers a library of plugins that can do the conversion to JATS XML. You can choose one of the free plugins to get the job done.
Unlimited Articles, Storages and Standalone Server
Like SciSpace, PKP’s service provide unlimited articles and storages in all the plans. Standalone server is also provided in plans starting from 2700$/year.
Backups & Security for Open Journal Systems
Both are provided, reasonable to industry standards.
- Email Service Integration
No information is currently provided regarding integration with any email service provider. In such cases, do not worry. Setting up a simple SMTP server can get your work done. (StackOverflow discussion) - Dedicated Account Managers & Webinars
Support and training is provided on higher value plans, which start from 1500$/year - Custom Themes
Similar to SciSpace, PKP’s OJS Service also provides custom themes at an additional cost.
You can see details about their pricing here.
Quick Tip: You may want to explore SciSpace discover if you want research platforms that streamline workflows. We simplify the process of finding, writing, and collaborating on research papers with a comprehensive end-to-end solution.
Scispace search engine provides you with a list of related authors when you visit any author page. Furthermore, the tool helps you discover who are the leading authors, and their performance.
Before you go
Bonus
In addition to these three providers, there are 2 more who deserve a mention:
Appendix:
If you found the above article interesting, the following blogs might also interest you.
- How to install Open Journal Systems (OJS) — A step-by-step Guide
- OJS Setup — Step 1: Site administration and Journal Management
- PDF to JATS XML Conversion — Why it’s important for an Academic Publisher
- Top 5 Reference XML Generation For Academic Publishers
- How to Get Your Articles Indexed in PubMed: The Go-To Guide for Publishers
