1. How do we manage scientific
journals at the UOC?
7 things we do well (and some areas we need to
improve)
StudyTrip
Universidade Aberta (Uab) - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
Porto, 26 November 2012

2. Summary
I. How we are organised
II. How we work
III. 7 things we do well
IV. Areas for improvement
V. Conclusions

3. I. How we are
organised

4. About the UOC
• Granted official status in
1995
• An online university that
uses a new distance
learning model, no on-site
classes
• Students and lecturers
access the virtual campus
asynchronously
• 60,876 students
• 35,237 graduates

5. My department: Communication
Department of
Communication
Internal Linguistics Portal & Internet
Press Office Audiovisuals
Communication service Publications

6. My team: Internet Publications
Portal & Internet
Publications
Portal Social Media Internet publications

7. II. How we work

8. Our scientific journals
• Artnodes •Scientific
•Formal standards
• Digithum •Management standards
(peer review, etc)
• RUSC •Digital
•Open access
• IDP -Free access (no payment
required)
• Journal of -Open content (as well as
free of charge, material can
Conflictology be reused, and authors can
self-archive)
• Anàlisi

9. What do we do?:
a) Publishing management
 Editing
 Translations
 Layout
 Publication
 Indexing
 etc.

10. What do we do?
b) Strategic coordination
Publications Committee
Members Tasks
 Vice President for Research (chair)  Approval of editorial criteria
 2 researchers  Establish policies and
 Library Director strategies
 Editorial UOC  Evaluate new journals
 Director of Communication  Monitor objectives
 Director of Internet Publications

11. III. 10 things we do
well

12. 1. Dovetail with
governance
strategy

13. 1. Dovetail with governance strategy
• Office of the Vice
President for
Research and
Innovation
• Institutional mandate
on open access
• Publications
Commitee

14. 2. Route map:
Strategic Indexing
Plan

15. Strategic Indexing Plan
1. How, why, where and when to index
2. Ensure compliance with quality standards
3. Communication microplans
4. Proposal on presence in Social Web
Increase visibility to raise impact,
obtain the corresponding metrics

16. 3. Open Journal
System platform

17. System for management of academic journals: OJS
1. Programme for management and
publication of academic journals
2. Promoted by Public Knowledge Project
(Simon Fraser University, Stanford
University, University of Pittsburgh,
California Digital Library)
3. Open Source (community, support
forums)
4. Used by 11,500 journals (Dec. 2011)

18. System for management of academic journals: OJS
5. It provides a workflow that facilitates
editorial process flows (peer review,
editing procedures)
6. Subscription management, notifications
7. Standards (OAI-PMH, repository
interoperability

19. 4. Recognition of
workload
(lecturers involved in journal
management)

20. Recognition of workload
Hours devoted to the academic
management of UOC journals are
detailed in the annual objectives agreed
with the dean or director of studies.

21. 5. Modification of CC
licenses:
NC-ND-BY to BY

22. Modification of CC licenses: from NC-ND-BY to BY
Threefold objective:
- Increase visibility (also in databases that
make commercial use of their content:
EBSCO)
- Improve the rank of our journals in
indexes (MIAR > Fuente Académica -
EBSCO)
- Simplify author rights management

23. 6. Collaboration with
UOC’s Publishing
House (Editorial
UOC)

24. Collaboration with UOC’s Publishing House
(Editorial UOC)

25. 7. Co-publishing

26. Co-publishing
Anàlisi:
Co-published by
UOC-Universitat
Autònoma de
Barcelona
RUSC:
Co-published by
UOC-University of
New England

27. IV. Some areas for
improvement

28. Areas for improvement
1. More external funding (publicity, research
projects… authors payment?)
2. More co-publications
3. Open Data
4. More coordination with D. of MK (journals
references in course offerings catalogue!)
5. Multi-format
6. More web analytics: altmetrics
7. Social Web

29. IV. To summarise
1. Dovetailing with governance strategy
2. Route map: the Indexing Plan
3. OJS management platform
4. Recognition of workload
5. Modification of CC licenses: BY
6. Editorial feedback
7. Co-publishing

30. Thank you!
Lluís Rius
lrius@uoc.edu
@lrius