Journal Publishing Guide

The University of Victoria (UVic) Libraries’ ePublishing Services helps UVic faculty, students, and campus groups create free online journals. We use a publishing tool called Open Journal Systems (OJS). 

All journals working with UVic library use a Diamond Open Access publishing model, which means authors don’t pay any fees to publish.

Read more about our service model which includes the following hosting services:

• Initial setup and ongoing maintenance
• Copyright guidance and licensing support
• Long-term preservation
• Indexing, application for ISSN
• Unique identifiers for articles

For more information, please contact the Scholarly Communications Office or visit the Libraries Grants Menu. 

We exclusively host diamond open-access journals to promote open science/scholarship. If you publish with us, you agree to:  

• Unrestricted access: Your journal’s content will be free and accessible to all upon publication
• Creative Commons licensing: helps creators share their work by setting clear rules about how others can use it, like copying, sharing, or remixing, while providing proper attribution.
• No authors fees: your journal won’t charge authors any fees to publish, helping make content openly accessible to everyone.

By agreeing to these terms, we work together to uphold the principles of open access, making scholarly work accessible and inclusive.

UVic Libraries will

• Host your journal on our Open Journal Systems (OJS) publishing platform.
• Help Journal Managers and Editorial Teams get started with setting up their journal or conference. 
• Support standard OJS configuration templates.
• Help you explore the requirements for inclusion in subject-specific indexes.
• Mint Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for articles published in your journal, when appropriate.
• Provide advice on copyright permissions and licensing.
• Provide advice and support on future preservation and archiving of journal content.
• Connecting author identifier (DOIs) for journal authors.

The publisher (faculty member, student, or association) will:

• Oversee journal tasks like submissions, reviews, editing, and workflows in the publishing system.
• Create and update journal policies like copyright, peer review, ethics, privacy, and licensing.
• Be responsible for the production and quality control of journal content.
• Notify the library in advance about any changes to the journal’s status. This includes terminating publication, migrating to a new platform, or updating editorial board members.
• Undergraduate journals must have a faculty sponsor, who provides advisory support to the editorial team.
• Represent the journal editorial team in liaising with the library.
• Present a plan or demonstrate the intent to set-up a journal publication or conference proceedings.

Journal managers will need to need to review the Memorandum of Understanding that applies to them:

• Memorandum of Understanding for UVic journals
• Memorandum of Understanding for non-affiliated journals