Journal Publishing Guide

This is a statement which outlines the journal's policy about the access requirements of the journal. This policy should note that your journal does not charge an article processing charge (APC) to make content open access. 

We suggest the following default Open Access Statement:

[Journal Title] is a diamond open access journal that provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports the greater global exchange of knowledge.

Authors will not be charged to submit or publish a manuscript through [journal Title], and all articles will be made available under a Creative Commons License, as indicated in the Copyright Notice section.

The process by which articles will be evaluated is an important part of establishing a new journal. Communicate what method of peer review is used and the procedure. This helps set expectations with authors and peer reviewers and help authors decide if your journal is the right fit for their research. These policies are required for most indexing applications.

Choosing the right type of review

There are a few different types of peer review. One type of review is preferred by certain subject communities. Different types of review may be used for different sections. Below are the general categories of peer review: 

• Editorial review: Editor or editorial team member, makes comments and does not solicit external reviewers. Both the reviewer and the author know each other's names. Sometimes this can be called a ‘desk review’ and is done before an article is sent for peer review. 
• Single Anonymous review: Reviewer knows author name and the author doesn’t know reviewer’s name. This type of review may be necessary when you have a small group of reviewers and it might be too hard to maintain double anonymity. 
• Double Anonymous review: Both reviewers and authors do not know each other's names. When using this model an author is asked to anonymize their paper before submitting it. 
• Open Review: This is characterized by both Author and Reviewer knowing each other's names. Some journals publish the names of reviewers on the article page, or publish review reports and author responses.

Peer review process / review policy

This policy will outline each journal’s sections peer review policy and processes, including:

• the number of reviewers typically used in reviewing a submission,
• the criteria reviewers are asked to judge submissions,
• the time taken to conduct reviews, and
• the recruitment process for reviewers.

Examples of review policies

• Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication
• Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology
• Intersectional Apocalypse (student journal) 
• In The Library With The Lead Pipe (open review)

Examples of review questions

• Sample review form from Columbia University Libraries 
• Standard peer review questions from Peer Review Toolkit.
• Review guidelines for sound-based and digital media submissions from BC Studies journal.

Each journal’s editorial team is responsible for ensuring that copyright-related policies and practices are both lawful and clearly communicated to journal managers, authors, and readers.

Copyright statement 

The statement informs readers of who holds copyright in the article and which Creative Commons license is assigned to the article.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) License. This license allows anyone to share the work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it at no cost and without further permission, provided that appropriate attribution of initial publication in the journal is given, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.

Author copyright agreement

The author has to check a box which states "Yes, I agree to abide by the terms of the copyright statement."

Publication Agreement

A publication agreement is a legal document that sets out the relationship between the author or authors and the journal (or publisher). It makes the rights and responsibilities of both author and journal clear, as they relate to publishing an article. 

We have a template publication agreement that we recommend journals use. This template represents some of the policy decisions that we recommend, which align with our program’s commitment to supporting scholar-led publishing. This template agreement:

• Allows authors to retain the right to use their work outside the terms of the Creative Commons license.
• Provides the journal with the non-revocable rights needed to publish and disseminate the article(s) in current and future formats, including migrating journals to new platforms and preserving journal content. It also protects the journal from potential copyright claims related to third-party content.   

Include the publication agreement on your website so that all prospective authors can review it. Copies of completed publication agreements should be retained by the journal and provided to all authors listed on the agreement. We recommend uploading the completed agreement to the OJS Submission library feature for easier record keeping. This is especially important in the event that a  journal chooses to change its policies in the future.

Journals are encouraged to talk to us about adapting the publication agreement template for their own journal needs. 

When you publish your journal with UVic Libraries we require that all new content be published with a Creative Commons (CC) License. Using a Creative Commons (CC) License is generally regarded as a best practice for open access journals. CC Licenses do not change the status of the copyright in an article.They provide readers with information about how the work can be reused without seeking permission from the author or publisher.

We set a default license for all articles, making it easier to manage your journal. If you need help picking an appropriate license for your journal, Creative Commons has a convenient tool to help you choose.

All copyright and licensing information should be available on the journal website to prospective authors. The first page of each article galley should also include a clear statement of copyright and license information for readers. 

A good example for an article footer (note that the button is hyperlinked to the licence terms):

© 2021 Author1, Author2, and Author3. This open-access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sample Creative Commons license statements

CC BY

All authors published in [Journal Title] retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under an International Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which means that anyone may share, copy, and adapt the material for any purpose, as long as they credit the author and this journal.

CC BY-NC

All authors published in [Journal Title] retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under an International Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC-BY-NC 4.0), which means that anyone may share, copy, and adapt the material for non-commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author and this journal.

CC BY-ND

All authors published in [Journal Title] retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under an International Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives License (CC BY-ND 4.0), which means that anyone may share, copy, and adapt the material for any purpose, as long as they credit the author and this journal and do not distribute the modified version.

CC BY-NC-ND

All authors published in [Journal Title] retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under an International Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that anyone may share, copy, and adapt the material for non-commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author and this journal and do not distribute the modified version.

Note: if your journal is interested in applying for the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) seal, the CC BY ND (No Derivative) license restriction is not permitted. 

What is a DOI?

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned assigned to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the internet.

A DOI can be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI is guaranteed to never change even if the current URL to the journal's website changes.

Why assign DOIs to journal articles?

• Link persistence: unlike URLs, DOI links continue to function even if content moves or changes ownership, mitigating link rot, affecting approximately one in five articles in STM disciplines [1]
• Content visibility and accessibility:  the persistent DOI confers formal ‘published’ status to the item, as opposed to other digital web-based ephemera.
• Impact and visibility: the persistent DOI makes content discoverable thus driving traffic to it so that it may be downloaded, cited, discussed (e.g. tweeted), linked to etc.
• Added value: stable linking enriches the end-user experience, the scholarly research process, and the utility of published resources.
• Indexing and abstracting for dissemination: for a journal to be indexed in many journal indices e.g. such as Compendex, editors are required to assign DOI to their published articles.

Libraries DOI registration service

Most journal publications hosted by UVic Libraries will automatically have DOIs assigned to each article as part of the library's DOI minting service. Our staff will activate this service within the online publishing platform.

Activating DOI plugin

In order to activate the DOI plugins on your journal site in the journal publishing platform, the Journal Administrator will ensure the following in information has been accurately completed in your Journal Setup pages:

• Journal Title
• Journal Initial
• Journal Abbreviation
• Journal ISSN (or electronic ISSN)**
• Principal Contact (name and email)
• Technical Support Contact (name and email)
• Publisher (Institution and URL)

The Journal Administrator will then

• Enable and configure both the DOI Public Identifier plugin and the Crossref Export plugin to automatically deposit article DOIs to CrossRef as articles are published. 
• Set the default syntax for each article based on UVic publisher prefix and a suffix string (10.18357.journal abbreviation.volume and issue number.unique item ID). 

*If you currently mint DOIs for your Journal as an independent CrossRef Publisher Member, you may continue your existing workflow.

**To be eligible for a unique ISSN (International Standard Serial Number your journal must meet the following requirements defined by Library and Archives Canada.   If you wish to apply for an ISSN for your journal please contact the Journal Administrator..

The privacy statement informs users how the journal will handle data registered on the site. We recommend using the default privacy statement:

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Author Self-Archiving

The journal's self-archiving policy tells authors when and where they can distribute their work online. 

Here's the default journal self-archiving policy:

Authors are encouraged to deposit the published version in an institutional / disciplinary repository immediately on publication. Pre-print, post -print, or final versions posted online should include a citation and link to the published version in the [Journal Title] as soon as the issue is available.

Journal digital archving

Include our suggested default policy:

This journal is archived in utilizes the LOCKSS preservation network. These programs offer a decentralized, perpetual access, and distributed preservation of the authentic original version of the content. 

Indexing

The following provides information on indexing, as well as best practices for dissemination and using social media for your journal. If you are a UVic journal and are interested in exploring indexing your journal in new platforms, please contact press (a) uvic.ca

• Basic Indexing Strategy (McGill Library): This guide provides an overview of the basic indexing strategy, from ISSN to subject specific platforms.
• Getting Found, Staying Found (PKP): This comprehensive guide covers getting found (identifiers, search engines, and indexing), staying found (preservation and access), and increasing impact (attracting authors, networking, dissemination, and research impact) for journals.
• Guidance for scholarly journals working with content aggregators (KU Libraries): Provides an overview of the pros and cons of working with content aggregators, including a list of factors for journals to consider when deciding whether to work with a content aggregator or not.

Dissemination

Social media plays an important role in promoting journals. These days, more and more journals are adopting different social media channels for creating an online community for journals. However, planning is the key to a prosperous online community, and to reach the target audience and make an impact online, it is necessary to have a well-planned social media strategy. This social media guide aims to support journal editors in marketing their journals and use it as a reference as they expand their audience.

Tips for drafting social media posts:

• Engage related accounts whenever possible (e.g. by tagging related journals, institutions, public policy units, colleges, departments, authors, subject groups, or other individuals)
• Always include a live link (not just text DOI)
• Hashtags are handy, but should be used very deliberately (use correct spelling, no overloading, hit main target, not too broad, not too niche)
• Include photo whenever possible
• Consider splitting sentences so there's more negative space in readers' feeds (break up text & link, use multiple short paragraphs)