Open Source Journal Management Systems Assessment

By AJRB

Stewart Baker, Systems and Institutional Repository Librarian at Western Oregon University published an OMM Assessment of open source journal management software (https://doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0023.101) in which Janeway is one of the platforms assessed.

We are pleased to note that Janeway scored 83% and came second to PKP’s OJS and that the assessment noted “system also had a relatively low number of practices that could not be rated”.

The assessment notes: “Of the practices rated, only three had not been implemented to some degree”. These are:

• a lack of documentation
• [a lack of ] system configuration options in languages other than English
• a lack of detailed testing criteria and test cases

These points we readily acknowledge.

• We have been working on our documentation as recently as v1.3.9 which has just been released (see: https://janeway.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html).
• As part of 1.4 we will begin the process of internationalizing Janeway and are working with partners around the world to provide Janeway in various languages (starting with the reader and submission platforms).
• As noted in the assessment we choose not to implement global testing but select areas where we believe it is most beneficial.

In addition it is noted that Janeway lacks a long term roadmap, though I’m not entirely sure I agree with this (although perhaps it was the case when reviewed) our roadmap is available on Github where we use Milestones.