This document discusses several open journal systems that can be used for electronic publishing including Open Journal System (OJS), Ambra, DPubS, ePubTk, GAPworks, SOAPS, Scholarly Exchange, and ScopeMed. It provides brief descriptions of their key features and functions such as being open source, allowing online submission and peer review, and supporting various publishing models. The conclusion recommends that universities in India each publish at least one electronic journal to help address issues around access to scholarly knowledge.

1. ELECTRONIC JOURNAL PUBLISHING AND
OPEN JOURNAL SYSTEMS (OJS)
: AN OVERVIEW
J.ARUMUGAM

2. INTRODUCTION
 The academic enterprise values publication in
these journals and pressures libraries to
acquire them. Since there are no substitutes
for these journals, the publishers are able to
command a high price. Thus we have
artificially high prices and the journals pricing
“crisis” that has existed for the last ten years.
But, the shrinking library budget does not
allow the librarian to subscribe all these
journals.

3. IMPORTANT OPEN JOURNAL
SYSTEMS
 Open Journal System (OJS) of Public Knowledge
Project
 Ambra of Public Library of Science
 DPubs of Cornell University
 ePubTk of Edge Wall Software GAPworks of German
Research Foundation
 SOAPS of SciX
 Scholarly Exchange
 ScopeMed

4. Open Journal System (OJS)
 OJS is open source software made freely
available to journals worldwide for the
purpose of making open access
publishing a viable option for more
journals, as open access can increase a
journal's readership as well as its
contribution to the public good on a
global scale

5. FEATURES OF OJS
 It can be installed and controlled locally.
 The Editor can configure requirements, sections,
review process, etc.
 All contents can be submitted and managed online
 Allows subscription module with delayed open access
options
 Comprehensive indexing of content part of global
systems is feasible.
 Provides Reading Tools for content, based on field and
editors' choice.
 Readers are empowered to do email notification and
commenting
 Availability of complete context-sensitive online Help
support.

6. Ambra
 Ambra is freely available and allows scholarly publishers,
societies, universities, or research communities to publish Open
Access journals economically and efficiently. The platform is in
active development by the Public Library of Science (PLoS). The
following internationally renowned journals are being published
using Ambra publishing platform.
 PLoS ONE
 PLoS Medicine
 PLoS Biology
 PLoS Computational Biology
 PLoS PathogensPLoS Genetics
 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
 PLoS Hub for Clinical Trials
 PLoS Collections
 Ambra is available at http://ambraproject.org/index.html

7. DPubs
 DPubS (Digital Publishing System) is an
open-source software system designed to
enable the organization, presentation, and
delivery of scholarly journals, monographs,
conference proceedings, and other common
and evolving means of academic discourse.

8.  Publishers can configure DPubS to deliver full-text
content as well as to accept metadata in any file format.
Publishers can also set the access controls to support
subscription, open-access, or pay-per-view options and
can configure DPubS to interoperate with institutional
repositories such as Fedora.
 Enables publication, resource discovery, and delivery of
journal, monographic, and grey literature with the same
technology environment
 Scales well to support an expanding number and variety
of publications
 A library-developed tool, designed with an understanding
of sustainability and preservation issues, to support
change in the scholarly communication environment
 Supports the building of a library-supported publishing
program and facilitates cooperation with university
presses

9. ePubTk of Edge Wall
Software
ePubTk is a python package providing
tools which help in
running/creating/maintaining a family of
scientific online journals. The tools are
packaged in various components - i.e.
sub-packages - which may be used
independently.
 It is available http://www.livingreviews.org

10. GAPworks of German
Research Foundation
 GAPworks is the online publication system developed in the GAP
project (funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG).
GAPworks provides the necessary infrastructure for online
publishing (including a peer-reviewing process) and online
management of persons, roles and other elements of the
publishing process. Various types of publications can be processed
from submission to publication. Metadata are extracted in an
OAI-PMH compatible format and made available to service
providers. It is based on a PostgreSQL database and is
programmed in PHP. The use of SMARTY templates allows
individually designed interfaces. It is designed based on Unicode
/UTF-8. Specific and individual support is done by the
Institute for Science Networking.
 It is available at http://gapworks.berlios.de

11. SOAPS of SciX
 SciX Open Publishing Services (SOPS) is software that
allows setting up various on-line scientific publishing
media such as personal archives, institutional archives,
topic & society archives, electronic journals, electronic
conference proceedings, workflow support for the
above. SOPS provides building blocks, such as
repository, user management, discussions, ratings,
reviews, review process support etc.
 It is freely available under an open source license. It is
built on top of the WODA database and web services
engine. SOPS is available at http://www.scix.net/sops.htm

12. Scholarly Exchange
 Scholarly Exchange emerged in 2002 to promote
innovative, cost-efficient electronic-first approaches to
scholarly publishing.
 Scholarly Exchange plays no role in the creation of the
information or its ultimate ownership, only in the
sharing of the highest quality of scholarship as
determined by the scholars who produce it. Scholarly
Exchange encourages its member journals to archive
their published material in university and public open
archives for long-term storage.
 It is available at
http://www.scholarlyexchange.org/index.html

13. ScopeMed
 Scopemed is an Open Access Indexing and Online Manuscript
Submission, Review and Tracking System and it is free of charge
service of GESDAV, a non-profit foundation concerning
education, health, social and contribution between alumni of
Gulhane Medical Faculty, for peer reviewed scientific journals.
The following are the basic details and advantages of ScopeMed;
 Free of charge for peer reviewed medical journals.
 Any peer reviewed journal could use Scopemed.
 Online Submission of manuscripts.
 Automatic production of PDF file of submitted manuscripts for
reviewers.
 Online review of articles
 ScopeMed is available at www.scopemed.org

14. CONCLUSION
 When the commercial publishers are increasing the
subscription prices of journals, the libraries attached to
universities, colleges and R & D institutions are finding it
very difficult to subscribe the core journals to cater to the
knowledge requirements of their stakeholders. Though
some e-journal consortia are in operational in India, still
access to scholarly knowledge has so many issues. In this
context, it is suggested that at least one electronic journal
may be published by each university in India without
duplication in subjects so that a least about 400 electronic
journals can be published by this country.