... [Open Journal Systems] generally very usable, although there are a few areas, mostly related to current awareness, where some simple tweaks to the defaults would make things easier.
Make subscribing easier and more obvious. When you visit an OJS using a standard theme, there’s no big button that says “subscribe” or a similar term. Instead, there are two options that lead down that path: “Register” and “For Readers”.
The “For Readers” page, by default, directs readers to register to receive the table of contents of new issues via email. The “Register” page, by default, requires you to create a username and password, fill out a captcha, and give your full name in addition to your email address. ... That’s a lot of effort just to get an email when new issues are released. ...
A journal should make a prominent pitch for visitors to subscribe before they navigate away from the page and forget about the journal. More subscribers leads to more readers, which leads to more authors and referees and commentary. ...
RSS feeds by default. OJS includes a plugin to produce RSS feeds, but it doesn’t appear to be on by default; many OJS journals don’t offer RSS feeds. See above comments about the importance of turning visitors into subscribers.
OpenID support. With 2,000 OJS journals floating around, it seems a bit silly to have to create an account at each one, doesn’t it? OpenID would give users a single login not only across other OJS journals, but any site supporting OpenID. Good news, though: OpenID support is in the OJS roadmap. ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 1/10/2009 05:01:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
