OJS, OMP, and OPS 3.5.0-5 LTS is now Available

We are pleased to announce the release of OJS, OMP, and OPS 3.5.0-5, which has now been officially designated as a Long-Term Support (LTS) release. This release reflects our commitment to stability, reliability, and readiness for the tens of thousands of journals, presses, and preprint servers around the world that depend on PKP software every day.

What Does the LTS Designation Mean?

By designating 3.5.0-5 as our LTS release, we are committing to its ongoing maintenance for an extended period. This means users can adopt this version knowing it will continue to receive bug fixes and security patches in the near term.

If you are unsure which version your installation is running, or want to understand how the 3.5 branch fits into PKP's broader release cycle (including how LTS and Short-Term Support (STS) releases relate to each other and what "end of life" means in practice) our PKP Software Releases page provides a clear overview, including a version support timeline and guidance on choosing the right version for your context.

If your installation is currently running an earlier version of the 3.5 branch, upgrading to 3.5.0-5 is straightforward and strongly encouraged.

What's Included in this Release

This update addresses a collection of bug fixes and stability improvements identified since the previous release, informed by reports from our global community of users, developers, and hosted clients. While this is a maintenance release rather than a feature release, the fixes it contains address real issues affecting real publishing workflows.

The full list of resolved issues is documented in the release notes on GitHub. We encourage system administrators and developers to review these notes as part of their upgrade planning.

A note for hosted clients: If PKP Publishing Services hosts your journal, press, or preprint server, contact us if you'd like to discuss the upgrade schedule for your installation.

Why upgrade to 3.5 LTS?

Running an up-to-date version of OJS, OMP, or OPS means your platform benefits from the latest bug fixes, remains compatible with third-party integrations and indexing services, and continues to meet the standards that authors, reviewers, and readers expect from a trustworthy publishing environment.

We recognize that upgrades require planning, testing, and coordination, particularly for institutions managing multiple journals or operating with limited technical support. If you are currently running an older, unsupported version of OJS, OMP, or OPS, we encourage you to check the PKP Software Releases page to understand your version's support status and end-of-life date. Unsupported versions no longer receive bug fixes, security patches, forum assistance from PKP staff, or updates to documentation and translations. Our documentation, community forum, and hosting and support services are all available to assist you through the upgrade process.

Check out PKP's News Blog post on "Why upgrading is key to participating in open scholarly infrastructure" for more reasons to upgrade.

How to Upgrade

Downloads for OJS, OMP, and OPS 3.5.0-5 are available now:

• Download OJS 3.5.0-5
• Download OMP 3.5.0-5
• Download OPS 3.5.0-5

If you are on a version earlier than 3.3, you must upgrade to 3.3 before you can upgrade to 3.5. Before upgrading, please review the upgrade guide in our documentation and ensure you have a complete backup of your database and files. There is also an upgrading checklist and step-by-step demonstration on how to upgrade to 3.5 for systems administrators, now available on PKP's YouTube channel, thanks to our collaboration with Crossref.

If you encounter any issues during or after upgrading, please search the community forum. You may find that others have already worked through the same situation. Or you can open a new thread for support from the PKP community and team.

Thank You to our Community

Releases like this one are made possible in large part by the community members who take the time to report bugs, submit pull requests, and test fixes in their own environments. We are grateful for the ongoing contributions of developers, librarians, journal managers, and institutional partners from around the world who help make PKP software better for everyone.

If you would like to become more involved in PKP's development and testing processes, we invite you to explore how to contribute.

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