Announcing Re-Launch of PKP School and New OJS 3.5 Courses

PKP is pleased to announce the relaunch of PKP School with a new look and feel. There are two new OJS 3.5 courses available in English and Spanish: Setting up a Journal, and Editorial Workflow. These courses have functionality for tracking progress, making course reviews, experimenting in a test journal, and getting completion certificates.

PKP School is an open collection of educational, online, open, multilingual, self-paced courses designed to help you contribute to improving the quality of scholarly publishing around the world. Originally launched in 2013, PKP School has grown to include 8 courses on topics ranging from learning our software, to becoming an editor, reviewer, or author for scholarly publications, to setting up and running a library publisher program.

As of June 30th, 2026, OJS 3.5 was designated as a Long-Term Support (LTS) version. Administrators, if you are operating on OJS 3.3 (LTS), it's time to upgrade to 3.5 (LTS).

Managers, Editors, Service Providers, and Librarians, if you want to set up a journal in 3.5, or advance your editorial workflow in 3.5, these courses are for you.

Benefits of the PKP School Re-Launch

In March 2025 we made changes to PKP School which reduced some functionality available to learners — the ability to login, track progress in a course, participate in discussions, follow along in a personalized test journal, and receive a paid certificate.

With the launch of the Long-Term Support (LTS) version of OJS 3.5, we are announcing a re-launch of PKP School to meet learner needs, including:

• A new website look-and-feel, with courses organized by language
• Two new courses for OJS 3.5: (1) Setting Up a Journal and (2) Editorial Workflow
• Course availability in English and Spanish
• Restored functionality for logging in, tracking progress, downloading a (free!) completion certificate, and leaving course reviews, available for the two new courses
• A shared course journal for learners to use to complete activities and experiment with settings in an OJS 3.5 journal environment

Expected Learner Impacts and Outcomes

The new courses guide learners step-by-step through the process of setting up a journal and learning the editorial workflow in OJS 3.5. These courses have been fully revised and updated to reflect changes in the latest version of the software, with some modules and units rearranged to create a more logical flow through the content.

Learners in PKP School have been anticipating that features such as the ability to track progress, receive a certificate, and experiment in a test journal, would be restored. We're pleased to bring these features back along with a new look-and-feel for the PKP School website with this 2026 relaunch.

Key Audiences

Our community benefits from the free, self-paced learning options provided through PKP School. Our courses are easily digestible, with content broken down into short modules and units with videos, further readings, and activities. The ability to experiment in a shared test journal further supports users who are learning the system or the new version and need to see first-hand what this will look like before they install or upgrade OJS.

Audiences include:

• English and Spanish language Journal managers, journal editors, service providers, and librarians who are learning OJS for the first time using OJS 3.5
• English and Spanish language users upgrading from OJS 3.3 to 3.5 who need to learn the new features and functionality available in the latest version
• English and Spanish language learners who have taken PKP School courses in the past who are interested in the evolution of our courses and the benefits of the relaunched courses

Take the Courses

Ready to learn about the latest features and functionalities in OJS 3.5? Visit our newly re-launched PKP School for completely updated and revised courses on Setting up a Journal and the Editorial Workflow in OJS 3.5!

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