Every journal starts at a different place, but below is an outline of the steps you'll take when launching a new journal with us.
The University of Alberta Library accepts proposals for new or already-publishing titles at set times throughout the year. To find out when our next intake is scheduled, you can check out the publishing website. Before submitting a journal proposal, we expect you to:
Familiarize yourself with our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and read through our proposal form
Email us to set up a meeting before the due date to discuss your proposal
Email us the completed proposal before the deadline
If you're a student-led team, before starting a new journal consider joining or reviving a journal that already exists. Gaining traction for a brand-new title can take time and effort: encouraging submissions, recruiting reviewers, and finding volunteer editors can be difficult if the scope is oversaturated. Additionally, a continuous publication record can help with visibility and indexing, which will help your journals grow and find new audiences. Discovery tools, such as bibliographic indexes, prefer to boost journals that have a proven record of sustainability.
Once a journal proposal is submitted, you can expect a response within approximately 2-3 weeks. If your journal is successful, we will ask you to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and set up your OJS website in the next 2 to 3 weeks.
When you first get your OJS site, it will be private to you and whomever you register to give you time to set it up. During this setup phase, editorial teams are expected to:
Set up user accounts for your Editorial Team
List your Editorial Team members on the website
Add all of your editorial policies and journal-level texts to your site
Learn how to use OJS software and set up your individual journal workflows
Finalize the design of your website
When you are ready to make your site live, email us at library.publishing@ualberta.ca. At this stage, we'll review your site to make sure proper policies and copyright statements are in place. We can advise you in each step, help with policy development, make any recommendations as you set up.
Setting a publishing schedule with your team
Sending out a call for papers
Accepting submissions
Review, copyediting, layout, production stages
Finalizing metadata (all the information like author name and article title that will appear on the reader-view)
Congratulations! If this is your first issue, email us at library.publishing@ualberta.ca and we will do some more sets to help your journals become more findable by applying for an ISSN, setting up your DOIs, and adding your journal to the library catalogue.