OJS 3 Upgrade Pilot: Journal of Research on Women and Gender

Owned by Kristi Park
Last updated: Aug 03, 2023
3 min read


This page contains legacy content about historical maintenance of TDL-hosted journals.

Pilot process (proposed)

Pilot Kickoff - Meeting on March 12

Testing of sandbox JRWG website. March 12-April 26.

  • Test the sandbox site. Look for issues related to content migration (is all your content there?) and functionality (can you do everything you need to do?)

  • Explore theme customization possibilities and provide feedback to TDL on ease/difficulty of updating the theme.

  • Report issues and feedback via the TDL Helpdesk (support@tdl.org)

Pilot review meeting (week of April 22)

  • Discuss issues raised by and outcomes of the pilot.

  • Provide verbal feedback to TDL

  • Confirm whether to proceed with upgrade and determine timeline.

Proceed with "real" upgrade to your live site. (Late April/early May)

Please note:

  • Changes you make in the sandbox site will not be permanent. This site will be wiped out at the end of the pilot period.
  • If you determine earlier in the timeline that you would like to proceed with upgrade, notify us via the helpdesk. We will likely be able to move forward the upgrade.

Journal Sites

About the sandbox site

  • The sandbox site is an almost exact replica of your live journal site, except in OJS version 3.
    • Same content (issues, articles, policies)
    • Same users
    • Same metrics/reports
    • Same plugins (question)
  • Differences from your live site
    • Different software version (obviously)
    • Different URL
    • NO EMAIL (i.e. if you perform tasks that would normally trigger an email to a user, that email will note be sent.)
    • Added "Sandbox" to the journal name
    • Many theme customizations (banner image, e.g.) are stripped out with the upgrade. 
    • We have added Laura Waugh (scholarly communications librarian at Texas State) as a Journal Manager and Editor in the sandbox site.
    • This site is not permanent. Anything you add or change will be wiped out at the end of the pilot period.


Pilot Testing Tasks

Overall Tasks:

  1. Make sure you can perform all essential tasks in the new version of the journal software.
  2. Make sure content, including user accounts and stats, are making it over in the migration.
  3. Review "look and feel changes" and customize your site accordingly.

Testing Checklist

(This checklist is not comprehensive. You should test any functionality that you use in the course of running your journal and let us know if it is not working as expected by emailing support@tdl.org.)

Check for content and data. Did everything make it over from the OJS 2 site?

  • Articles
  • Issues (files and metadata)
  • Archived/rejected submissions
  • Editorial history/action logs for submissions
  • Policy statements (focus and scope statement; copyright statement; etc.)
  • Submission checklists
  • User accounts
  • Stats and metrics

Check functionality

  • Test your editorial workflow process.
    • Submit a manuscript (as an Author)
    • Assign a submission to an Editor.
    • Send a Submission to Review
    • Test the Review stage functionality (assign reviewers, make an editorial decision)
    • Test the Copyediting workflow stage
    • Send manuscript to production
    • Test Production workflow stage (add galleys, etc.)
    • Schedule a submission for publication
    • Create and publish an issue
  • User management
    • Log in
    • Register as a new user
    • Add a new user (from the admin interface)
    • Enroll an existing user in a new role
  • Check plugins. 
    • Are plugins that you use available? Enabled? Functioning as expected?
    • Test Import/Export Plugins, if applicable (under "Tools")
    • Test Reports (under "Tools")
  • Check settings
    • Review and test Journal Settings
    • Review and test Website Settings (including theme)
    • Review and test Workflow Settings
    • Review and test Distribution Settings
  • Test browse and search
    • Can you navigate around the site as expected?
    • Does using the search box return expected results?

OJS 3 Resources

Tutorials from PKP School (free with Wordpress login):

User guides and documentation:

  • Learning OJS 3.1: A Visual Guide to Open Journal Systems -- a concise textual guide with plenty of screenshots, covering OJS website set up and administration, editorial workflow management, and site statistics import & export
  • PKP documentation website -- an all-inclusive guide website for journal publishers and OJS system administrators, periodically updated by information professionals, latest updates including Crossref and DOIs Guide and EU General Data Protection Regulation Guide
  • PKP Community Forum - questions and troubleshooting forum for all OJS users, facilitating keyword searching across the site
  • GDPR Guide for OJS users

Contact Texas Digital Library

  • With technical issues and questions contact the TDL staff at support@tdl.org.