SPARC and PKP partnership for OA publishing

SPARC and the University of British Columbia Public Knowledge Project have formed a partnership to support PKP's open-source publishing tools. From Thursday's announcement:

Since 2001, the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) has offered free, open source software for the management and publishing of journals and conference proceedings. PKP software reduces publishing costs, improves management, enhances indexing, and increases access to knowledge.

PKP software includes three proven solutions. Open Journal Systems (OJS) provides a journal management system that supports every stage of the refereed publishing process, from submissions to online publication and indexing. Open Conference Systems (OCS) supports the management of conference paper review process as well as the scheduling and release of materials, from abstracts to full papers, with online posting and indexing. PKP Harvester (PKPH) harvests the metadata of OAI-PMH compliant sites, including OJS journals and OCS conferences....

More than 800 journals currently use OJS software; a sample of the journals using OJS is [here].

"Our focus is on improving the public and scholarly quality of research through open source publishing tools that make different forms of open access feasible for journals and conferences," said John Willinsky, director of PKP and Pacific Press Professor of Literacy and Technology at UBC....

"The Public Knowledge Project has a proven track record providing innovative open source software that benefits the whole community," said Heather Joseph, SPARC Executive Director. "PKP's offerings make it possible for scholars and libraries to run successful publishing programs on their own terms and are a leading example of how such tools may be used to provide information via open access channels and facilitate the widest possible dissemination. We encourage SPARC members and partners to consider these valuable alternatives for their publishing programs."