Edinburgh Diamond, a service provided by Edinburgh University Library, uses Open Journal Systems (OJS) to support the publication of academic and student-led Open Access journals. Find out more about what we offer, our policies and the key benefits of using our OJS platform and service.
What We Offer
The Library helps academics and students run their own cost-effective online journals or migrate existing titles and any archives, and provides a hosting platform, training and ongoing advice, guidance and technical support. Some key benefits of our service are listed below.
Members of the University of Edinburgh can host their journals with the Library free of charge. We will cover the costs for online hosting and backup, technical updates, and registering DOIs.
The service only supports Diamond Open Access journals, i.e. journals that provide permanent free online access to their content and which do not have Article Processing Charges (APCs). Following an Open Access model means that journals can be read by anyone, without price barriers. It also helps foster collaboration within the research community, and allows journals to reach the widest possible audience and increase their visibility, usage and impact.
The Library uses the latest version of Open Journal Systems (OJS), a web-based journal management and publishing platform used by over 9,000 journals worldwide. OJS can be used either to manage the full editorial workflow, including submission and peer review, or just for publishing online. Using OJS requires minimal technical expertise and full training and guidance will be given for the duration that the journal remains on our platform.
The Library will support you at all stages of setting up your journal, including the initial configuration of the journal site and basic customisation of the user interface. We are on hand for all technical queries and will manage plugins and upgrades.
The Library has an agreement with LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and back up content daily, to ensure your journal content will be preserved and archived properly.
If your journal doesn't have an ISSN, the Library will allocate one and send the metadata to the British Library. The Library will also set up OJS to allocate DOIs to your journal articles and send the metadata to Crossref.
The Library will provide you with everything you need to run an industry-standard journal. We will help you produce journal policies and provide best-practice advice on academic publishing issues, including copyright, permissions, promotion and discoverability.
The Library will source and submit the journal to various abstracting and indexing databases for you. The Library will also help prepare your journal and site to ensure it meets eligibility criteria for the various abstracting and indexing databases.
The Library will provide you with an annual report for your journal, detailing article downloads, website traffic, journal- and article-level metrics, citations and other information. We will help you track the journals performance and help you gain an understanding of various metrics.
Featured Hosted Titles
We currently host almost 20 academic and student-led journals publishing in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and medicine. The titles we host include:
- Concept – academic and practitioner journal that moved from print to online in 2010
- Finance and Society – academic journal launched in 2015
- FORUM – postgraduate journal publishing since 2006
- re:think – PTAS-funded undergraduate journal launched in 2018
- JEAHIL – the first publication we host on behalf of an external organisation
Roles and Responsibilities
More details on what you can expect from the Library's service can be found on the following page:
Governance
There is a Service Board comprising Library staff, editorial representatives from both academic and student-led journals, a representative from Edinburgh University Press and representatives from our external partners. The Board meets twice a year and ensures the service develops in line with the University's strategic objectives and customer requirements. The Service Board reports to the University's Library Committee.
Go to hosting platform
Interested in hosting your journal with us?
Submit a Journal Proposal
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Find out more on the Contact Scotland BSL website
