Create an online open-access scholarly journal: a hands-on workshop

• Do you have interest in starting your own online open-access journal but don't know where to start?
• Have you started a journal but need to develop some of the soft skills required to be successful?
• Does the process seem overwhelming?

If you said YES to any of the above, we have the perfect workshop for you.

This one-day workshop will discuss the major components required to launch an open-access journal using the Open Journal System (OJS) platform. It will involve several modules, each consisting of a lecture presentation by a knowledgeable expert, followed by an interactive group exercise that will provide program participants with hands-on experience, increase awareness of the challenges of journal creation and management, and enhance understanding of mechanisms necessary to create a successful journal. Please note, the focus of the workshop is on the hard-to-obtain soft skills associated with creating and operating a journal — this is not an OJS software workshop.

The sessions are meant to be interactive, and will be driven by the questions and interests of the workshop participants. The workshop’s presenters will build upon their personal and professional experiences in establishing and maintaining the Canadian Graduate Journal of Sociology and Criminology (CGJSC) in order to provide participants a real-world perspective in the steps required to launch an online, open-access scholarly journal.

Workshop modules

Module 1: Building the Foundation

Module 2: Getting Started

Module 3: The Online Journal System (OJS) and Other Publishing Platforms

Module 4: “So you have a journal — now what?”

Module 1: Building the Foundation

• What is open access and why should we bother?
• Picking a direction for your journal
• Time commitments
• Peer review versus non peer review
• The driving force: picking the editors-in-chief
• Legal aspects
• Building for the long term: mission statements, governance statements, and a five-year plan

Module 2: Getting Started

• Securing funding, support, and covering start-up costs
• The importance of branding
• Cultivating legitimacy: establishing an editorial and/or advisory board
• Creating your team: assistant editors, copy editors, and layout editors
• Call for papers and getting your first issue off of the ground

Module 3: The Online Journal System (OJS) and Other Publishing Platforms

• What is the OJS system and Public Knowledge Project?
• Getting the OJS system up and running — who to contact and how to get started
• Strengths and weaknesses of the OJS system
• Alternatives to using OJS
• Getting an international standard serial number (ISSN) and digital object identifier (DOI)
• OJS system demonstration

Module 4: “So you have a journal — now what?”

• Building momentum — how do you keep content coming in, and readers interested?
• Networking and creating partnerships
• Succession planning — passing the torch to the next generation of editors
• Rejection rates: quality versus quantity
• Is it worth it?

Workshop facilitators include the current editors-in-chief of the Canadian Graduate Journal of Sociology and Criminology (CGJSC) and librarians involved in supporting online open-access scholarly journal development.  CGJSC is a peer-reviewed open-access online journal hosted by the University of Waterloo. It was created in 2011 by three doctoral students in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies in order to provide fellow graduate students with a bilingual, supportive, and didactic environment to learn the culture of scholarly publication. From its humble beginnings as an idea brought up in a professional workshop, CGJSC has grown into an internationally-read and recognized scholarly journal with a cross-Canadian editorial staff of fifteen graduate students.

Date: June 17, 2015
Time: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.; 1 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Location: University of Waterloo, Dana Porter Library, LIB 329

If you are interested, please RSVP as soon as possible (by June 2) to Tim Ireland (tireland@uwaterloo.ca).

Please contact Tim Ireland (or 519-888-4567, ext. 35061) by June 2 if you have any particular accessibility requirements. Dana Porter Library has wheelchair ramps outside the main entrance and elevators within the building.

Registration cap is 20 groups (you can register as a group of one, two, or three people). Instead of a registration fee, we request you bring something to share at our morning and afternoon breaks. Please include a list of ingredients if possible. If there is a particular challenge you are facing in regards to creating a journal, please let us know so we can make sure to include it in the workshop (if possible).