Publishing with Florida OJ

Through the LibraryPress@UF, the George A. Smathers Libraries support over 20 open access journals published on Florida Online Journals (Florida OJ). Journals range from society journals to undergraduate student journals. Florida OJ uses Open Journal Systems (OJS) to support editors throughout the editorial and publishing process. OJS allows authors to submit manuscripts, editors to assign peer reviewers, reviewers to submit their reviews, and editors to manage workflows for copyediting, design, and final publication. For more information about our services and our journals publishing program, visit the main LibraryPress@UF website.

The following requirements must be met in order to be eligible for journal publishing on Florida OJ:

1. New journals must have at least one person with a current University of Florida affiliation who will serve on the journal’s initial editorial board. Journals are free to accept submissions from non-UF scholars.
2. Student journals must have a department or unit that will sponsor or be directly affiliated with the journal.
   • Undergraduate student-run journals must involve at least one post-graduate level (graduate students or faculty) individual in the editorial and review process to uphold standards of academic research and rigor. For additional information regarding this requirement, please contact Kat Nguyen at knguyen1@ufl.edu.
   • The department or unit sponsor/affiliate must be an individual.
3. Journals will not charge author processing charges (APCs) to submit or publish articles.
4. Journals will allow authors to retain copyright of their own work. 
   • The LP@UF recommends that journals use a Creative Commons license to mutually benefit interests of the journal and the author. 
5. Journals should ensure that students involved in the production of the journal are paid, provided course credit, afforded professionalization support (as is the case for student-run journals), or a combination of these for their work.
6. The staff of the journal must check all bibliographic references appearing in accepted manuscripts and add DOIs for any that are missing them (see information from Crossref).
7. At least one member of the editorial board should take the PKP School’s Setting Up a Journal in OJS 3 online course to familiarize themselves with the platform and its functions. While we can provide basic troubleshooting for technical problems with the platform, we cannot provide full tech support or production work for individual journals.
8. The LibraryPress@UF reserves the right to act on behalf of our journals in the following matters:
   • ISSN registration
   • Submitting the journal for consideration for indexing in EBSCO and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
9. Whenever resources allow, the LibraryPress@UF will stay in communication with journal editors about best practices for open access journal publishing, including informing the editors about ways to professionalize the journal and updating them about new and ongoing professionalization projects for journals that the LP@UF is developing.
10. The LibraryPress@UF reserves the right to ensure that the design, branding, and content of the journal site complies with web and accessibility standards and University of Florida policies and the LibraryPress@UF’s internal templates.

If your publishing project meets the above requirements:

1. Fill out the LibraryPress@UF journal request form.
2. Meet with Kat Nguyen (LibraryPress@UF Publications Editorial Coordinator) to discuss your publication.
3. If the publication is deemed a good fit, the Editorial Team/Sponsoring Organization (you) and the Libraries will complete a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
4. After the MOU is fully signed, the LibraryPress@UF will request a new site for development.
5. The editorial team will design and set up the new site.
6. The LibraryPress@UF will provide resources for training; editors will test out the site with users.
7. When you are ready, we'll make your journal site in Florida OJ public!

Kat Nguyen, Publications Editorial Coordinator, LibraryPress@UF

Tracy MacKay-Ratliff, Director of LibraryPress@UF

Suzanne Stapleton, Agricultural Sciences & Digital Scholarship Librarian

Liaison Librarian, subject specialist to your department (click here to find yours!)