Public Knowledge Project Announces UAL as Major Development Partner

The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) is pleased to announce that the University of Alberta Libraries (UAL) have entered into a major development partnership with PKP, furthering a commitment to the development of scholarly communication software.  As a result of this agreement, UAL will provide significant financial and in-kind support to assist with PKP’s ongoing development and support of its open source software suite - Open Journal Systems (OJS), Open Monograph Press (OMP), Open Conference Systems (OCS), and Open Harvester System (OHS).

Brian Owen, Associate University Librarian at Simon Fraser University Library and PKP’s Managing Director stated: “The University of Alberta Libraries are a real powerhouse with their contributions to a wide variety of open source projects in the library community both in Canada and elsewhere.  PKP is looking forward to working closely with UAL staff on a number of initiatives.”

“We are excited to take the relationship between PKP and UAL to the next level. Leveraging our shared knowledge to improve open source publishing environments is an opportunity too great not to take advantage of it” commented Geoff Harder, Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives at the University of Alberta Libraries.

UAL will be working with PKP on the following areas in the coming years:

• user interface/user experience review and testing for the all new version of OJS 3.0
• specific software enhancements such as digital object identifer (DOI) support
• OJS journal hosting deployment strategies
• article level metrics

“This partnership creates a wonderful opportunity for PKP to tap into UAL’s leadership in library systems and scholarly communication,” said John Willinsky, PKP’s founding director and Stanford professor,  “with benefits for the larger academic community and the public, as well, through the expansion of open access.”

“PKP’s mission and global reach aligns perfectly with UAL’s own commitment to the creation of an open, sustainable and responsive environment for scholarly communications” added Gerald Beasley, Vice-Provost (Learning Services) and Chief Librarian.

• Visit the UAL journal hosting site to view currently OJS-hosted journals and get information about using this service
• Read more about The Public Knowledge Project