OJS 2.x to 3.x

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

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

OJS 3 Demo Site

TDL maintains an OJS 3 Demo site at the following link: TDL OJS 3 Demo Site. Please contact support@tdl.org to request an account.

The site runs during business hours only.

Upgrade process

TDL will be creating new journal sites in OJS 3 and migrating your legacy content into the new site. This means you will have a LEGACY (OJS 2) site and a STAGING (OJS 3) site running in parallel until the end of the upgrade process.The LEGACY site will remain your "live" or production OJS journal until we make the final URL switch at the end of the migration.

The diagram below outlines the upgrade process, but please note these important elements.

  • The migration will bring over all issues, articles, and users.
  • The migration will NOT bring over theme elements like logos, favicons, homepage images, or custom CSS. This is because of major differences to the user interface in OJS 3. These items will have to be recreated for the new journal site.




Journal Sites


  • Demo journal - a sandbox journal for all journal users to test in. You may request login credentials by emailing support@tdl.org.
  • Staging journal site - this will be your new journal site in OJS 3, specific to your journal.
  • Legacy journal site – this is your existing journal in OJS 2. It will be the "live" journal until the very end of the upgrade process.

Testing Tasks

Two phases of testing

Phase 1: Exploration (the "Explore journal site" step in diagram above).

  • Your new journal will be blank - no issues, articles, users, or theme elements beyond the default.
  • Use this time to test basic journal functionality, makes sure all necessary plugins are available, and develop a plan for your theme (logos, images, CSS customizations).
  • Any changes you make to the theme will be wiped out during the Migration step.

Phase 2: Migration and Testing

  • Make sure content, including user accounts and stats, are present and correct post-migration.
  • Implement planned theme changes.
  • This will be a ONE WEEK period (barring any unforeseen trouble-shooting needs), so you should be prepared to implement and test during this week.
  • Your LEGACY site will become READ ONLY during this period of migration and testing. No changes are allowed to the legacy site during the weeklong "migration and testing" period.

Overall Testing Tasks:

  1. Make sure you can perform all essential tasks in the new version of the journal software.
  2. Review "look and feel changes" and customize your site accordingly.
  3. In "Migration and Testing" phase, make sure content, including user accounts and stats, have made it over successfully in the migration.


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 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?

Check for content and data (Migration & Testing phase only). 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

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.Â